Tackling food marketing to children in a digital world: trans-disciplinary perspectives. Children’s rights, evidence of impact, methodological challenges, regulatory options and policy implications for the WHO European Region

There is unequivocal evidence that childhood obesity is influenced by marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages high in saturated fat, salt and/or free sugars (HFSS), and a core recommendation of the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity is to reduce children’s exposure to all such marketing. As a result, WHO has called on Member States to introduce restrictions on marketing of HFSS foods to children, covering all media, including digital, and to close any regulatory loopholes. This publication provides up-to-date information on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children and the changes that have occurred in recent years, focusing in particular on the major shift to digital marketing. It examines trends in media use among children, marketing methods in the new digital media landscape and children’s engagement with such marketing. It also considers the impact on children and their ability to counter marketing as well as the implications for children’s rights and digital privacy. Finally the report discusses the policy implications and some of the recent policy action by WHO European Member States

Social Media Analytics in Food Innovation and Production: a Review

Until recently social media and social media analytics (SMA) were basically used only for communication and marketing purposes. However, thanks to advances in digital technologies and big data analytics, potential applications of SMA extend now to production processes and overall business management. As a result, SMA has become an important tool for gaining and sustaining competitive advantage across various sectors, industries and end-markets. Yet, the food industry still lags behind when it comes to the use of digital technologies and advanced data analytics. A part of the explanation lies in the limited knowledge of potential applications of SMA in food innovation and production. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of literature on possible uses of SMA in the food industry sector and to discuss both the benefits, risks, and limitations of SMA in food innovation and production. Based on the literature review, it is concluded that mining social media data for insights can create significant business value for the food industry enterprises and food service sector organizations. On the other hand, many proposals for using SMA in the food domain still await direct experimental tests. More research and insights concerning risks and limitations of SMA in the food sector would be also needed. The issue of responsible data analytics as part of Corporate Digital Responsibility and Corporate Social Responsibility of enterprises using social media data for food innovation and production also requires a greater attention

PROFILING SOCIAL MEDIA TOURISTS USING LITERATURE DURING 2015-2019: CRIMINAL PROFILING METHOD

With the continuous development of mobile commerce and the Internet, social media has deeply penetrated people’s lives and fundamentally changed the way of searching, reading and using travel-related information. With this backdrop, this research studied social media tourists (SMTs) who share or acquire information related to the hospitality and tourism on social media platforms. Based on 271 empirical articles retrieved from major databases and top hospitality and tourism journals in the recent five years from 2015 to 2019, this research developed a profiling framework about SMTs using criminal profiling method. The findings showed the possibility of using the criminal profiling method to analyze SMTs and provided a holistic personal, social-psychological, and behavioral profile of SMTs. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed

Exploring Tourist Dining Preferences Based on Restaurant Reviews

Dining is an essential tourism component that attracts significant expenditure from tourists. Tourism practitioners need insights into the dining behaviors of tourists to support their strategic planning and decision making. Traditional surveys and questionnaires are time consuming and inefficient in capturing the complex dining behaviors of tourists at a large scale. Thus far, the understanding about the dining preferences and opinions of different tourist groups is limited. This article aims to fill the void by presenting a method that utilizes online restaurant reviews and text processing techniques in analyzing the dining behaviors of tourists. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated in a case study on international tourists visiting Australia using a large-scale data set of more than 40,000 restaurant reviews made by tourists on 2,265 restaurants. The proposed method can help researchers gain comprehensive insights into the dining preferences of tourists. </jats:p

Meal Experiences at fine dining venues in Norway: A TripAdvisor case study

Purpose: Guest experience and feedback play a crucial role in ameliorating the quality of restaurant businesses. Despite their importance in the service sector, there has been little research on customer satisfaction in the restaurant industry in Norway. This study was conducted to identify the key attributes of the best restaurant experiences in Norway. Methods: A total of 714 online reviews of eight Norwegian luxury restaurants on TripAdvisor were used for data analysis in this study. A mixed methods approach was adopted to identify and determine the key quality attributes that influence diners’ experiences. Dominant themes for data analysis were identified and analyzed using Leximancer 5.0. Results: Nine themes (respectively in descending order of their influence): food, restaurant, experience, price, table (allocation), recommended, dessert, sea (food), and return were identified as the most important factors affecting guests’ dining experience. Concepts such as gourmet cuisine, courteous service, and memorable experience were frequently mentioned by satisfied guests, whereas pricing, service quality, and a perceived lack of innovation were the major factors among dissatisfied groups. Gastronomic components such as food, menu, and cuisine were the main factors affecting men's satisfaction, while evening, experience, and dishes were strongly associated with women's narratives. Similarly, the geographical origin and travel persona of the guests were attributable to the difference in their narratives and concepts. Originality/Value: The findings of this study highlight the overall satisfaction among visitors to the restaurants studied. The impressions and narratives of the guests are decisive for the overall success of the business. Therefore, restaurants should acknowledge their differences (in choices) and strive to achieve a higher level of satisfaction. Keywords: Meal Experience; Fine Dining; Online Reviews; Content Analysis; Leximancer

