Street Food Culinary and Dining Experience on Tourist Gratification in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Abstract

Objective: Culinary as well as dining experience and tourist gratification are debatably the two basic subject areas that organizational researchers and tourism industry looks into in order to appreciate tourist decision towards revisit intention. This study focused on tourists’ gratification with their street food culinary as well as dining experience in Malaysia.  Using a relationship process, this study also explores satisfied tourists’ willingness and for each of the two key attributes of experiences: culinary experience and dining experience.  Understanding this important relationship is vital for foodservice operators in reaching the desired level of tourist gratification.  Methodology: Regression analysis indicated that culinary experience is more important than dining experience which significantly determined tourists’ overall gratification.  Findings: Overall, the finding of the hypotheses in this research showed that culinary experience does have the highest standardized beta coefficient value (β=.292, p<.05) and had been determined as the most positive effect to tourists’ gratification as compared to dining experience (β=.158, p<.05). Meanwhile, dining experience has the most positive effect to revisit intention with highest standardized beta coefficient value (ß=.628, p<.05) and culinary experience have a slightly lower standardized beta coefficient value (ß=.181, p<.05) Based on the results, all hypotheses were accepted and supported by the findings. Implications: This research therefore adds a new dimension to tourist gratification and revisit intention, especially in the area of tourism industry.