Modeling the factors affecting the development of food tourism using meta-synthesis approach

Considering the importance of developing food tourism as one of the most important and growing types in recent years, the present study was designed and implemented to model the factors affecting food tourism development. This research is developmental in terms of its purpose, and it is included in the category of qualitative research in terms of data collection and analysis, which is done by the meta-synthesis method. According to the nature of the meta-synthesis method, the statistical population of the research is made up of previous studies related to the research topic. In the meantime, according to access the full text and review of the title, abstract, and content of the searched articles, 45 sources were selected for the research. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data, and the intra-subject agreement method was used to control the quality of the analysis. As the research findings, the factors affecting the food tourism development were categorized in the form of six main themes, i.e., contextual factors, factors related to marketing and sales, factors related to human resources, infrastructural factors, intervening factors, and executive interventions. The results can increase managers' knowledge and awareness of factors affecting food tourism development and provide practical guidelines for managers, planners, and policymakers at different national and regional levels.