Word of Mouth, the Importance of Reviews and Ratings in Tourism Marketing

The Internet and social media have given place to what is commonly known as the democratization of content and this phenomenon is changing the way that consumers and companies interact. Business strategies are shifting from influencing consumers directly and induce sales to mediating the influence that Internet users have on each other. A consumer review is “a mixture of fact and opinion, impression and sentiment, found and unfound tidbits, experiences, and even rumor” (Blackshaw & Nazarro, 2006). Consumers' comments are seen as honest and transparent, but it is their subjective perception what shapes the behavior of other potential consumers. With the emergence of the Internet, tourists search for information and reviews of destinations, hotels or services. Several studies have highlighted the great influence of online reputation through reviews and ratings and how it affects purchasing decisions by others (Schuckert, Liu, & Law, 2015). These reviews are seen as unbiased and trustworthy, and considered to reduce uncertainty and perceived risks (Gretzel & Yoo, 2008; Park & Nicolau, 2015). Before choosing a destination, tourists are likely to spend a significant amount of time searching for information including reviews of other tourists posted on the Internet. The average traveler browses 38 websites prior to purchasing vacation packages (Schaal, 2013), which may include tourism forums, online reviews in booking sites and other generic social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

A narrative review of online food delivery in Australia: challenges and opportunities for public health nutrition policy.

Objective: Online food delivery (OFD) platforms offer consumers a convenient and fast delivery service of foods and drinks sourced from foodservice partners (e.g. restaurants, quick service restaurants). There is a need to assess the impact of this emergent segment of the foodservice sector on diet and diet-related health. The aim of this narrative review was to describe the OFD sector in Australia, its use and identify potential ways to include OFD platforms in existing public health nutrition policy. Design: A search was conducted in peer-reviewed and grey literature. Sources were analysed and synthesised to report the characteristics of OFD platforms, delivery process, users and potential drivers of usage. The aim and scope of public health nutrition policies were analysed to identify ways of including OFD platforms. Setting: Australia. Participants: General population. Results: There are three main operators with 9000–16 000 foodservice partners based predominantly in the main cities of Australia. OFD revenue has grown by 72 % in the last 5 years and is predicted to increase driven by usage by working adults with high disposable income who demand convenience. Current policies and initiatives aimed at manufacturers, retailers and foodservice outlets do not specifically regulate OFD platforms, although there is scope for these to be extended to such platforms. Conclusions: OFD platforms are disruptors of the foodservice sector. Innovative and consistent health policy options that target the unique challenges and opportunities posed by OFD platforms are required to limit the potentially negative impact of OFD platforms on diet and diet-related health

5th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2023)

Research methods in economics and social sciences are evolving with the increasing availability of Internet and Big Data sources of information. As these sources, methods, and applications become more interdisciplinary, the 5th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA) is a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and advances on how emerging research methods and sources are applied to different fields of social sciences as well as to discuss current and future challenges.Martínez Torres, MDR.; Toral Marín, S. (2023). 5th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2023). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2023.2023.1700

More than Fast Food: Development of a Story Map to Compare Adolescent Perceptions and Observations of Their Food Environments and Related Food Behaviors

The purpose of this convergent, multiphase, mixed methods study was to better understand the perceptions of adolescents’ food environments and related food behaviors using grounded visualization and story mapping. Adolescents from one high school (13–16 years) in the southeastern United States were evaluated via data from health behavior surveys (n = 75), school environment maps, focus groups (n = 5 groups), and Photovoice (n = 6) from October 2016 to April 2017. Data from each phase were integrated using grounded visualization and new themes were identified (n = 7). A story map using ArcGIS Online was developed from data integration, depicting the newly identified themes. Participants failed to meet national recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake (2.71 cups). Focus group and Photovoice findings indicated the need for convenience food items in all environments. The story map is an online, interactive dissemination of information, with five maps, embedded quotes from focus groups, narrative passages with data interpretation, pictures to highlight themes, and a comparison of the participants’ food environments. Story mapping and qualitative geographic information systems (GIS) approaches may be useful when depicting adolescent food environments and related food behaviors. Further research is needed when evaluating story maps and how individuals can be trained to create their own maps