The Loyalty Model of Foreign Tourists Consuming Traditional Balinese Food

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of meal experience of foreign tourists on satisfaction and loyalty when consuming traditional food in Bali.The choice of traditional Balinese food is traditional food using Balinese spices called Base Genep with the main course category.The purpose of this study also explores the meal experience of tourists consuming traditional food in tourist destinations is expected to provide satisfaction and can lead to loyalty to the destination itself in relation with The Island of Bali as a world tourist destination offers many choices of traditional food for tourists, especially foreign tourists. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses quantitative analysis, structural equation model (SEM-AMOS) which is followed by the interpretation of the research results to answer 3 hypotheses.In building a loyalty model for foreign tourists consumed traditional food in Bali, confirms the concept of meal experience with five dimensions are food quality, service quality, atmosphere, cleanliness and hygiene, and price, which is combined with the Triangle Concept of Indonesian Gastronomy with a storytelling dimension, including from previous research on local culinary in a tourist destination.This study involved 332 respondents using accidental sampling techniques through four culinary tourism activities in Bali namely festival, food tour, cooking class, and homestay, at five locations in Bali province namely Denpasar City, Badung, Gianyar, Bangli, and Buleleng Regency. Findings: The meal experience of foreign tourists consuming traditional Balinese food has a significant effect on tourist satisfaction and also tourist loyalty.And the satisfaction of foreign tourists consuming traditional Balinese food has a positive and significant effect on the loyalty of foreign tourists.The highest direct effect on the effect of meal experience is foreign tourist s satisfaction, then the influence between foreign tourist s satisfaction on foreign tourist s loyalty, and finally the influence between-meal experience and foreign tourist s loyalty.The study finding a new loyalty model for foreign tourists consuming traditional food in Bali destinations with a storytelling indicator as a novelty.The results of this study will provide theoretical implications in enriching consumer behavior theory and product development concepts, as well as further research in the future. Research limitations/implications: The study is due to the respondent only foreign tourists not including domestic tourists, the findings cannot be generalized to the whole population of tourists visiting Bali.Future research can survey tourists domestic and in different areas in Bali to have wider coverage.Meanwhile, the practical implications for culinary stakeholders in Bali are in improving the quality of the tourist s meal experience and in developing culinary tourism in Bali as a whole.