Determining the Antecedents of Chinese Restaurants’ Service Quality from Chinese Tourists’ Perspective: A Case Study of Chinese Tourists in Malaysia FatemehShafaei, ShararehKhosravi, Badaruddin Mohamed
Abstract Understanding the needs, preferences, and interests of different markets play a critical role in drawing them into destinations. Many destinations consider China asa significant international market for their tourismdevelopment because of its rapid growth of outbound tourism. Malaysia as a multicultural country with almost 24% of its population comprised of Chinese ethnic group, have varieties of Chinese foods and restaurants which can instigate Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia to have a “feel at home” experience in a familiar Chinese environment. Since this can be an opportunity for Malaysia to offer Chinese restaurants as one of its fundamental services for Chinese tourists, delivering the antecedents of Chinese tourists’ perceived service quality in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants seems noteworthy. At the first stage, an interview with 32 Chinese travelers in Malaysia led to identification of the key indicators predicting their perceived service quality. At the second stage, the data collected from 146 Chinese tourists in Malaysia has been analyzed by applying an exploratory factor analysis to deliver the related dimensions. Results of the analysis led to extraction of five factors namely, risk avoidance, familiar environment, ease of communication, food quality, and self-expression. Keywords Chinese Tourists, Service Quality, Chinese Restaurant, Food Introduction Chinese outbound travel market is one of the fastest growing and consequently increasingly important markets in the world (UNWTO 2013).Malaysia hada remarkable growth in Chinese tourists’ arrival within the recent years as well.A total of 493,249 Chinese tourist arrivals was recorded in the first quarter of 2013, up from 390,256 in the 2012 period while only in March 2013 there was an increase of 30.5% from 128,795 (in March 2012) to 168,118 (The Star Online 2013). This can be attributed to the aggressive promotional efforts by the Federal government and certain State governments, as mentioned by Hamzah (2004). Malaysia is a multicultural country consisting of three major cultures namely, Malay, Chinese, and Indian. It has a total population of 29,566,417 people (Department of Statistics Malaysia 2012) while almost 24% of its population is Chinese. The portion of Malaysia’s ethnic groups is shown in Figure 1.
Figure1: Percentage of Ethnic Groups in Malaysia As the consequence of its high Chinese population, many of the most popular food dishes in Malaysia have their roots in Chinese cuisine, particularly Cantonese (one of the culinary traditions of Chinese cuisine). But they have also been strongly influenced by other culinary traditions, including Malay, Indian and British. Chinese coffee shops (kedai kopi) have also been a fundamental part of the Chinese Malaysian experience for generations. Since most of the Chinese of Malaysia are from the South part of China, i.e. Hainan and Hakka, the foods form these regions are more found in Malaysia compared to the foods from regions such as Shanghai but still tourists can experience the diversity of
School of Housing Building and Planning, UniversitiSains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia *Correspondence: FatemehShafaei (
[email protected]) Room 17, Building H25, Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster,UniversitiSains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia 1
Chinese foods in Malaysia. Despite the variety of Chinese restaurants in Malaysia and the large number of Chinese tourists travelling to the country, the factors which may contribute to the level of perceived service quality of these restaurants have not been explored from the perspective of Chinese tourists.Liu and Jang (2009) also noted that even though the ethnic restaurants are now very popular in the foodservice industry, thisarea of research has received little attention. Therefore, this study aims at finding the significant factors which led to the positive perception of Chinese tourists about Chinese restaurants’ service quality in Malaysia.
