Virtual Culinary Influence: Assessing the Technological Impact of Food Vlogs on Viewer Preferences and Visit Behavior

Emerging as a pivotal trend on social media, food review vlogs not only narrate culinary experiences but also boost local cuisine and economic growth. This study delves into how such vlogs and vlogger traits affect viewer attitudes and restaurant visit intentions, guided by the stimulus-organism-response paradigm. Hypotheses were quantitatively assessed through an online survey with 347 participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), analyzed using SPSS 22 and AMOS 22 for structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that informativeness, entertainment, and vividness influence viewers’ engagement with food review vlogs, while attractiveness and homophily are major predictors of para-social relationships. Content engagement and para-social relationships exerted positive influences on attitudes and visiting intentions toward the reviewed restaurants. The findings contribute to the domain knowledge regarding foodservice communication by identifying desirable characteristics of food review vlogs and vloggers that drive viewers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions. This study offers content creators, foodservice marketers, and restaurant industry stakeholders a better understanding of the psychological process in food review vlog consumption to plan proper content marketing strategies that bolster foodservice businesses and maintain their competitive advantage in the growing restaurant industry.