3.1 Stages and Outcomes of the Visitor Dining Experiences
Within the proposed framework, the multi-phase experiences are represented in three sequential related dining stages experienced by international visitors. Each stage of dining along with its anticipated experience outcomes is discussed as follows.
Pre-dining experience stage. This stage refers to how the visitors foresee the engagement with local food prior to the actual dining experiences. Pre-dining encompasses the expectations that the international visitors have about the likelihood of experiential outcomes pertaining to dining with local food in the visited destination. According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2002), expectations are defined as the desires of customers, in particular, what they believe a service or product should or will be. In the tourism context, Fluker and Turner (2000) delineate expectations as the perceived likelihood that a particular action will be followed by a particular outcome. Visitors make decisions based on certain expected outcomes and their reactions to outcomes are in part influenced by what they initially expected (Dickson & Hall, 2006).
Many studies have explored the relationship between expectations and visitor behaviour and experiences (del Bosque, Martin, & de los Salmones, 2009; Fluker & Turner, 2000; Gnoth, 1997; Hsu, Cai, & Li, 2009; Sheng & Chen, 2012; Sukalakamala & Boyce, 2007).Gnoth (1997) claims managing visitor expectations is extremely important since expectations can significantly influence visitor choice process and perceptions of destination experience, which in turn, affects visitor overall satisfaction.
Given that eating plays an integral role in travel, visitors expect that their food related experiences within the destination will be enjoyable and memorable (Kivela & Crotts, 2009), regardless of the primacy of culinary experiences as a travel motivator. This therefore indicates the critical role of selecting an effective measurement to allow the researcher to make an accurate identification of visitor dining expectations.
In their evaluation of the measurement of expectations, Dickson and Hall (2006) propose two alternative approaches: first, conducted before the experience and second, after/post the experience (i.e. retrospective recall). In aggregate, more studies have relied on retrospective recall than have measured expectations at the time of their formulation. Under the retrospective recall approach, the timing for assessing the expectations is undertaken after the experience is over (Dickson & Hall, 2006), assuming that participants are still capable of recalling accurately and report their expectations even after a considerable time has passed. However, such an approach has the subject of critique on the basis of validity since people’s ability to recall events, feelings, time periods, expectations, or preferences, are deficient or even sometime exaggerative (Noe & Uysal, 1997).
Considering the limitations of retrospectivity that were discussed previously, the present framework proposes that the measurement of visitor dining expectations is conducted prior to actual visitor encounters with local food consumption in the destination. On this basis, visitors should be probed shortly after their arrival at the destination, though prior to dining with local food. This process is crucial for ensuring that visitor responses about their dining expectations with local food are free of bias from their perceptions of the actual dining activity.
During-dining experience stage. This stage relates to the actual encounters with the local food that occur at the destination. It focuses on the perceived quality of the visitor’s dining experience. According to Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988), perceived quality is defined as a form of overall evaluation, a global judgment, or an attitude toward purchasing products. It occurs after a comparison between expectations and actual perceptions of performance. From the customer perspective, Parasuraman et al. (1988) indicate that perceived quality is a highly subjective and relativistic phenomenon that varies on the basis of who is assessing the product or service. Despite its subjectivity, Yuan and Wu (2008) argue that there is a close relationship between expectations and perceptions concerning the quality of products and services, hence, assessing customers’ perceived quality cannot be undertaken without measuring expectations of quality. Having said this, the following proposition is formulated:
Proposition 1: Visitor expectations of dining experiences with local food influence the perceived quality of dining experience with local food.
In addition, adapting Yuan’s (2009) study, the proposed framework examines perceived quality of the dining experience with local food on the basis of two dimensions of visitor cognition (thoughts) and emotions (feelings). Cognition arises as a result of all of the relevant dining-related information that is transmitted to the conscious mind through the senses. For instance, what visitors think about the local food that they see, smell, taste, and touch. By contrast, emotion involves visitor affective responses such as, excitement, joy, surprise, disappointment that are evoked during the course of dining experiences.
