In our study, restaurant practices related to seasonal and local ingredients are firstly identified based on recent literature, and sustainable restaurant trends from the perspective of consumers are summarized. Research method is the described, namely Q-methodology, and the characteristics of the sample of travelers to Balaton and Greater Budapest destinations. Consumer groups (factors) were subsequently determined based on the research results._x000D_
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Five consumer groups are formed in the case of travelers to Lake Balaton: (1) immersed-localist, (2) instinctively interested, (3) price-sensitive & localist, (4) conscious-localist, and (5) price-sensitive & functionalist travelers. In contrast, four factors were identified in Greater Budapest destination: (1) social-localist, (2) comfortable-skeptic, (3) instinctively price-sensitive, and (4) special-localist travelers._x000D_
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Our findings confirmed that food-related lifestyle has become a defining type of psychographic segmentation. For the majority of our respondents, eating during their travels meant much more than mere satisfaction of needs, and they also wanted to experience the gastronomic culture of the destinations they visited to some extent._x000D_
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Regarding implications, our research results can provide hospitality managers and tourism boards with a number of practical tips for targeting consumers, and fill the gap in the available academic research. Our present research also demonstrates that Q-methodology can be a valuable tool for tourism researchers, particularly when the emphasis is placed on the subjective, lived experiences of individuals. However, our sample composition, limited to generation Z visitors, may be considered a limitation, and therefore our findings cannot be generalized to all visitors in the given destinations.

Bence Csapody; Melinda Jászberényi; Katalin Ásványi
Corvinus University of Budapest

 
ID Abstract: 115