Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Gema Gómez-Casero
Author-Name: Juan Choque Tito
Author-Name: Miguel Jesús Medina-Viruel
Author-Name: Javier Jiménezz Beltrán
Title:  MOTIVACIÓN Y VALORACIÓN DE ATRIBUTOS EN EL GASTROTURISMO DE ORURO (BOLIVIA)
Abstract: Resumen:Actualmente existe una creciente la motivación gastronómica como parte de la cultura del lugar visitado. En este estudio se persigue segmentar y caracterizar a los turistas internacionales de la ciudad de Oruro (Bolivia), con base en sus motivaciones gastronómicas, analizar sus diferencias socioeconómicas y estudiar la valoración de los principales atributos gastronómicos. El estudio destaca la existencia de distintos grupos de turistas con diferentes motivaciones gastronómicas. Del mismo modo, destaca que la percepción de la comida local es más valorada por parte de los turistas con especial interés en la gastronomía.Abstract:Increasingly, the tourist who visits a destination is more demanding with the experience that he wants to enjoy through his trip. Moreover, to provide a better response to different tourists, there has been a tourist diversification with typologies hitherto unknown or contemplated as second level experiences, emerging new concepts, among which include wine tourism, oil tourism or gastronomic tourism. Even this last typology is as a consequence not only of a response to the physiological need to eat, but also for the gastronomic tourist it is an approach to the local culture, its customs, traditions and social relations. That is, through its gastronomy, tourists can discover, in a new way, the cultural heritage of a destination.
Thus, if gastronomy worldwide has become a way to determine the richness of flavors, ingredients, ways of preparation, etc., which differentiates us both culturally and even racially. The cuisine located in Latin America is at the peak of this wealth, being the country of Bolivia a clear example of relevance for its great culinary recipes. Bolivian gastronomy has managed to achieve this differentiation at the international level, making the city of Oruro one of the main gastronomic destinations. In addition, this city has an important historical and artistic heritage, for example its Carnival has been declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
The main objective of this study is to carry out a segmentation of foreign tourists who visit the city of Oruro, in Bolivia, while tasting its gastronomy. In addition, the sociodemographic profile of tourists and the general assessment they make about gastronomy in that Bolivian city are analyzed. The methodology that has been followed is based on the model proposed by Björk and Kauppinen-Räisänen (2016), which diversifies gastronomic tourists into three segments: experiencers, enjoyers and survivors. This segmentation was made based on different issues that address the relationship between tourism and gastronomy. For this, these authors carry out a segmentation based on three questions: first, how relevant is gastronomy in the motivation to travel; second, how important are the culinary experiences to choose a specific destination; and third, how transcendent is gastronomy when determining the satisfaction of the trip that has been made. On this model, the authors segment tourists in relation to gastronomy in three distinct segments: experiencers, which would include those visitors who determine gastronomy as a fundamental part of their trip; enjoyers, which includes visitors to a destination that show a positive attitude towards gastronomy and culinary experiences; and, finally, survivors, where it includes that group of tourists where gastronomy is not interesting for them or what is it but on a very low scale of motivation. Due to the adequate validation of this model, this study is based on the same when analyzing the tourist segmentation in the city of Oruro (Bolivia) in relation to its gastronomy.
In this sense, this research is based on conducting a fieldwork to a representative sample of foreign tourists who visited the city of Oruro in order to know their opinion about the traditional cuisine of the city. Based on an initial questionnaire, and through successive refinements, which included a pre-test with an initial sample of tourists of similar characteristics to the final sample, a final survey was finally reached. The final version of the survey sought the maximum clarity of the issues and the greatest adjustment of the answers to achieve the objectives set in the study. The surveys were conducted in different culinary establishments in the historic center of Oruro, and with the premise that the visitor surveyed had a certain time in the destination and, therefore, could give an informed opinion. The questionnaire used in this study has been based on different previous works and responds to various issues related to tourism with gastronomy.
In the questionnaire, questions were raised which addressed different questions that relate gastronomy to tourism as the respondents' interest in gastronomy and its relevance when it comes to travel, the motivations that contribute to the visitor's experience in relation to tourism. local gastronomy or the level of satisfaction with gastronomy. In the survey we used questions with yes / no responses, questions with open and closed answers, and questions where a Likert scale of 5 points was used (being 1 = not very important, 5 = very important).
A total of 370 valid surveys were completed, between February 3 and 13, in 2018. The surveys were conducted in different culinary establishments in the tourist area of the city of Oruro, on different days and at different times, in order to collect the largest number possible of people and situations. The tabulation and statistical analysis of the data has been done using the SPSS v. 23. Statisticians have been used to assess the reliability and validity of the responses of the applied survey (Cronbach's alpha). In addition, the multivariate technique of grouping cases (K-means conglomerates) has been applied.
This research concludes that foreign tourists show different attitudes towards local gastronomy as a variable of tourism development. Attending the declared interest towards gastronomy in the trips, we obtain empirical evidence on the presence of three types of tourists, which has been named, following the model of Björk and Kauppinen-Räisänen (2016), survivors, enjoyers and experiencers. This division is considered validated to segment visitors from a gastronomic point of view. Of the three clusters identified, gastronomy plays an important role among tourists with a high gastronomic interest, called experiencers. 
This research aims to show, as a main contribution, the results that arise from the relationship between gastronomy and tourism in the city of Oruro, which in turn enjoys an important historical and artistic heritage recognized by UNESCO. And all this, in a geographical area such as Latin America, where this type of studies are very scarce due to the greater attention traditionally provided by scientific research to continents such as Asian and / or European. Certainly, we are facing one of the first research approaches to gastronomic tourism in this geography in Developing Countries. Besides, this research provides a very valuable information to public-private tourism managers in this destination, in order to conceive gastronomic products adapted to the different wishes and needs of the tourists who visit it, thereby contributing to their satisfaction and loyalty to the destination.
Classification-JEL: R1
Keywords: Turismo Gastronómico, Oruro (bolivia), Valoración de Atributos Turísticos, Segmentación Turística, Intangible Cultural Heritage., Gastronomic Tourism, Valuation of Tourist Attributes, Tourism Segmentation
Pages: 123-143
Volume: I
Year: 2020
File-URL: http://www.revistaestudiosregionales.com/documentos/articulos/pdf-articulo-2588.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:rer:articu:v:I:y:2020:p:123-143