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Experience
Experience economy in ethnic economy in
cuisine: a case of Chengdu cuisine ethnic cuisine
Ivan K.W. Lai
Faculty of International Tourism and Management,
City University of Macau, Taipa, Macau
Dong Lu Received 11 August 2018
School of Business, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China, and Revised 27 February 2019
Accepted 16 April 2019
Yide Liu
School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau

Abstract
Purpose – The concept of experience economy states that customers seek experiences whether from
products and services. Tourism is at the forefront of the experience economy because tourists are looking for
staged experience encompassing the four realms (entertainment, educational, esthetic and escapism).
The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the effects of the experience economy on tourists’
word-of-mouth (WOM) in Chengdu cuisine through satisfaction and memory.
Design/methodology/approach – In total, 397 valid data were collected from the tourists who have
experienced the ethnic cuisine in Chengdu. A partial least-square structural equation modeling technique was
used to examine the research model.
Findings – The empirical results indicated that esthetic is the antecedent of the other three realms of
experience economy; esthetic, educational and entertainment experiences influence satisfaction; four realms of
experience economy influence memory; and satisfaction and memory ultimately influence WOM.
Practical implications – The findings of this study provide practical implications for operators of ethnic
restaurants in designing their restaurants and menus, travel agencies in planning the tour itinerary and
governments in using ethnic cuisine for destination marketing.
Originality/value – This study is a pioneer in studying the experience economy in the ethnic cuisine. It has
identified the relationships between four dimensions of experience economy of ethnic cuisine, tourist
satisfaction, memory and WOM toward ethnic cuisine in a tourist destination. It has also integrated the senses
of Chinese cuisine (“sight,” “smell” and “taste”) into the measures of esthetic experience for studying
experience economy in ethnic cuisine.
Keywords Satisfaction, Word-of-mouth, Memory, Ethnic food, Experience economy, Culinary tourism
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
About 20 years ago, Pine and Gilmore (1998) stated that as goods and services become
commoditized, the customer experiences that companies create will matter most. Therefore,
Pine and Gilmore (1999) claimed that developed countries were moving from a service
economy to an experience economy. Among the service industries, tourism relies on
delivering experiences (Quan and Wang, 2004) which tourists are seeking for at travel
destinations (Sternberg, 1997). Although there are much tourism research in tourists’
experience (Wearing and Foley, 2017; Zatori et al., 2018), little research on experience
economy has been reported (Chang, 2018). Experience economy theory provides a rich
content in explaining the construction of experience phenomenon, since tourist experience at
a destination will affect tourist behaviors toward the destination (Lin and Kuo, 2016), there
is a need to explore more about experience economy in different sectors in the tourism area.

This work was supported in part by the Humanity and Social Science Found Program of Ministry of British Food Journal
Education of China under Grant 18YJA630070 and the Sichuan Science and Technology Support © Emerald Publishing Limited
0007-070X
Project under Grant 2018ZR0124. DOI 10.1108/BFJ-08-2018-0517
BFJ Previous studies on experience economy in tourism include measurement of the experience
economy of lodging (Oh et al., 2007), film festival participants (Park et al., 2010), rural tourism
(Loureiro, 2014) and temple stays (Song et al., 2015). Tourists may generally have experience
on transportation, accommodation (hotels), catering ( food and beverage), entertainment
(shopping) and attractions (sightseeing) activities in a destination (Mok et al., 2013). Among
these activities, food is a motivation for tourism (Tikkanen, 2007). Many destinations are using
food identity to attract tourists (Lin et al., 2011), especially for ethnic tourism since tourists can
only taste the original ethnic cuisine in the destination. As every local cuisine manifests a
destination’s intangible inheritance (Okumus et al., 2007), experiencing the local cuisine is an
effective way for tourists to understand local culture of a destination (Kim et al., 2009). Tasting
ethnic cuisine is one of the motivations for tourists to choose ethnic tourism. Therefore, to
develop ethnic tourism, it is essential to understand the influence of experience economy of
ethnic cuisine on tourists’ behavior in ethnic tourism. However, there is a lack of studies in the
experience economy of ethnic cuisine.
tom Dieck et al. (2018) applied “satisfaction” and “memory” to assess tourists’ experience
from the perspective of experience economy. Since experience is a source of satisfaction
(Stasiak, 2013) and an optimal experience should lead to enhanced memories (Pine and Gilmore,
1998), so satisfaction and memory can be used as direct evaluations of the experience. When a
tourist is satisfied with the experience and the experience stays in his/her memory, both
satisfaction and memory may influence his or her behavior intention to provide positive word-
of-mouth (WOM) communication. Knowing the mechanism in generating WOM
recommendations is important because WOM influences travelers’ selection of destination.
Therefore, the research question of the study is “how the experience economy of ethnic cuisine
can influence tourists’ WOM through satisfaction and memory?” Since experience comprises of
four realms (entertainment, educational, esthetic and escapism) (Pine and Gilmore, 1998), this
study attempts to investigate the relationships between four realms of experience economy of
ethnic cuisine, tourist satisfaction, memory and WOM toward ethnic cuisine in a tourist
destination. To achieve this objective, the measurement scale for the four realms of experience
economy of ethnic cuisine is revised with reference to previous experience economy studies.
This study extends our knowledge by showing how the theory of experience economy applied
in studying tourism management in the context of ethnic cuisine in a destination. The findings
of this study also provide practical implications for operators of ethnic restaurants, travel
agencies and governments in identifying experiences that enhance tourists’ satisfaction,
memory and WOM for ethnic cuisine in tourist destinations. Operators of ethnic restaurants,
travel agencies and government may therefore improve their restaurants and menus, itineraries
and ethnic tourism promotion strategies, respectively.

