Gastronomy as a motivation for travel: A study of gastronomic tourism in the city of João Pessoa-PB

Since the Italian Renaissance, and with the other tourism segments, culture continues to be one main motivations for travel. Gastronomic tourism, as a facet of cultural tourism that brings authenticity and experience, is a niche that has emerged as a motivation in the choice of destination by the new tourist profiles. Given that João Pessoa is a tourist city, the aim of this work was to identify whether gastronomic tourism plays an important role in attracting tourists to the city. Bibliographic and documentary research was carried out, using a quantitative approach for the data analysis. As a data collection instrument, a survey was used, interviewing sixty-six tourists in person, in September 2019. The results show that the highest percentage of tourists interviewed is 60 years of age or older, and is motivated by leisure travel. As regards the interest related to experience/gastronomic tourism, it was found that this is not a motivation for visiting the destination João Pessoa; however, there is a desire to try the local gastronomy. In this context, there is a need for managers of enterprises, and those responsible for publicizing João Pessoa, to focus on associating the gastronomic potential as a strategy for attracting potential tourists to the destination.