Post-dining experience stage. This stage refers to all of the experiences after dining which is reflected in visitor satisfaction and behavioural intentions. The literature shows that there are two ways to measure satisfaction, namely transaction-specific and cumulative aspects (Yuan & Wu, 2008). The transaction-specific perspective sees satisfaction as how consumers assess the value that they gain after completing a transaction (Oliver, 1977). The cumulative perspective aligns with the essence of the experience concept and acknowledges consumer expectations and/or experiences that have occurred prior to consumption as part of the whole experience thereby affecting the level of satisfaction at, during and after the process of experiencing (Berry, Carbone, & Haeckel, 2002). Satisfaction is commonly viewed as an indicator of the quality of an experience (Ryan, 2002). Ryan further affirms that a satisfactory experience involves congruence between expectations and performance, whereas dissatisfaction is reflective of a gap between expectations and the perceived quality of the tourism consumption experience. At the post-dining stage, the proposed framework also examines future behavioural intentions as another outcome of dining experiences. They include the intention to consume local food during future visits to the destination, as well as the willingness to recommend dining experiences involving the local food to others. In light of this view, the proposition is developed as follows:
Proposition 2: Visitors’ perceptions of dining experience with local food influence the overall dining satisfaction and visitors’ future behavioural intentions.
As mentioned earlier, the proposed framework views local food related dining that the visitors experience as the sequential relationships amongst three stages of dining. Adapting Woodside and Dubelaar’s (2002) TCS theory, the framework then acknowledges that each visitor’s thought, emotions, and behaviour that evolves from one stage of the dining would affect the thoughts, decisions, and behaviours that emerge at subsequent dining stages. Therefore:
Proposition 3: The experience encountered by international visitors at the pre-dining stage influences the experience at the during-dining stage, with in turn ; the experience encountered at the during-dining stage affects the experience at post-dining.
Furthermore, the sequential nature of dining experience stages proposed in the framework provides a methodological implication in terms of the operationalisation of the framework. As described earlier, to ensure free bias, the examination of experience at pre-dining stage is suggested to be taken prior to visitors undertaking the actual dining experience at the destination. To obtain a comprehensive view concerning various experiences at all dining stages, the research participants who involve in three dining stages should be the same. This means that those who express their expectations prior to local food related dining would be able to describe their perceptions of the actual dining as well as to explain their satisfactions after dining by comparing the actual dining with what they expect before. Undertaking such an approach would allow not only holistic understanding of the local food related dining experiences, but also offers the complexities surround the experiences to emerge.
3.1 Stages and Outcomes of the Visitor Dining ExperiencesWithin the proposed framework, the multi-phase experiences are represented in three sequential related dining stages experienced by international visitors. Each stage of dining along with its anticipated experience outcomes is discussed as follows. Pre-dining experience stage. This stage refers to how the visitors foresee the engagement with local food prior to the actual dining experiences. Pre-dining encompasses the expectations that the international visitors have about the likelihood of experiential outcomes pertaining to dining with local food in the visited destination. According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2002), expectations are defined as the desires of customers, in particular, what they believe a service or product should or will be. In the tourism context, Fluker and Turner (2000) delineate expectations as the perceived likelihood that a particular action will be followed by a particular outcome. Visitors make decisions based on certain expected outcomes and their reactions to outcomes are in part influenced by what they initially expected (Dickson & Hall, 2006). Many studies have explored the relationship between expectations and visitor behaviour and experiences (del Bosque, Martin, & de los Salmones, 2009; Fluker & Turner, 2000; Gnoth, 1997; Hsu, Cai, & Li, 2009; Sheng & Chen, 2012; Sukalakamala & Boyce, 2007).Gnoth (1997) claims managing visitor expectations is extremely important since expectations can significantly influence visitor choice process and perceptions of destination experience, which in turn, affects visitor overall satisfaction. Given that eating plays an integral role in travel, visitors expect that their food related experiences within the destination will be enjoyable and memorable (Kivela & Crotts, 2009), regardless of the primacy of culinary experiences as a travel motivator. This therefore indicates the critical role of selecting an effective measurement to allow the researcher to make an accurate identification of visitor dining expectations.In their evaluation of the measurement of expectations, Dickson and Hall (2006) propose two alternative approaches: first, conducted before the experience and second, after/post the experience (i.e. retrospective recall). In aggregate, more studies have relied on retrospective recall than have measured expectations at the time of their formulation. Under the retrospective recall approach, the timing for assessing the expectations is undertaken after the experience is over (Dickson & Hall, 2006), assuming that participants are still capable of recalling accurately and report their expectations