Many factors affect tourists’ motivation for traveling to culinary destinations. Accordingly, this study analyzes factors influencing the motivation for traveling to culinary destinations and their effect on tourists’ loyalty and return to rural areas. The study adopts a descriptive-analytical methodology and is conducted in two qualitative and quantitative phases. The study population comprises 384 Iranian tourists in three routes of rural tourism in Tehran province, Iran. The findings of factor analysis revealed that, of the 6 identified factors, gastronomic attractions of culinary tourism destinations and specific services offered to tourists are among the main factors motivating tourists to travel to a rural culinary destination. In addition, the findings of structural equation modeling using SMART-PLS showed that variables for tourists’ loyalty and return are influenced by motivational factors for traveling to culinary tourism destinations. Moreover, as a mediating variable, loyalty has a strong, indirect effect on tourists’ return to culinary destinations.

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