Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 25 ISSUE 3
Written by Liliana MORARIU (RUSU), Alina MARCUTA, Valentina Constanta TUDOR, Marius Mihai MICU, Mariana PREDA (ALEXE), Liviu MARCUTA

The paper aims to analyze, from an economic and behavioral perspective, how food spending by non-resident tourists reflects and supports the development of gastronomic tourism in Romania. The research focuses on food consumption behaviors in a tourism context, specifically targeting the categories of breakfast spending and spending in restaurants and bars. Conceptually, the approach aims to correlate food consumption as a tourism experience with general trends in international tourism, in line with theories on gastronomic travel motivations and tourism spending analysis models. The research had the following objectives: to analyze the evolution of food expenditures of non-resident tourists in Romania for the period 2019–2024, with a focus on breakfast and restaurants/bars, to identify the relationship between tourist flow and food consumption in leisure tourism compared to business tourism, to evaluate the contribution of food consumption to shaping an authentic tourist experience, to using statistical techniques to examine theories about the relationship between the quantity of visitors and food spending. The findings demonstrated that the quantity of non-resident visitors had a major impact on breakfast spending, hence validating the link between visitor volume and consumption of staple foods. However, neither the link between the food categories examined nor restaurant spending turned out to be statistically significant, indicating that other factors other than the mere numerical change of tourists influence these forms of consumption. The analysis of statistical indicators for the period 2019–2024 also highlighted the existence of important structural changes in food consumption behavior, with a clear trend of increasing the share of leisure tourism in gastronomic spending and a progressive decrease in the role of business tourism in this structure. Therefore, the topic addressed provides an analytical framework for the creation of thematic gastronomic routes, for the integration of local food products into the tourist package, for the development of rural tourism by valorizing culinary traditions or for encouraging sustainable consumption and local production. Furthermore, the research contributes to the consolidation of an identity-based and sustainable tourism model, with positive implications for the local economy, the environment and the preservation of cultural heritage.

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