Literature review
Ethnic tourism and ethnic cuisine
Smith (1977) first defined “ethnic tourism” as tourism “marketed to the public in terms of the
‘quaint’ customs of indigenous and often exotic peoples” (p. 2). Greenwood (1982) argued that
ethnic tourism involves the first-hand experience with the practice of another culture to provide
tourists with more “intimate” and “authentic” experience. Therefore, ethnic tourism is a tourism
motivated by a tourist’s search for exotic cultural experiences, including visiting ethnic villages,
minority homes and ethnic theme parks, being involved in ethnic events and festivals, watching
traditional dances or ceremonies, or merely shopping for ethnic handicrafts and souvenirs (Yang
et al., 2008). Many studies have been conducted on the area of ethnic tourism (McClinchey, 2008;
Yang and Wall, 2009). However, ethnic tourism also encompasses activities focused on tasting
distinctive foods in the region (Littrell et al., 2004), with few studies on ethnic cuisine are rare.
Ethnic cuisine helps customers obtain authentic cultural experiences (Okumus et al., 2007).
However, the range of ethnic food served in ethnic restaurants in foreign countries is usually
limited to a selection of “iconic dishes” to some extent transformed from the original (Cohen and Experience
Avieli, 2004). People can only enjoy wide range of the “original” ethnic cuisine in the original economy in
destination. Therefore, ethnic cuisine is utilized as a mean to market a destination effectively ethnic cuisine
(Rand et al., 2003). Some studies have been conducted to understand the role of local food in
destination marketing (Guan and Jones, 2015). However, studies in how experience of ethnic
cuisine influences tourists’ behavior are few.

Experience economy
Pine and Gilmore (1998) proposed that experience economy is a contemporary economic
progression after agrarian economy, industrial economy and service economy. They
explained that experiences are events that engage individuals in different levels and forms
of involvement in business processes. Consumers seek unique experiences beyond merely
consuming products and services. Therefore, businesses need to shift their paradigm from
the “delivery-focused” service economy that emphasizes high-quality offerings to the
“staged” experience economy that creates a memorable consumption experience (Pine and
Gilmore, 1999). This memorable consumption experience gives an added value to a product
or service (Caru and Cova, 2003). Therefore, in experience economy, businesses should know
how to enhance customer experience to benefit customers and themselves.
Pine and Gilmore (1998) divided experiences into four broad categories based on two
dimensions (customer participation and connection) as shown in Figure 1. They are
“entertainment experience,” “educational experience,” “escapism experience” and “esthetic
experience.” Watching movie is an entertainment experience with passive participation and
absorptive connection. Yoga is an educational experience with not only absorptive
connection but also active involvement. Sightseeing is an escapism experience activity with
active involvement and greater immersion. Visiting museum is an esthetic experience with
passive involvement but greater immersion. People may concurrently have these four
realms of experience during a single event, such as visiting Disney World.
Because tourism primarily sells a “staged” experience (Sternberg, 1997), the concept of
experience economy was sporadically adapted in tourism research. In 2007, Oh et al. (2007)
developed a measurement scale and empirically evaluated the effects of four experiential

