Understanding of International Tourists’ Engagement in YouTube-Mediated Gastronomy Tourism Through the Lens of Actor-Network Theory
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YouTube, a digital streaming platform, serves as a gateway that connects cultural ideas and provides a deep understanding of local cuisine in Bangladesh, an emerging gastronomy tourism destination in the Global South. Although there has been a rise in the use of digital media for tourism promotion, few studies have explored how YouTube food vlogs act as actor-networks in shaping international tourists’ perceptions of emerging gastronomy destinations, including Bangladesh. Therefore, by drawing on relational ontology and sociomateriality perspectives of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), this study explores international tourists’ engagement in YouTube-mediated gastronomy tourism. In doing so, using an ANT-informed qualitative research methodology, data was collected through YouTube content analysis and semi-structured interviews with 25 international tourists. The unique and explicit findings reveal that international tourists’ engagement with local cuisine is not simply an individual response; it results from ongoing interactions and networked relationships among human and non-human actors. Additionally, the research highlights that the decision-making process is not merely individual and rational, but rather relational and process-oriented, in which the sociomaterial perspective significantly influences its outcome. Overall, this discourse demonstrates how ongoing interactions and relational effects of heterogeneous actors, such as tourists, food vloggers, food vlogs, food practices, and technologies, shape international tourists’ engagement in YouTube-mediated gastronomy tourism. Finally, the managerial implications suggest that destination authorities could leverage YouTube as a promotional tool to promote gastronomy tourism by encouraging food vloggers to create high-impact content.
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