Travel Dining Experiencescape: A Comparative Evaluation of Dining Experiences in Restaurants and P2P Dining

Abstract

The emergence of P2P dining services has fundamentally altered consumer experiences in tourism gastronomy. Despite an increase in experience-related research in the sharing economy, existing literature focuses almost exclusively on P2P accommodation, with an obvious neglect of P2P dining. The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of experiential consumption underlying restaurants and P2P dining services. A survey of 640 international travelers who dined in restaurants or P2P dining facilities in South Africa, reveals that P2P dining outperformed restaurants in several domains in the provision of most experience dimensions. The study demonstrates that the dimensions of ethical consumerism and hospitableness represent valuable additions to Pine and Gilmore’s original experience economy construct. The study points out the necessity to create an expansive experiential proposition that goes beyond Pine and Gilmore’s original experience economy construct (e.g., storytelling) to evoke positive emotions and subsequent behavioral intentions for travelers.