Absorption

Entertainment Education

Passive Active
Participation Participation

Esthetic Escapism

Figure 1.
Immersion Four realms
of experience
Source: Adapted from Pine and Gilmore (1998)
BFJ realms on four theoretically justifiable nomological consequences (arousal, memory, overall
quality and satisfaction) in bed and breakfast (B&B) facilities in Midwestern USA. Their
results provided evidence that the concept of four realms of experience can be used as a
practical tool to measure their relationships with plausible consequences of tourist experiences.
Later, Park et al. (2010), Loureiro (2014) and others applied Oh et al.’s (2007) measurement scale
to examine the effects of experience economy on different consequences in different tourism
areas in different countries. Most of the studies considered the four realms of experience
independently affect the consequences of experience except tom Dieck et al. (2018) recently
indicated that esthetic experience is the antecedent of other three realms. When dining in an
ethnic cuisine at a destination, tourists learn something new about ethnic food and culture
through educational experience, enjoy the food and atmosphere through entertainment
experience and feel in a different place through escapism experience. Therefore, the esthetic
experience that a tourist enjoyed through different human senses (sight, smell and taste) of an
ethnic cuisine may affect his or her educational (desire to learn), entertainment (desire to enjoy)
and escapism (desire to be there) experiences in the ethnic cuisine at a destination:
H1a. A tourist’s esthetic experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his/her
educational experience with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
H1b. A tourist’s esthetic experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his/her
entertaining experience with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
H1c. A tourist’s esthetic experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his/her
escapism experience with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
Table I summarizes the details of experience economy research in tourism and shows
that no study was taken in ethnic cuisine at a destination although ethnic cuisine is an
essential element of ethnic tourism. Also, there is no study conducted in China, one of the most
visited countries in the world according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2018).

Satisfaction, memory and word-of-mouth

Satisfaction is a state of being pleasant (Oliver, 2010). Hunt et al. (2006) suggested that
satisfaction is an evaluation of the experience. Tourism activities provide psychic benefits,
such as fun and relaxation. The outcomes of tourism activities are better evaluated in terms of
experiential psychological abstractions (Huang and Hsu, 2010). Therefore, tourist satisfaction
is a tourist’s emotional state after experiencing the trip (Baker and Crompton, 2000). Ren et al.
(2016) found that customer experience with budget hotels influence customer satisfaction.
Thus, the quality of experience in tourism is considered as an antecedent to tourist satisfaction
(Chen and Chen, 2010). If a tourist obtains a better experience during the visit, he/she will be
more satisfied with the trip. In this study, a tourist’s satisfaction with ethnic cuisine is a
tourist’s emotional state after experiencing the ethnic cuisine in a destination.
Previous studies in experience economy have indicated that different dimensions of
experience economy influence the tourists’ satisfaction in different tourism contexts (tom
Dieck et al., 2018; Mehmetoglu and Engen, 2011). Then, a tourist who has a good experience
(encompassed the four realms) with ethnic cuisine in a destination may be satisfied with this
experience with ethnic cuisine in that destination:
H2a. A tourist’s esthetic experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or her
satisfaction with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
H2b. A tourist’s educational experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or
her satisfaction with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
H2c. A tourist’s entertaining experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or
her satisfaction with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
Author(s) Context Country Sample Analysis Findings

Oh et al. (2007) Bed and breakfast Midwestern, USA 419 LISREL Esthetic → arousal, memory, overall quality, satisfaction
facilities Education → arousal
Entertainment → arousal
Hosany and Cruise vacation Singapore → Hong 169 SEM Esthetic, education → memory
Witham (2010) Kong Esthetic, education, entertainment → arousal
Esthetic, education, entertainment, escapism → perceived quality
Esthetic, entertainment → satisfaction
Esthetic, entertainment, satisfaction → intention to recommend
Park et al. (2010) Film festival Korea 420 SEM Esthetic, education, entertainment → escapism
Esthetic, education, entertainment → satisfaction
Escapism, satisfaction → behavioral intention
Mehmetoglu Festival, museum Norway 75, 117 PLSPM + Model 1 ( festival): esthetic → satisfaction
and Engen (2011) XLSTAT Model 2 (museum): esthetic, education → satisfaction
Ali et al. (2014) Resort hotels Malaysia 450 SmartPLS Esthetic, education, entertainment, escapism → memories
Esthetic, education, entertainment, escapism → customer loyalty
Memories → customer loyalty
Loureiro (2014) Rural tourism Alentejo, South 222 PLS Rural experience economy → pleasant arousal, memory
Portugal Pleasant arousal → memory
Pleasant arousal, memory → place attachment
Place attachment, pleasant arousal, memory → intentions
Manthiou Festival Iowa, USA 338 SEM Esthetic, education, entertainment, escapism → vividity of memory
et al. (2014) Esthetic, entertainment → loyalty
Song et al. Temple stays Korea 289 EQS Educational, entertainment, escapism → functional value
(2015) Esthetic, entertainment, escapism → emotional value
Functional value, emotional value → satisfaction
Jung et al. (2016) AR and VR in Museums Cornwall, UK 163 PLS-Graph Social presence → esthetic, education, entertainment, escapism
Esthetic, entertainment, escapism → tour experience
Tour experience → intention to revisit destination
tom Dieck et al. Science festival Manchester, UK 220 SEM Esthetic → education, entertainment, escapism
(2018) Education, entertainment → satisfaction
Education, entertainment, escapism → memory
Satisfaction, memory → visitor engagement
Boo and Busser Resort hotels East Coast, USA 663 SEM Esthetic, entertainment, escapism → perceived performance
(2018) Expectation, perceived performance → confirmation
Perceived performance → satisfaction
Experience

