A comparative analysis on the hedonic consumption and lifestyle of voluntary simplicity behaviors of gastronomy tourists

This study primarily seeks to identify the reasons of the hedonic consumption of gastronomy tourists and to explore their lifestyle of voluntary simplicity. It also aims to determine the correlation between the reasons of hedonic consumption and lifestyle of voluntary simplicity behaviours, and demographic variables. The study population consists of gastronomy tourists who visited Istanbul, Turkey in 2019. The data were collected from local gastronomy tourists who visited Istanbul between February, 20th and March 10th, 2019 and had gastronomy experiences during their visits based on purposeful sampling method. Accordingly, the study analyzed the data obtained from 440 surveys through loss data analysis, multi-slope analysis, multiple normal distribution tests. The data were examined using descriptive statistics as well as factor, t-test, ANOVA and correlation analyses. The reasons of the hedonic consumption of the gastronomy tourists were identified as consumption for togetherness, consumption for having an idea, consumption for relaxing, consumption for having an adventure and consumption for creating value. On the other hand, the lifestyle of voluntary simplicity was grouped under the dimensions of conscious purchasing behaviour, desire for self-sufficiency, durability of products, desire for simple products and desire for a comfortable life. The study lastly carried out analyses on the correlation between the reasons of the hedonic consumption and the lifestyle of voluntary simplicity trends. It consequently reported statistically significant findings between the reasons of the hedonic consumption and the lifestyle of voluntary simplicity behaviours.