1. Who's on the tourists' menu? Exploring the social significance of restaurant experiences for tourists
- Author
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Sheila Matson-Barkat, Philippe Robert-Demontrond, Rennes School of Business, Centre de recherche en économie et management (CREM), Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN), Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), and Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
interviews ,Strategy and Management ,Identity (social science) ,restaurants ,Transportation ,Context (language use) ,consumer behaviour ,Development ,consumers ,[SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences ,0502 economics and business ,Ethnography ,feeds ,Sociology ,consumption ,theory ,Consumer behaviour ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,[SDV.NEU.PC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Psychology and behavior ,business.industry ,05 social sciences ,Perspective (graphical) ,tourists ,Public relations ,behaviour ,Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management ,tourism ,[SHS.GESTION]Humanities and Social Sciences/Business administration ,050211 marketing ,Thematic analysis ,business ,050212 sport, leisure & tourism ,Tourism ,Meaning (linguistics) - Abstract
International audience; Taking a Consumer Culture Perspective, this paper explores the co-production of meaning among participants in tourists' restaurant experiences. Responding to criticisms that interpreting consumer behaviour should focus both on the individual and also on the collective context of consumption (Askegaard and Linnet, 2011), our research explores the social significance of these experiences and how they feed into the tourist's identity project. 34 ethnographic interviews are led with a view to exploring how tourists co-produce meaning within their group and also with staff and other patrons in the context of restaurant experience and these are followed up with a further 57 semi-structured interviews. Restaurant experiences are shown to be both rich and complex in social meanings. Thematic analysis leads to the identification and discussion regarding four contexts where social meanings are co-produced, namely sharing experiences, family togetherness and transmission, cultural guidance and customer-to-customer interaction.
- Published
- 2018