Jose Weng Chou Wong

Consumer traits of Chinese Generation Z tourists have recently garnered increasing scholarly attention but remain underexplored in tourism research. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to develop and validate a multidimensional scale of consumer traits and to examine their effects, as well as the effect of destination attractiveness, on travel inspiration and behavioral intention. Study 1, based on in-depth interviews and exploratory factor analysis, identifies five dimensions: self-expression, self-identity, self-concept, self-exploration, and self-reflection. Study 2, grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, shows that self-expression, self-identity, self-exploration, and self-reflection positively influence travel inspiration, whereas self-concept has no significant effect. Destination attractiveness also positively affects travel inspiration, which in turn enhances behavioral intention. This study contributes by developing a measurement scale for Chinese Generation Z tourists’ consumer traits and by clarifying how these cohort-relevant traits operate in tourism. It also offers practical implications for destination managers seeking to better engage this cohort.

Although the uniqueness of destinations is essential, the concept of destination uniqueness has not been fully explored. Based on ethnic minority destinations, this research aims to develop a measurement scale of destination uniqueness and examine its effect on storytelling in cultural transmission through their experience in ethnic minority destinations. A qualitative investigation was conducted based on 171 online blogs (study 1), which identified three dimensions of the destination uniqueness of minority tourism: differentiation, individuality and irreplaceability. Then, a survey of 412 tourists was conducted in an ethnic minority tourism destination (study 2). Results show that the destination uniqueness of ethnic minority tourism is positively related to the ethnic minority tourism experience (novelty, knowledge and meaningfulness) and storytelling in cultural transmission. The conceptualisation of destination uniqueness provides researchers with a new research direction. The findings enrich the knowledge of ethnic tourism destinations and help managers highlight the uniqueness of a destination.

Purpose: Prepared dishes have become increasingly popular because of their convenience and standardization in restaurants. Different from existing studies in the prepared dishes field that focus on the benefits and innovations of prepared dishes, this study introduces a new framework with three dimensions: sensory quality, standardized production and food safety and health of the prepared dishes that cause customers’ attention among restaurants. This study also explores the multi-faceted affect toward prepared dishes and customers’ behavioral intention toward prepared dishes through attitude and trust. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, a measurement scale for the characteristics of prepared dishes is established through semi-structured interviews with 15 respondents (Study 1), followed by a survey of 358 customers (Study 2). Data analysis is performed using structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: The results of this study show that three prepared dish characteristics (sensory quality of prepared dishes, standardized production of prepared dishes, food safety and health of prepared dishes) influence trust. Except for the sensory quality of prepared dishes, standardized production of prepared dishes and food safety and health of prepared dishes influence attitude. Attitude toward and trust in prepared dishes influence the intention to adopt prepared dishes. In addition, trust in prepared dishes affects people’s attitudes toward prepared dishes, which in turn affects their adoption behavior. Practical implications: These results suggest that restaurants can develop and promote prepared dishes based on sensory quality, standardized production and food safety. Stakeholders can enhance their adoption behavior by enhancing customer trust and attitudes toward prepared dishes. This study provides insights into the food market and restaurants for developing and enhancing prepared dish products. Originality/value: This study contributes to research on prepared dishes by developing a measurement scale for the characteristics of prepared dishes. The CAB model is extended to the context of prepared dishes by highlighting the multi-faceted affective effects, which are the mediating roles of trust and attitudes toward prepared dishes.

Automation has been widely applied and has greatly affected quality management in the catering industry. Intelligent restaurants refer to those in which smart devices and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies (such as robots and self-service technologies) are embedded in the restaurant environment. However, the existing research on intelligent restaurants has mostly focused on the technological development of equipment. Hence, this interdisciplinary study, integrating insights from hospitality management and human–computer interaction, examines how human-provided and automated-provided services interactively influence customers’ dining experience quality in intelligent restaurants, and how they affect customers’ perceived value and their social media sharing generation. This study develops a measurement scale of dining experience quality in intelligent restaurants that contains human-provided experience and automated-provided experience through in-depth interviews with 15 customers (Study1), and a model was proposed and verified using partial least-squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis on a sample of 493 customers dining in intelligent restaurants (Study 2), which shows that the quality of dining experience has a positive effect on customer perceived value, overall satisfaction in intelligent restaurants, and social media sharing generation. Specifically, automated-provided services offer functional value, while human employees mainly provide perceived emotional value. Perceived functional value has a greater impact on overall satisfaction with intelligent restaurants. The originality of this research is that it integrates services provided by humans and services provided by automated devices and clarifies the different roles of functional and emotional value in shaping customers’ perceived value. These findings provide a new research perspective for intelligent restaurants and insight into the optimization of service quality and automation systems in intelligent restaurants, thereby promoting sustainable business practices in the industry.