Food and Service Quality in Restaurants’ Context Considering eating as the physical need by nature, tourists go to restaurants in the destinations to find a source of nutrition and no matter they choose new or familiar foods because they eat only to fulfil their biological need. On the other hand,they cannot avoideating (and drinking), even if the available food is unfamiliar, unpalatable,and even disgusting or frightening (Cohen and Avieli 2004).But it rarely happens that other features do not affect their choice of food and restaurants. Food can be considered as one of the main purposes for some tourists. This is more reflected in cases where tourists prefer to experience new and different foods from their own in the destination. It is somehow unlikely that peopledine familiar cuisines as what they have in their home country when they specifically travel for food experiences. On the other hand, when there are other motivations rather than food, some tourists may prefer to find familiar restaurants and foods in the destination for different reasons such as risk avoidance of having negative experiences.Yuksel and Yuksel (2002) stated that tourists’ attitudes toward food differ as some may seek adventurous menu to sample local foods and some may only prefer familiar foods since it reduce the risk perception. Otherresearches show that there are different elements which determine people’s attitude toward selecting foods and restaurants such as national culture of the tourists (Nield et al. 2000) and lifestyle (Ignatov 2003).Frochot(2003) put it in another words and highlighted the identity function of food which means impressing others, affirming the status, and representing a social class indicator through dining and food. On the other hand, habitual attachment to accustomed foods and cuisine appears tobe a general human tendency(Cohen and Avieli2004). The issue of customers’ perception and expectation regarding food related service quality has been the subjects of many studies (Johns and Howard 1998/Johns and Pine 2002/ Tam and Yung 2003/Sparks et al.2003/Kivela and Crotts 2009).Perceived quality of restaurants mainly consists of foodquality, service quality and atmospheric quality (Liu and Jang 2009).Johns and Howard(1998) andTam and Yung(2003) named some significant features such as low price, value for money, service, location, food quality (food taste and nutrition properties), brand name, and image as the factors contributing to the perception of a restaurant’s service quality.According to Sparks et al.(2003), positive experience in restaurants’ environment have been found to be influential factor on tourists’ behaviors such as intention to return to the same destination. Customer satisfaction is also achieved in restaurants when they are provided by good service quality including the food (hygiene, balance, and healthiness), physical provision (layout, furnishing, and cleanliness), the atmosphere (feeling and comfort), and the
Literature Review Service Quality Zeithaml(1988) defined perceived service quality asthe customer’s judgment of the overall excellence or superiority ofthe service. Service quality has been the concern of many scholars within the recent years (Brady and Cronin 2001/ Raajpoot 2002/Berry et al. 2002/ Barber et al. 2011). There are some dimensions which have been appliedin various service businesses in order to effectively measure the service quality. Barber et al.(2011) mentioned that these dimensions include tangibles (physical goods and facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel and facility), reliability (ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately), responsiveness (willingness to help customers and provide prompt service), assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence), and empathy (caring and individualized attention the firm provides its customers). Berry et al. (2002) suggested three categories of cues that present themselves in the service experience: functional cues (technical quality of the service), mechanic cues (non-human features in the service environment) and humanic cues (behavior of service employees).Brady and Cronin (2001) and Raajpoot (2002) focused on physical environment and identified three factors that influence perceived quality namely, ambient conditions(temperature, scent, and music), facility design (practical, clean and visually pleasing), and social factors (the number, type of people, and behavior within the service setting). When the issue of service quality arises in the hospitality services, Reuland et al. (1985) suggested that it may consist of a harmonious combination of three components namely, the material product, the behavior and attitude of the employees, and the environment. These categorizations in measuring the overall perceived service quality of different settings paved the way to assessment of the service quality of restaurants.
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service received (speed, friendliness, and care) during the meal experience (Johns and Pine 2002).Since perceived service quality in restaurants varies betweendifferent cultures due to their food preference, a brief review of Chinese food preference is provided in the following section in order to give insight about this market.
restaurants’ service quality in Malaysia.Each interview took between 20-25 minutesand tape recorded. Then,a content analysis has been applied to create compositions of all answers and then the statements related tothe respondents’ perception about determinants of service quality in Chinese restaurants were highlighted.The results led to the generation of36 distinctive items for the content categorization. To ensure the content validity,apanel ofexperts was asked to judge the statements. The panel was comprised of two tourismexperts and two Chinese restaurant owners who had the feedbacks from their Chinese customers. Their interpretations led to deletion of seven items and rewording of some items. Therefore, aquestionnaire comprised of 29 itemswas finalized and distributed to 146 Chinese tourists who dined at Chinese restaurants’in Malaysiaafter they finished their meals. This couldassure the researchers that the respondents answeredat a convenient time and after having a dining experience. In order to test the reliability and validity of the instrument, Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 19 has been used for the analysis.Respondents’ perceived service quality of the restaurants was explored in order to reveal the substantial dimensions. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were computed to assess the internal reliability of the measures based on Nunnally’ (1978) criteria in which a minimum level of 0.70 is recommended for a measure to be accepted as reliable. For validating the study constructs, an exploratory factoranalysis (EFA) was used to test all themeasurements and for the probable data reduction. Principal axis factoring with Varimax rotation was chosen as the method ofextraction. The adequacy of the number offactors was based on the size of eigenvalue reported greater than one, and was confirmedby looking at the discontinuity in eigenvalue as revealed by the scree plots. According to Hair et al. (2010), items with factor loading value more than 0.5 were retained.
