Food festivals and well-being: Extending the PERMA model

Abstract

Scholars are calling for more studies on short and long-term well-being outcomes of festival tourism, especially in different cultural settings. This interdisciplinary study applies Seligman's PERMA model to two food festivals in Italy and England. Findings illustrate how food festivals foster visitors' well-being and reveal which PERMA domains provide the greatest impact for participants. The theoretical contribution is the creation of a new conceptual framework of festival tourism well-being outcomes. The framework expands the PERMA model and shows the different pathways and factors that can help promote well-being. This is informed by the empirical contribution, which is the application of PERMA in a relatively new context of study: food festival tourism.