ethnic cuisine
economy in

Table I.

research in tourism
Experience economy
BFJ H2d. A tourist’s escapism experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or
her satisfaction with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
Schacter et al. (1993) referred memory as one’s ability to consciously recollect past events,
behaviors and experiences. Pine and Gilmore (1999) argued that memory means remembering
a particular event. Therefore, the experience is the cause and the memory is the effect
(Manthiou et al., 2014). For tourism research, tourism aims to help people construct stories and
collect memories (Kahneman, 2011). Since a memory is what remains of an event after the
sensory experience occurred (Manthiou et al., 2014), tourists’ experience is a good predictor of
their memories (Ali et al., 2016). Ali et al. (2014) also found that strong memories could revolve
tourists’ experiences around the four realms of the experience economy. As a result, the
experience staged at a destination is likely to result in strong (positive) memories (Oh et al.,
2007). Previous studies have showed different dimensions of experience economy influenced
the tourists’ memory (tom Dieck et al., 2018; Manthiou et al., 2014). If a tourist has a well-staged
experience (encompassed the four realms) with ethnic cuisine in a destination, he/she may
have a good memory associated with ethnic cuisine in a destination:
H3a. A tourist’s esthetic experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or her
memory associated with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
H3b. A tourist’s educational experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or
her memory associated with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
H3c. A tourist’s entertaining experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or
her memory associated with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
H3d. A tourist’s escapism experience with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or
her memory associated with ethnic cuisine in a destination.
WOM is an informal mode of communication between non-commercial parties concerning
the evaluation of products and services (Arndt, 1967). It is one of the most effective
marketing tools to bring new visitors, especially for the case where people who are not very
familiar with the destination (Philips et al., 2013). Since people may not revisit the same
destination in a short period of time due to some reasons, for example, costs (Gartner, 2004),
generating WOM communication becomes an effective measure of visitors’ further behavior
toward a destination after visiting there. Therefore, understanding what influences a tourist
to give positive WOM regarding an ethnic cuisine in a destination is important for
governments to promote a destination, travel agents to recruit customers and ethnic
restaurant operators to improve their image.
In many tourism studies, tourist satisfaction has been found to lead to a positive WOM
regarding a destination (Lai et al., 2018). Choi and Kandampully (2019) have similar findings
in upscale hotels that customers are satisfied with their past hotel stay and are willing to
recommend the hotel to others. In restaurant industry, Kim and Kim (2017) found that
satisfaction has a strong impact on positive WOM intentions for the US casual dining
restaurants. Therefore, during a trip, after experiencing the ethnic cuisine, a satisfied tourist
may be more dedicated to giving positive WOM communication regarding the ethnic cuisine
of the destination:
H4. A tourist’s satisfaction with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or her WOM
communication regarding the ethnic cuisine of the destination.
Many researchers have stated that customer memory is a critical factor affecting customer
behaviors (Bettman, 1979; Fitzgerald, 1988). The positive memory will shape tourists’
subsequent attitudinal evaluations (Oh et al., 2007). Therefore, memory is a predictor of positive
behavioral intention, e.g. WOM recommendation (Ali et al., 2016). WOM communications are
often in the form of a story (Delgadillo and Escalas, 2004). A good memory of service Experience
experienced can record the story for WOM communications. A tourist who has memorized a economy in
good ethnic cuisine experience may be willing to provide positive WOM communication ethnic cuisine
regarding the ethnic cuisine of the destination:
H5. A tourist’s memory associated with ethnic cuisine has a positive effect on his or her
WOM communication regarding the ethnic cuisine of the destination.
By referring above hypotheses, Figure 2 shows the research model of this study.

