Food-themed festivals are at the heart of culinary tourism and have long been identified as a key element contributing to a destination's competitiveness. Building on the motivation, opportunity, ability (MOA) theory and elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the current study investigates how participants' motivation, time pressure and prior festival knowledge play a role in portraying a favorable culinary destination image that in turn attracts repatronage. In addition, the moderating role of food involvement is also examined. The results are expected to advance the literature on destination branding, and provide managerial insights for destination marketing organizations and industry practitioners.