RESUMEN
PurposeFood festivals are prevalent for those passionate about food experience globally. More importantly, feedback from food reviewers on mass media platforms has been becoming a critical factor in facilitating the decision-making process of tourists in particular cities. Moreover, stimulating local tourism activities, thanks to food festivals, prove advantageous to the well-being of local habitants. The purpose of this paper is to provide readers with a general overview of food festival research trends in tourist cities, as tourism has the potential to contribute to targets in Goals 8, 12 and 14 on sustainable consumption and production and the sustainable use of resources, respectively, (UNWTO: World Tourism Organization).Design/methodology/approachThis study searched and filtered documents from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, as well as used bibliometric analysis and other mathematical and statistical methods, to better understand the food festival research context between 1970 and 2021. The carriers with mathematical and statistical methods. VOSviewer algorithm was used to identify critical input for visualizing bibliometric networks and to create a framework for this academic food festival research.FindingsThe findings are primarily related to pre and post-COVID-19 research on food festivals worldwide. Furthermore, using an inductive approach, this paper reveals the impact of food festivals in cities and tourist behaviors. According to the findings, the food festival research trends are about "food festivals,” "slow food festivals” and "local food festivals.” Factor analysis is one of the most common analyses in this type of research. Other studies could use the findings and limitations to select appropriate themes and analysis approaches for their research topics.Research limitations/implicationsResearch data sets are mainly from articles that may not account for all actual trends during this pandemic.Originality/valueThis review expects to provide insights into food festivals and help future researchers to recognize several research gaps such as the lack of research on food festival manufacturers and producers or the consistency in visitors' aspect research of quality service, visitors' loyal intentions, satisfaction and culinary experience. The tourism industry can find research trends of food festivals and issues following COVID-19 to find their management styles to fit the context of the post-COVID-19 pandemic, facilitating organizing a safe and effective food festival.