Food Preference of Chinese Tourists According to Sinclair and Wong (2001), while most people eatto live, Chinese live to eat. Therefore, it is very important to gain knowledge about Chinese eating habits, culture, and preference for food and to apply it when marketing for a destinationsince dining out is one of the top activities of Chinese.Pointing out to the Asians’ preferences in food and its generalization for Asian population, Lau (2006) claimed that considering the broad range of differing cuisine withinChina, the food factor is likely to hold Chinese tourists in China or at least make them travel in Asia rather than drawing them to European countries. Chinese are said to be interested in sampling local food (Law et al. 2004) but most of them found to be not satisfied with their dining experiences overseas (Guo et al. 2007).Agrusa (2011) found that Chinese tourists preferred their ethnic Chinesefood over local food during their tour to Hawaii even though they had interest in Hawaiians’ food. Chen (2002) believed thatit might be due to their different service needs concerning language and meals. Chow and Murphy (2008) mentioned that destinationsand retail shops around the world are taking steps to gain alarger share of the Chinese outbound market by adjusting themselves with Chinese’ needs. For example, Accor, a French hotel group, has adapted56 hotels in Europe for Chinese tourists by offering Chinese food, ChineseTV channels and Mandarinspeaking staff or some departmentstores in UK, France and Germany employ Mandarin-speakingstaff to assist their Chinese clients (Chow and Murphy 2008). These efforts show the importance of Chinese food and communication with homogenous people for Chinese tourists.
Results of the Analysis According to frequency analyses on demographic profile of respondents, the percentage of male tourists (68.3%) was higher than female tourists (31.7%). Almost 23% of the respondents were from the age group35-44 years old,21.7% were 25-34 years old, 19.4% were 55-64 years old, 16% were 45-54, 12.4% were15-24 years old, while the age group above 65 comprised only a small proportion of the respondents (7.7%).The monthly income of the respondents was grouped into seven categories including below 1000$ (6.3%), $1000-$1999 (19.9%), $2000-$2999 (25%), $3000-$3999 (25.6%), $4000-$4999 (13.6%), $5000 and above (7.3%), and no income group (2.3%).Most of the respondents were married (62.6%) while 37.4% were single. The demographic characteristics of the respondents
Methodology The present study organizes an exploratory research aimed at investigating Chinese travelers in Malaysia who werethe patrons of Chinese restaurants. To acquire the primary data, an interview was conducted from 32 Chinese tourists dining in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants. The choice of interview was due to the lack of scale regarding the specific case of this study.Therefore, qualitative research was carried out at the initial stage to identify the factors whichdetermine the antecedents of Chinese tourists’ perception of service quality in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants.Respondents were asked to reveal their comments about the factors in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants which made them feel satisfied with the 3
are shown in Table 1.
Testing the validity and reliability of the scale Results of EFA showed that the size of eigenvalue was greater than one for fivefactors.Bartlett’s test of sphericity showed that the correlation matrix hassignificant correlations (significant at 0.000 for all variables). The Kaiser-MeyerOlkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy was 0.96which indicated very good sampling adequacy. The five extracted factorsexplained69.2%of the variable. Results of the reliability analysis showed that the variablehad Cronbach’s alpha level overthe acceptable level of 0.70 (Nunnally 1978). It was calculated .937 which indicates high internal consistency. The results of the EFA are illustrated in Table 2.
Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of the Respondents Socio-dePercentmographics age (%)
Socio- demographics
Percentage (%)
Gender Male Female
Marital Status Single Married
37.4 62.6
Age 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 and Above
68.3 31.7 12.4 21.7 22.9 15.9 19.4 7.7
Monthly Income Below $1000 $1000-$1999 $2000-$2999 $3000-$3999 $4000-$4999 $5000 and Above No income
6.3 19.9 25.0 25.6 13.6 7.3 2.3
Table 2: Results of Validity (KMO, Batlett’s Test and Rotated Component Matrix) and Reliability Antecedents of Chinese Restaurants’ Service Quality in Malaysia (N=29) Factor Loading F1 Variety of Chinese restaurants in Malaysia reduced the risk probability of trying .703 non-Chinesefoods. I prefer to eat in Chinese restaurants even while travelling. .663 I considered foods are healthier in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants compared to .662 other restaurants. I could trust the quality of food in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants. .615 In Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants, I do not worry about which food I have to choose. .601 Malaysia has a relaxing dining atmosphere in Chinese restaurants. Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants offer a familiar menu from which I can easily choose food. The design and decoration of Chinese restaurants in Malaysiaremind me of my home country. Chinese music played in Chinese restaurants in Malaysia provides me a familiar atmosphere. Malaysia’s Chineserestaurants’ service personnel are friendly. Chinese Restaurants in Malaysia provide a familiar environment for me. I feel comfortable in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants’ environment. I prefer to eat in a familiar environment. I feel comfortable that menus in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants are provided in Chinese language. I feel comfortable that Chinese restaurants’ staffs are speaking in Chinese language in Malaysia. I can socialize with Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants’ staffs. Few communication problems occur inMalaysia’s Chineserestaurants. 4
F2
F3
.623 .621 .619 .608 .599 .575 .560 .527 .615 .606 .591 .559
F4
F5
Malaysia’s Chinese cuisine is better thanotherdestinations I visited before. Malaysia offers delicious Chinese foods. Malaysia has a rich Chinese food culture. Malaysia’s Chinese cuisine is diverse. Malaysia has excellent Chinese dining facilities. Malaysia offers excellent quality in Chinese foods. Malaysia offers good quality in Chinese restaurant service. Malaysia’s Chinese food quality is compatible with my countries’ foods. My choice of Chineserestaurantsin Malaysia reflects who I am. I can express my identity in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants. I feel special in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants. I feel self-assured when I see other Chinese in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants. Eigenvalue
.779 .775 .755 .719 .698 .691 .628 .511
15.84 11.23 7.55 3.29
.807 .758 .604 .595 1.89
Percentage of Variance
52.81 6.32
2.91
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy
.961
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity
Components Risk Avoidance Familiar Environment Ease of Communication Food Quality Self-expression
Approx. Chi- 9921.305 square 435 .000 df Sig Cronbach’s Alpha .917 .876 .830 .945 .899
Total scale reliability (alpha)
0.937
4.02 3.16
while Anderson (1994) stressed on food as a health aid in Chinese traditional medicine. Chow and Murphy (2008), stating that some restaurants inChina serve “tonic foods” for their medical and health value, also found that dining is one of the top activities of Chinese tourists when traveling overseas. Therefore, it can be assumed that Chinese might prefer Chinese food when travelling (Wang and Wei 2010/ Agrusa 2011) due to health concerns and risk avoidance of trying unfamiliar foods. Since food is considered to have a central role in Chinese life (Simoons 1991), it can lead to their involvement with Chinese foods. The arguments in the section related to food similarity such as serving tonic foods in China’s restaurants for health value (Chow and Murphy 2008) and preference of Chinese food when travelling (Wang and Wei, 2010/ Agrusa 2011) can be the foundation for postulating that Chinese tourists may prefer Chinese cuisines when searching for foods in a destination in order to avoid the risk of negative experiences due to health concerns and risk avoidance of trying unfamiliar foods.Chinese might also be categorized under Hjalager’s (2002) cluster of recreational gastronomy touristswho are more conservative and prefer familiarity of their home foods and beverage in their travel.
