Farmers’ markets can enhance local food tourism experiences, as well as benefit regions and businesses that operate within these markets. With the impact of COVID-19 reducing international travel, domestic and local tourism is predicted to increase due to a desire to support local economies. While it has been established that visitors who shop at farmers’ markets do so for pro-social reasons, the current study examines the unintended consequences of these pro-social behaviors. We apply ‘moral licensing’ and regulatory focus theory to explain how a person’s pro-social behavior gives a temporary boost to their positive self-image which subsequently gives them a ‘licence’ to act in a deviant manner. We examine the effect of licensing and consider individual differences in promotion focus to test whether some visitors are more prone to deviant behavior than others. This research assists in identifying the unintended outcomes for the local food tourism sector through licensing and provides suggestions on how to diminish this behavior.

农贸市场可以增强当地的美食旅游体验，并使在这些市场内经营的地区和企业受益。随着 COVID-19 减少国际旅行的影响，由于希望支持当地经济，预计国内和当地旅游业将增加。虽然已经确定在农贸市场购物的游客是出于亲社会的原因，但目前的研究调查了这些亲社会行为的意外后果。我们应用“道德许可”和监管焦点理论来解释一个人的亲社会行为如何暂时提升他们积极的自我形象，从而使他们获得“许可”以异常方式行事。我们检查了许可的影响，并考虑了促销重点的个体差异，以测试是否某些访问者比其他访问者更容易出现越轨行为。这项研究有助于通过许可确定当地食品旅游部门的意外结果，并就如何减少这种行为提供建议。