This thesis consists of three studies aiming to address the global challenge of sustainable healthy food consumption in tourism. The first study synthesizes the perspectives of the state-of-the-art literature on how to engage tourists with sustainable healthy food consumption. Methodologically, this study follows the PRISMA guidelines to conduct a systematic literature review of 87 studies on this topic. The behavior change wheel with its COM-B model (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behavior) provides a consolidating theoretical lens to map the review results. The findings indicate the underdevelopment of intervention studies in the field. In contrast, most studies focus on predicting tourists’ behaviors based on cognitive-based theoretical approaches. This raises the need for future research focusing on non-cognitive and sociological theories in designing behavioral interventions.

Addressing the theoretical shortcomings outlined in the first study, the second study grounds a novel sociological-based conceptualization in the field by combining practice theories with the holiday appropriation framework. This exploratory study conducts 28 in-depth interviews to compare participants’ sustainable healthy self-catering practices at home and on holiday. The findings observe the influence of the holiday appropriation steps on the trajectories of at-home practices during the holiday. ‘Nesting’ during self-catering holidays encourages the maintenance of most at-home practice elements (e.g., convenient meal preparation and familiar cooking skills), whereas ‘Investigating’ and ‘Stamping’ encourage (dis)embedding novel (old) practice elements (e.g., cultural immersion), thereby likely modifying or introducing new practices.

The third study extends the contribution to the sociological foundation in the field by focusing on the interplay between agency and structure from the perspective of the home-holiday continuum. Methodologically, it designs a longitudinal study, combining visual and qualitative methodologies, to explore the evolution of agency-structure interplays across pre-holiday, during-holiday, and post-holiday stages. The findings indicate unique interactions between agency and structure. Pre-holiday practices rely on the interaction of iterational and evaluative agency with lay and intergenerational knowledge and carnism symbols. Holiday practices reflect heightened culinary curiosity, local food cultures, and sensory food experiences in shaping projective and evaluative agency. The post-holiday stage reveals (de)contextualization effect and shifting food perceptions, combined with lingering holiday lethargy, which delays the re-establishment of iterational and evaluative agency primarily embedded in home routines.

Theoretically, this thesis enhances the understanding of sustainable healthy food consumption in tourism by moving beyond conventional individual-centric theories. Instead, it emphasizes a more comprehensive approach of behavioral determinants, involving non-cognitive factors such as automatic (habitual) behaviors, social structures, shared meaning, and material factors to inform more effective behavioral interventions and policy initiatives. It offers an overarching view of the home-holiday continuum, encompassing pre-holiday, holiday, and post-holiday stages, regarding sustainable healthy food consumption in tourism. This broader approach provides a unique perspective for illustrating the reciprocal influence of home practices on holiday practices, and vice versa. Practically, this thesis provides recommendations for a wide range of tourism and hospitality stakeholders to enhance sustainable healthy food consumption in tourism. These recommendations include, but are not limited to, promoting plant-based local specialties, engaging culinary guides, offering sustainable healthy food souvenirs, and organizing sustainable healthy food-themed tours or cooking classes.