Research method
Questionnaire survey and measurement
A self-report questionnaire was used to empirically test the proposed research model.
The instruments of the survey were developed based on previous studies for adopting the
research setting. A pre-test was conducted with 30 tourists to obtain feedback on the
measurable items in April 2018. Subsequently, some measurable items were revised
according to the feedback from the respondents. The revised questionnaire was checked by
three professors of tourism to confirm its content validity.
Referring to Boo and Busser (2018), operational definitions of the four realms of
experience economy are as follows: esthetics (tourists’ passive immersion experience of an
ethnic cuisine); educational (tourists’ active absorption experience of an ethnic cuisine);
escapism (tourists’ active immersion experience of an ethnic cuisine); and entertainment
(tourists’ passive absorption experience of an ethnic cuisine). The measurable items of the
four realms of experience economy were extended from Oh et al. (2007) and Hosany and
Witham (2010). Since an ethnic cuisine is an esthetic art that consists of “sight,” “smell” and
“taste”, the measurable items for esthetic experience were revised accordingly.
The measurable items for satisfaction, memory and WOM communication were referred
to Song et al. (2015), Oh et al. (2007) and Babin et al. (2005), respectively.

Research site
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province and a historical city which was renowned for the
“Southwest Silk Road” during the late Han dynasty (AD 22–220). The total area of Chengdu
is around 4,749 square miles with a population of over 11m. People have lived in Chengdu

Experience Educational
Economy Experience H2b

H2c Satisfaction
H1a
Entertainment H2a H4
Experience
H2d
H1b

H3b Word-of-mouth
Esthetic H3c
Experience H5
H3a
Memory
H1c H3d
Escapism
Experience Figure 2.
Research model
BFJ for almost 4,000 years. Due to its rich history, it becomes a popular tourist city for foreigners
after Beijing and Shanghai. Chengdu is renowned for its giant panda and ethnic cuisine.
If you want to see black and white giant pandas, you need to go to the gardens of the Giant
Panda Breeding Research Base. However, if you want to taste its notable cuisine, you can go
everywhere in the “City of Gastronomy” awarded by the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2010.
There are three categories of Chengdu cuisine: Sichuan cuisine, hotpot and snack
(Travel China Guide, 2019). Sichuan cuisine is famous for piquancy which is seriously spicy
and numbing. The famous dishes include Ma Po Tofu (bean curd with mince and chili oil)
and Kung Pao Chicken (spicy diced chicken with peanuts). Chengdu hotpot has its own style
ranging from simple spicy to serious spicy boiling with fish, chicken, duck, beef, pork and
different vegetables. Tourists can find snack bars offering different local specialties, such as
infamous rabbit heads in the streets and lanes of the city. Therefore, Chengdu is an
appropriate research site for ethnic cuisines.

Questionnaire design and data collection

In total, 430 samples were systematically selected by six research students at ten attraction
points in Chengdu in May 2018. Two filter questions (Are you a visitor? Have you tried
Chengdu cuisine in this trip?) were asked to qualify the respondents for the survey. A
sample was collected every 15 min at every attraction point. Since it was a face-to-face
interviewee-administrated survey, the return rate was 100 percent. A souvenir (around $1)
was given to the respondents as an incentive. In total, 33 samples which were given the
same rating for all the items were removed. There were 34 measurable items for seven
constructs. The valid samples (n ¼ 397) satisfied the minimum required sample size
of the “10-times rule” (Hair et al., 2010). Of the 397 data, 51.5 percent were females.
Table II presents the demographic information of the respondents.

Frequency Percent

Gender
Males 192 48.5
Females 205 51.5
Age
18–25 177 44.58
26–35 139 35.01
36–45 48 12.09
46–55 25 6.30
Over 55 8 2.02
Education (completed)
Secondary 41 10.4
College diploma 114 28.7
Undergraduate 205 51.6
Postgraduate 37 9.3
Income (USD) (monthly)
300 or below 172 43.3
301–450 41 10.3
451–770 77 19.4
771–1200 67 16.9
Table II. 1201–2300 25 6.3
Respondent Over 2300 15 3.8
background Note: n ¼ 397
Empirical results Experience
Construct reliability and validity assessment economy in
Table IV shows the results of the construct reliability and validity assessment. The values ethnic cuisine
of Cronbach’s α range from 0.852 to 0.927 that exceed the recommended standard value
(0.700). All the values of composite reliability are above 0.900 that exceed the acceptable
value of 0.700. Therefore, the construct reliability of the study is considered as “good”
(Hair et al., 2010).
The values of average variance extracted range from 0.623 to 0.825, which are above the
acceptable value of 0.500. The smallest factor loading of all measurable items (ESC1) is 0.733
(see Table III), which is over the acceptable value of 0.700. Thus, these values indicate a good
convergent validity for each construct of the research model (Hair et al., 2010).
As shown in Table IV, the square-root of AVE for each construct is larger than its
inter-construct correlations. Also, no correlation value exceeds 0.800. It suggests the
adequate discriminant validity of all the constructs (Hair et al., 2010).