even after a considerable time has passed. However, such an approach has the subject of critique on the basis of validity since people’s ability to recall events, feelings, time periods, expectations, or preferences, are deficient or even sometime exaggerative (Noe & Uysal, 1997). Considering the limitations of retrospectivity that were discussed previously, the present framework proposes that the measurement of visitor dining expectations is conducted prior to actual visitor encounters with local food consumption in the destination. On this basis, visitors should be probed shortly after their arrival at the destination, though prior to dining with local food. This process is crucial for ensuring that visitor responses about their dining expectations with local food are free of bias from their perceptions of the actual dining activity. During-dining experience stage. This stage relates to the actual encounters with the local food that occur at the destination. It focuses on the perceived quality of the visitor’s dining experience. According to Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988), perceived quality is defined as a form of overall evaluation, a global judgment, or an attitude toward purchasing products. It occurs after a comparison between expectations and actual perceptions of performance. From the customer perspective, Parasuraman et al. (1988) indicate that perceived quality is a highly subjective and relativistic phenomenon that varies on the basis of who is assessing the product or service. Despite its subjectivity, Yuan and Wu (2008) argue that there is a close relationship between expectations and perceptions concerning the quality of products and services, hence, assessing customers’ perceived quality cannot be undertaken without measuring expectations of quality. Having said this, the following proposition is formulated:Proposition 1: Visitor expectations of dining experiences with local food influence the perceived quality of dining experience with local food.In addition, adapting Yuan’s (2009) study, the proposed framework examines perceived quality of the dining experience with local food on the basis of two dimensions of visitor cognition (thoughts) and emotions (feelings). Cognition arises as a result of all of the relevant dining-related information that is transmitted to the conscious mind through the senses. For instance, what visitors think about the local food that they see, smell, taste, and touch. By contrast, emotion involves visitor affective responses such as, excitement, joy, surprise, disappointment that are evoked during the course of dining experiences. Post-dining experience stage. This stage refers to all of the experiences after dining which is reflected in visitor satisfaction and behavioural intentions. The literature shows that there are two ways to measure satisfaction, namely transaction-specific and cumulative aspects (Yuan & Wu, 2008). The transaction-specific perspective sees satisfaction as how consumers assess the value that they gain after completing a transaction (Oliver, 1977). The cumulative perspective aligns with the essence of the experience concept and acknowledges consumer expectations and/or experiences that have occurred prior to consumption as part of the whole experience thereby affecting the level of satisfaction at, during and after the process of experiencing (Berry, Carbone, & Haeckel, 2002). Satisfaction is commonly viewed as an indicator of the quality of an experience (Ryan, 2002). Ryan further affirms that a satisfactory experience involves congruence between expectations and performance, whereas dissatisfaction is reflective of a gap between expectations and the perceived quality of the tourism consumption experience. At the post-dining stage, the proposed framework also examines future behavioural intentions as another outcome of dining experiences. They include the intention to consume local food during future visits to the destination, as well as the willingness to recommend dining experiences involving the local food to others. In light of this view, the proposition is developed as follows:Proposition 2: Visitors’ perceptions of dining experience with local food influence the overall dining satisfaction and visitors’ future behavioural intentions.
As mentioned earlier, the proposed framework views local food related dining that the visitors experience as the sequential relationships amongst three stages of dining. Adapting Woodside and Dubelaar’s (2002) TCS theory, the framework then acknowledges that each visitor’s thought, emotions, and behaviour that evolves from one stage of the dining would affect the thoughts, decisions, and behaviours that emerge at subsequent dining stages. Therefore:
Proposition 3: The experience encountered by international visitors at the pre-dining stage influences the experience at the during-dining stage, with in turn ; the experience encountered at the during-dining stage affects the experience at post-dining.
Furthermore, the sequential nature of dining experience stages proposed in the framework provides a methodological implication in terms of the operationalisation of the framework. As described earlier, to ensure free bias, the examination of experience at pre-dining stage is suggested to be taken prior to visitors undertaking the actual dining experience at the destination. To obtain a comprehensive view concerning various experiences at all dining stages, the research participants who involve in three dining stages should be the same. This means that those who express their expectations prior to local food related dining would be able to describe their perceptions of the actual dining as well as to explain their satisfactions after dining by comparing the actual dining with what they expect before. Undertaking such an approach would allow not only holistic understanding of the local food related dining experiences, but also offers the complexities surround the experiences to emerge.
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