Abstract
Technological advancement has increasingly influenced culinary tourism, with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to influence tourist experience proposition. The role of AI-driven experiences as a mediator between culinary motivation and tourist satisfaction and between culinary involvement and tourists’ behavioural intentions is investigated in this study. The data collected from 375 culinary tourists who visited various culinary destinations in Kerala, India were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) using Smart PLS. The study investigates how the applications of AI in the tourism sector, such as personalised recommendations and gastronomic guides which are intelligent and smart, have an impact on tourists’ motivations and sense of engagement with culinary destinations in a way that is more satisfactory to the tourists. Further, the study intends to elaborate on how AI makes it easier to get customers emotionally engaged, fostering stronger behavioural intentions, such as revisit intention and word-ofmouth promotion. This research contributes to the emerging study on AI-driven tourism experiences by unveiling the effect of AI on these relationships and providing important implications for tourism and hospitality industry stakeholders. Destination marketers, restaurant owners, and tourism planners can use these results to strategically incorporate AI to add value to culinary tourism offerings. To the end, the study reiterates that AI has a great role in driving the advancement of tourism today and has become an important driving force, which can deliver better visitor engagement and satisfaction to the tourism sector, especially the culinary sector.
Keywords: AI-Driven Experiences, Behavioural Intention, Culinary Involvement, Culinary Motivation, Tourist Satisfaction.