Results of hypotheses testing

The results of partial least-square structural equation modeling analysis are summarized
in Figure 3. The esthetic experience shows a significant ( p o 0.05) influence on
educational, entertainment and escapism experiences (β ¼ 0.696, 0.644, and 0.417,
respectively). H1a, H1b and H1c are supported. For the satisfaction (R2 ¼ 0.673), the
coefficients for esthetic experience (β ¼ 0.604), educational experience (β ¼ 0.132) and
entertainment experience (β ¼ 0.196) are significant ( p o 0.05). However, the escapism
experience does not show a significant influence on the satisfaction (β ¼ −0.054, p W 0.05).
Therefore, H2a, H2b and H2c are supported but H2d is not supported. For the memory
(R2 ¼ 0.652), the coefficients of four experiential realms (esthetic: β ¼ 0.138, educational:
β ¼ 0.173, entertainment: β ¼ 0.439, escapism: β ¼ 0.196, respectively) are significant
( p o 0.05). Thus, H3a, H3b, H3c and H3d are supported. Finally, for WOM (R2 ¼ 0.549),
the coefficients of satisfaction and memory (β ¼ 0.231 and 0.573, respectively) are
significant ( p o 0.05). Then, H4 and H5 are supported.

Indirect and total effects

For assessing the strengths of four experiential realms on WOM and the mediation effects of
satisfaction and memory, the indirect and total effects are calculated as shown in Table V.
Among the four experiential realms, although esthetic experience shows the weakest direct
effect on memory (0.138), it shows the strongest direct effect on satisfaction (0.604)
(see Table V ), the strongest total effect on memory (0.622) and satisfaction (0.799) and the
strongest indirect effect on WOM (0.541). Entertainment experience has the strongest direct
effect on memory (0.439) and the second strongest direct effect on satisfaction (0.196)
(see Table V ). It also shows the second strongest indirect effect on WOM (0.297).
Educational and escapism experiences show weaker indirect effects on WOM (0.129 and
0.100, respectively).

Discussion and conclusion

This study has achieved its aim to empirically explore the effects of four realms of
experience economy on tourists’ WOM in Chengdu cuisine through satisfaction and
memory. This study has also revised and tested the measurement scale of the four realms of
experience economy in terms of ethnic cuisine setting. The results of this study indicate that
the four realms of experience economy significantly affect memory, three realms of
experience economy significantly affect satisfaction and both satisfaction and memory
BFJ Measurable Factor
item Mean SD loading

Esthetic experience
EST1 The experience of “sighting” the Chengdu cuisine is attractive 5.552 1.365 0.838
EST2 The experience of “smelling” the Chengdu cuisine is pleasant 5.390 1.358 0.795
EST3 The experience of “tasting” the Chengdu cuisine is appreciable 5.491 1.323 0.842
EST4 The experience of “ingredients” of the Chengdu cuisine is in harmony 5.335 1.270 0.825
EST5 The experience of “attention to details” of the Chengdu cuisine 5.458 1.288 0.861
is appreciable
Education experience
EDU1 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine makes me more knowledgeable 5.398 1.368 0.837
EDU2 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine is highly educational 5.406 1.249 0.819
EDU3 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine allows me to learn more 5.458 1.246 0.849
about Chengdu
EDU4 I learn a lot from the experience of the Chengdu cuisine 5.275 1.323 0.838
EDU5 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine stimulates my curiosity to learn 5.065 1.496 0.752
new things
EDU6 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine is a real learning experience 5.123 1.427 0.752
Escapism experience
ESC1 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine allows me to forget my 5.098 1.604 0.733
daily routine
ESC2 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine allows me to have a break 5.184 1.490 0.838
from routine
ESC3 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine gives me a chance to see myself 5.003 1.578 0.765
in a new way
ESC4 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine allows me to feel I played a 4.826 1.577 0.810
different character there
ESC5 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine lets me imaging being 4.559 1.728 0.820
someone else
ESC6 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine allows me completely escaped 5.043 1.541 0.768
from reality
Entertainment experience
ENT1 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine is fun 5.602 1.197 0.853
ENT2 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine is enjoyable 5.607 1.234 0.862
ENT3 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine is entertaining 5.582 1.190 0.857
ENT4 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine is interesting 5.181 1.431 0.816
ENT5 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine is amusing 5.559 1.274 0.870
ENT6 The experience of the Chengdu cuisine is captivating 5.534 1.272 0.881
Satisfaction
CS1 I am happy with the Chengdu cuisine 5.668 1.497 0.805
CS2 The Chengdu cuisine is better than I expected 5.312 1.478 0.843
CS3 I have a good feeling about the Chengdu cuisine 5.589 1.326 0.870
CS4 Overall, I am satisfied with the Chengdu cuisine 5.519 1.350 0.885
Memory
MEM1 I have wonderful memories about the Chengdu cuisine 5.625 1.218 0.827
MEM2 I won’t forget my experience at the Chengdu cuisine 5.688 1.195 0.817
MEM3 I remember many things about the Chengdu cuisine 5.592 1.291 0.856
MEM4 I remember the details of tasting the Chengdu cuisine 5.416 1.262 0.828

