Exploring tourist satisfaction on food and restaurant experience in mountainous religious destinations. (1st May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kala, Devkant; Barthwal, Sunil
• Is Part Of: International journal of tourism policy. Volume 10:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 22
• Publication Date: 2020-05-01
• Subjects: food -- restaurant -- experience -- tourist satisfaction -- religious destination -- mountainous destination -- India; Tourism -- Periodicals; 338.479105
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-4090

Abstract

Gastronomic experience, a multi-faceted phenomenon that encompasses economic, social, cultural, historical and psychological dimensions, significantly affects the satisfaction level of a tourist visiting a religious destination with religious motivation or with several motivations, interests and activities, even for a holiday. The present work investigated the effect of various attributes of food and restaurant experience on tourist satisfaction in mountainous religious destinations of India. The findings reveal that quality of food and service, ambience and physical attributes of the restaurant significantly contribute to tourist satisfaction. The contribution of food preparation and presentation, originality and exoticness, and employees' attributes was found insignificant on tourist satisfaction. The provided insights have managerial implications as they endorse that restaurants should offer local food, focus on employees attributes, involve guests in traditional food preparation and presentation styles, and emphasise on authenticity aspects of food and restaurant for creating novel touristic experiences in the mountainous religious destinations.