Justification for the Extracted Dimensions Results of the study revealed that there are five dimensions as theantecedents ofChinese perception about Malaysia’ Chinese restaurants’ service quality. Each of the dimensions is discussed below: Factor 1: Risk Avoidance The first factor is called “Risk Avoidance” which explains 52.8% of total variance with eigenvalue of 15.84.It can be justified that Chinese are novelty avoiders who may prefer eating familiar foodwhile on holidays.This is supported by Chang (2009) who mentioned that novelty avoiders try to reduce anxiety or discomfort, particularlywhen traveling to an unfamiliar country. It is normal thatrisk avoiders consider factors that will reduce risk as much as possiblewhen they make their travel decisions. In this regard, Sonmez andGraefe (1998) proposed that the feeling of uncertainty or anxiety is more likely to beat a higher degree than under normal circumstances if people are immersed inunfamiliar surroundings. It has been affirmed by several scholars that China has a food-centeredculture. For example, Simoons (1991) mentioned that food plays a central role in Chinese life 5
Factor 2: Familiar Environment The second factor was called “Familiar Environment” whichexplains 6.32% of total variance with eigenvalue of 11.2.The importance of environment or atmospheric have been highlighted in service quality studies (Zeithaml1981/ Baker et al. 1994/ wall and Berry 2007/ Ha and Jang 2012). According to Hartline and Jones (1996), due to the intangiblecharacteristics of service,customers in a service context tendto use extrinsic cues such as physical facilities tojudge quality of service. Zeithaml(1981) also asserted that one of the significant cues used toinfer service quality is the physical surroundings of a serviceorganization. This suggests that the environment plays animportant role in inferring the quality of the service providedby service employees or the service organization (Ha and Jang 2012). Furthermore, previous studies have identified atmospherics as another important element of the dining experience and reported that atmospherics influence customer’s emotions and expectations regarding service and food quality (Baker et al. 1994/Reimer and Kuehn 2005/ Wall and Berry 2007).Ha and Jang (2012) mentioned that by identifying the significant role of atmospherics onbehavioral intentions through quality perception, restaurant operators can be provided with evidence that a low quality diningenvironment could convey the wrong message about the real quality of services and food. However, it is alsoimportant for restaurateurs to note that high qualityatmospherics make customers perceive quality even morehighly than they otherwise would. On the other hand, the role of familiar environment in tourists’ positive experience was supported by Tasci and Knutson (2004):
“Ease of Communication”whichexplains 4.2% of total variance with eigenvalue of 7.55. The significance of this factor is in line with the work of Cohen and Avieli (2004) who mentioned thatbeing unfamiliar with local ingredients and their names on themenu andlack of competence in the local language often makes problemin destinations because they cannot read the menu or do not understand the explanations of thelocal staff.Therefore, they indicated that language barrier is a common reason for the tourists’ avoidance of local culinary establishments (Cohen and Avieli2004).It is also consistent with the study of Tasci andKnutson (2004) who mentioned that most tourists like to have at least somethingfamiliar around them such as people from their own culture. Since social relationship is very important for Chinese society(Yang et al.2009), it is probable that the issue of communication in destinations’ restaurants seem important to them. Hong Kong was named as a top spot for Chinese holidays followed by Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia due to language similarities and close culture(Vittachi2001/ Lui 2000, cited in Yu 2004). Tourism Research Australia’s (2014) report on Chinese tourists also showed that dissatisfaction with the availability of Chinese language services negatively influencedtrip outcomes and likelihood to recommend Australia as a destination.
“Something familiarthat reminds tourists of home, such as food, newspapers, theliving space, or people from their home country can supply a strongbase of familiarity, a secure micro-environment, within which they canobserve and enjoy the novelty and strangeness of the macro-environment”. According to Ha and Jang (2012), creating a quality dining environmenthelps customers judge the quality of service and food andpositively induces future behaviors. These notions can justify why Chinese tourists revealed the familiar environment as one of the significant factors which predict their perception of service quality.Liu and Jang (2009) notified that Chinese restaurants should usevarious unique Chinese-style elements such as palace lanterns,Chinese brush drawings, and classic Chinese music to generatecustomers’ interest to explore the restaurant’s environment and toimprove their perceptions of the overall dining experience.
Factor 4: Food quality The fourth factor of this study was called “Food Quality” which explains 3.16% of total variance with eigenvalue of 3.29.Food quality was defined as the quality of featuresassociated with food that is acceptable to customers (Ha and Jang, 2012).The importance of food quality has been emphasized by Namkung and Jang (2007) who foundthat foodpresentation, taste and temperature were significantly related tocustomer satisfaction while food presentation, taste and healthyoptions (instead of temperature) were significant predictors ofbehavioral intention.Ha and Jang (2012) highlighted the relationship between food quality and service quality by identifying food quality as the technical service quality of restaurant0s’ settings. According to Tourism Research Australia (2014), the quality of Chinese food is considered as an important factorin creating positive travel experience. In fact,the Chinese touristswhorated Chinese food highly in Australia have been more satisfied with Australia as a place to visit and 80% of them werefound to eat Chinese food every day or most days in their trip.According to Eves and Cheng(2007), it has become fashionable and desirable for the Chinese consumers to preferand demand food that is different in taste, culture and quality.
