اعتماد به شبکه های غذایی محلی: نقش اعتماد در میان ذینفعان گردشگری و تاثیرات آنها در تصمیم گیری های خرید

Trust and personal relationships are regarded as critical elements of local food systems. This study examines the role of trust and personal relationships among tourism stakeholders (restaurants and chefs, wholesale distributors, and local farmers and/or farmers’ market vendors) in the purchase of local foods on a study conducted in Vancouver, Canada, and Christchurch, New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with restaurants and chefs, farmers and/or farmers’ market vendors, and wholesale distributors. The study identified that the trust dimension of relationships is very important for restaurants and chefs and wholesale distributors with respect to local food sourcing activities. The study also found social interaction and face-to-face relations that enable deep trust (due to the knowledge transfer involved) to be vital for restaurants and chefs and wholesale distributors in the purchasing of local food from farmers and/or farmers’ market vendors, and other producers/suppliers. The major implications of the findings are that farmers need to develop trust-based relationships with their buyers in order to create better market access for local foods but that existing trust relationships can also act as a barrier to new entrants.