How the Sarawakians React towards Gastronomy Tourism at Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia based on Push and Full Theory
Gastronomy tourism is another product development of tourism (UN Tourism, n.d). Nowadays, tourism evolved at the rapid pace, complexity, intersection between regional and local is inevitable, cause various of tourism product development emerged for instance, gastronomy and wine tourism. To date, there is voluminous study in the body of literature that study about gastronomy tourism (GT) motivations by various authors such as: Zulkefli, Saidin, Nasir, & Awang, (2024) exploring on motivation in gastronomy tourism at East Coast Region; Fields (2003), looking at the demand for the gastronomy tourism product; Guzel & Apaydin, (2016) focus on motivation and destination; while López-Guzmán, Uribe Lotero, Pérez Gálvez, & Ríos Rivera, (2017) pay attention towards attude, motivation and satisfaction of the tourist and others. However, to the best to the author knowledge, the role of gastronomy is rarely discussed, particularly using Sarawak as the focal point. GT at Malaysia is currently experiencing an exponential demand. In Sarawak, developing areas especially Kuching is well suited for GT as it involves the existing gastronomy attractions. This serve as another reason that drives us to choose this topic is due to the Kuching has been listed as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative City of Gastronomy since 2021. Following this, the government, either state or local strived to capitalize GT as another main key attraction for Kuching.
With the foundation has been lay down, the primary aim for this research is to study the motivations for GT participation in Kuching using the Push and Pull Theory. By studying the motivations particularly on the influence of gastronomy that draws local participation towards Kuching, this study hopes to further facilitate tourism managers and destination management companies to understand the significance of the gastronomy in tourist motivation