Factor 3: Ease of Communication Based on the results of the study, thethird factor is called
Factor 5: Self-expression The last factor was called “Self-expression”whichexplains 6
2.91% of total variance with eigenvalue of 1.89. This can be justified by one of the distinctive traits in the Chinese culture called the ‘face’ concept. This concept involve confidence and integrity of one’s moralcharacter and ego as well as a person’s achievement, success and prestige in life, thus signifiesthe importance of social status and expectations in Chinese society (Kwek and Lee 2010).Mok and DeFranco(2000) defined it as the prestige one possesses by virtue of social achievement such aswealth, talents, social status, and scholarship.Mok and DeFranco (2000) mentioned that symbolic values of products and services are very important to theChinese andit is considered as a way that Chinese people can show face or status ispossession of material and wealth. In terms of tourism, Mok and DeFranco (2000) believed that hotels or tourism products or services which can enhance Chinese ‘face’, would entice them. They further exemplified it by one multinational chain hotel in Asia which offers Chinese tea service on Chinese guests’ arrivals; serve authentic Chinesebreakfast items in buffet; provide Chinese slippers; and train their employeeson Chinese protocol.This value can be adjustable with self-expression dimension of involvement which refers to representation or impression of “self to self” or “self to others” through an object or activity.Therefore, providingadditionalspecified Chinese services for Chinese tourists will make them feel special (Mok and DeFranco 2000) due to the representation of their identity at the destination.Kau and Lim (2005) also confirmed the significance of “self” for Chinese in their study. They clustered Chinese tourists to Singapore and found that there is relationship between clusters and Chinese cultural values. For example, they noted that out of nine values they explored, thefamily/relaxationseekers hadthe highest scores for three which were:self-respect, warm relationship,and sense of belonging.
Figure 2:Determinant Factors of Malaysia’s Chinese Restaurants’ Service Quality from Chinese Tourists’ Prospective Conclusion and Implications This study investigated Chinese tourists in Malaysia to determine the factors which affect their perception of quality of Chinese restaurants in Malaysia. Since Chinese have a strong passion for food, it seems normal if their positive perception about destinations’ restaurantslead to their satisfaction of the service quality of the destination. The results of the study revealed that there are five factors determining Chinese tourists’ perception about Chinese restaurants’ service quality in Malaysia namely, risk avoidance, familiar environment, ease of communication, food quality, and self-expression. These factors may affect not only the Chinese tourists dining in Malaysia’s Chinese restaurants but also in other destinations which serve Chinese food. It is consistent with Cohen and Avieli (2004) who mentioned that while tourists feel excited about the pleasuresof new experiences in their travel, they may worry about some elements of the destinations such as health risks and availability of safe, edible, and palatable food and beverage. An unpleasant experience of food and beverage may influence the perception of the service quality of the tourism destinations. According to Kivela and Crotts (2009), the destination’s quality of gastronomycontributes positively to the visitors’ perceptions of the destination and oftheir travel experiences.Richards (2002) also pointed out that tourists regularlychoose what to experience at the destination by carefully selecting a particularrestaurant and/or the food that might fulfill a specific gastronomic desire or personalneed. Spradley and Philips (1972)suggested that if there are cultural differences in food, language, cleanliness,pace of life, recreation, standard of living, transportation,humor, intimacy, privacy, etiquette and formality between the tourist and the host, the tourist might be stressful even if he/she has clear goals such as relaxationor viewing specific scenery.Therefore, if the food services or restaurants in a destination can add to the positive experiences of tourists, the perception of the destination’s service quality is more likely to be enhanced. Therefore, this study can give insight to destinations marketers to have a better understanding of Chinese physical desires and psychological needs regarding the attributes of restaurants. Consequently,satisfaction with the service quality of the destination through the settings of restaurants can be achieved. Furthermore, the scale can be applied for other ethnic groups whose choice of restaurants is based on their preference for their own local food such as Japanese tourists in Japanese restaurants all around the world or Arab tourists served in Arabian restaurants in different
Based on the results of the study, the following model can be suggested for the determinant of Chinese restaurants’ service quality in Malaysia (Figure 2).
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destinations. This can contribute to test the reliability of the scale for other ethnic groups as well.
UniversitiSains Malaysia for granting the Research University Grant called Sustainable Tourism Cluster [Grant No. 1001/PTS/8660011] that made this study and paper possible.
Acknowledgement: The authors would like to extend their appreciation to
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