Exploring tourists' experience at private social dining: Dimensionality and satisfaction

Abstract

Private social dining is a new form of service emerging in culinary tourism. Although its popularity has been increasing worldwide, studies on private social dining, especially its influence on tourism, are limited. The present work aims to explore tourists' experiences using private social dining as a context by constructing the dimensions for tourist experience. A qualitative research method is utilized to analyze reviews from top service providers in three popular destinations. Results confirm seven dimensions of the three types of experience existing in tourists' private social dining experiences, which affect tourist satisfaction. These results lay the foundation for future studies.

Effects of COVID-19 on preferences for private dining facilities in restaurants

“…Second, future studies can investigate the effect of the perceived threat on the evaluation of spatial distances between tables in a restaurant. Finally, the results of this paper can be extended to private social dining settings as well ( Qian, Law, & Fan, 2020 ) and to our understanding consumers' happiness from dining experiences ( Lee, Hall, & Wood, 2018 ).…”

Tourists’ private social dining experiences

“…As the core product of any culinary format, food should be a crucial reason why tourists participate in private social dining (Qian et al, 2020), as exemplified by a participant who cited a desire to eat good food as a key motivation for private social dining:Unlike other conventional restaurants that usually provide similar and standardized menu items, private social dining represents the chef. The chef provides [a] private social dining service because they are good at cooking.…”

“…Interview questions were developed to suit the context of private social dining based on prior studies involving restaurant selection (Chan and Lam, 2009; Kivela, 1997), the experience economy (Kim et al, 2012; Mody et al, 2017; Radder and Han, 2015), and dining experiences (Jeong and Jang, 2011; Qian et al, 2020). At the start of each interview, the interviewer prompted participants to describe private social dining in general and compare it with traditional dining services.…”

“…Given the method’s flexibility in research designs and overall accessibility to an educated public (Braun and Clarke, 2006), it is popular in tourism studies for new theory development (e.g. Medhekar et al, 2020; Qian et al, 2020). Pine and Gilmore’s (1998) four experiential domains provided a foundation for exploring the nature of private social dining experiences and determining how these experiences can enhance the traditional conceptualization of tourists’ dining experiences.…”

“…Ketter (2019: 1072) supported this notion and pointed out that private social diners are motivated by “a trendy, authentic, and social consumption experience” to fulfill their sophisticated dining needs and realize experiential travel (Chang, 2018; Kivela and Crotts, 2006; Su et al, 2018; Tikkanen, 2007). Qian et al (2020) believed that tourists gain satisfaction from three types of experiences in private social dining (i.e., sensory, emotional, and spiritual experiences), providing compelling evidence that private social dining is indeed an experiential travel activity.…”