Table III. Word-of-mouth

Mean, standard WOM1 I would recommend the Chengdu cuisine to my friends 5.615 1.311 0.924
deviation and PLS WOM2 I would say positive things about the Chengdu cuisine 5.398 1.374 0.885
factor loading WOM3 I would encourage friends and relatives to have the Chengdu cuisine 5.559 1.363 0.915
show positive effects on WOM regarding the ethnic cuisine in the destinations. Experience
These findings will be discussed in the following sections. economy in
ethnic cuisine
Theoretical contributions
This study confirms that esthetic experience is the most important factor in generating
satisfaction (β ¼ 0.604). The ethnic cuisine in Chengdu consists of strong and rich

Cronbach’s α CR AVE EDU ENT ESC EST MEM SAT WOM

Educational experience (EDU) 0.894 0.919 0.654 0.809

Entertainment experience (ENT) 0.927 0.943 0.734 0.673 0.857
Escapism experience (ESC) 0.879 0.908 0.623 0.543 0.576 0.790
Esthetic experience (EST) 0.889 0.919 0.693 0.696 0.644 0.417 0.833
Memory (MEM) 0.852 0.900 0.692 0.671 0.757 0.600 0.622 0.832 Table IV.
Satisfaction (SAT) 0.873 0.913 0.724 0.654 0.642 0.382 0.799 0.632 0.851 Construct reliability
Word-of-mouth (WOM) 0.894 0.934 0.825 0.587 0.662 0.513 0.610 0.719 0.593 0.908 and validity
Notes: AVE, average variance extracted; CR, construct reliable. Italic font indicates square-root of AVE assessment

EDU1 EDU2 EDU3 EDU4 EDU5 EDU6

SAT1 SAT2 SAT3 SAT4

ESC1

ESC2
0.484

ESC3 0.132 (0.028)

0.673
Educational
ESC4 Experience
–0.054 (0.171)
0.231 (0.000)
ESC5 Satisfaction WOM1
0.174
ESC6 0.173 (0.006) 0.549 WOM2
0.696 (0.000)
WOM3
Escapism 0.604 (0.000)
Experience Word-of-mouth
0.196 (0.000) 0.573 (0.000)
0.417 (0.000)
EST1

EST2 0.652
0.138 (0.017)
EST3
0.439 (0.000)
0.644 (0.000) Memory
EST4
Esthetic 0.414
EST5 Experience
MEM1 MEM2 MEM3 MEM4
Entertainment
Experience
Figure 3.
Results of
ENT5 ENT6
ENT1
ENT2 PLS analysis
ENT3 ENT4

EDU ENT ESC MEM SAT Word-of-mouth

Total Total Total Direct Indirect Total Direct Indirect Total Indirect Total

Educational experience (EDU) 0.173 0.132 0.129 0.129

Entertainment experience (ENT) 0.439 0.196 0.297 0.297
Escapism experience (ESC) 0.196 −0.054 0.100 0.100
Esthetic experience (EST) 0.696 0.644 0.417 0.138 0.485 0.622 0.604 0.195 0.799 0.541 0.541 Table V.
Memory (MEM) 0.573 Indirect and
Satisfaction (SAT) 0.231 total effects
BFJ esthetic contents in “sight,” “smell,” “taste,” “ingredients” and “attention to details.”
Tourists enjoy the process of hotpot cooking. They eat and drink and have fun
and entertainment. Tourists also enjoy searching for different snacks on the streets
of Chengdu. They obtain entertainment experience when they are enjoying the foods
in Chengdu. A tourist has a satisfying educational experience only if the tourism
activity with unique and special contents triggers his/her active participation in (learning
it). The Chengdu ethnic cuisine is the one that enables tourists to have a higher level
of the enjoyment of the foods through learning its ingredients, processes, history
and stories.
Comparing the results of this study with five previous studies as shown in Table VI,
only this study has examined the effects of four realms on the tourist satisfaction and
indicates that esthetic, educational and entertainment experiences have significant direct
effects on tourist satisfaction. Indeed, most of the tourism activities can provide a
satisfying esthetic experience. However, those tourism activities such as cruise vacation
which do not necessarily involve active participation will not result in a satisfying
educational experience. On the other hand, those tourism activities such as B&B facilities
which do not necessary to be immersed in will not generate a satisfying entertainment
experience. This study has filled the gap by demonstrating in what situation a tourism
setting can provide satisfying esthetic, entertainment and educational experiences.
However, no study (include this study) has shown how to obtain a satisfying escapism
experience. Therefore, further research in another setting is recommended to investigate
this limitation.
This study confirms that the four realms of experience have significant effects on
memory. However, comparing their path coefficients on satisfaction, the effects of four
realms of experience on memory are quite different from the effects on satisfaction
(see Table V ). Esthetic experience shows the highest direct influence on satisfaction
(β ¼ 0.604). These results indicate that passive immersion experience plays a leading role
in generating satisfaction. It is because esthetic experience provides an immediate
immersion that leads tourists to have a concurrent feeling of satisfaction when
experiencing the ethnic foods. Entertainment experience has the highest coefficient of
memory (β ¼ 0.439). Therefore, passive absorption experience is important for the creation
of memory. This emotional feeling is fast but not long-lasting as the “absorptive things”
generated from the entertainment experience. Chengdu ethnic cuisine provides tourists
with fun and enjoyment keeping in memory that can be recalled even after a long period of
time. Therefore, entertainment experience is a major direct source in constructing a
memory of the ethnic cuisine in Chengdu. To conclude, regardless of which connection
spectrum, passive participation is the most important for influencing tourists’ behaviors
in terms of satisfaction and memory.

Author(s) Setting Esthetic Education Entertainment Escapism

Oh et al. (2007) Bed and breakfast facilities x

Hosany and Witham Cruise vacation x x
(2010)
Park et al. (2010) Film festival x x x Not tested
Mehmetoglu and Festival x
Table VI. Engen (2011)
Effects of four Museum x x
experiential realms tom Dieck et al. (2018) Science festival Not tested x x
on satisfaction This study Ethnic cuisine x x x
Most previous studies emphasized that satisfaction is the major source of WOM Experience
recommendation (Zhang et al., 2015). However, this study highlights the importance of economy in
memory for tourists when generating WOM recommendation ( βmemory ¼ 0.573, ethnic cuisine
βsatisfaction ¼ 0.231). If tourists can remember the details of the ethnic cuisine that they have
tasted in Chengdu, they can fluently tell others the content of the Chengdu cuisine including
different types of spices used (garlic, chili peppers, ginger and star anise). Other than
describing the “sight,” “smell” and “taste” of the Chengdu cuisine, they even can tell others the
flow of food and the process of cooking. Some may even tell you the story behind Ma Po Tofu.
Therefore, memory is the information source for storytelling. With a rich memory, the content
of the stories of Chengdu cuisine will be more solid, interesting and amazing. Then, the
content of WOM communication will be more believable. That is, in this setting of the tourism
study, memory takes a more important role in generating WOM communication by
comparing with tourist satisfaction. However, more studies are recommended to further
confirm the role of memory in generating WOM communication in other tourism settings.
For measuring esthetic experience, this study integrates the senses of Chinese cuisine
(“sight,” “smell” and “taste”) into the elements of esthetic experience (attractive, pleasant and
appreciable) to provide more meaningful and adaptive measures for respondents to link up
the research setting with established questions. This study shows that the measurable items
for esthetic experience should be more specific to reflect characteristics of the subject of the
study compared with the other three realms of experience. Thus, researchers should
integrate the characters of the research setting into the established measurable items of
experience economy in further studies.

Practical implications
Two passive experiences (esthetic and entertainment) are playing a leading role in
generating satisfaction and memory. The local restaurants can actively theme these two
experiences to reflect the characteristics of local culture in a concise and compelling manner.
Esthetic experience is the initial source of the experience economy. Esthetic elements of
ethnic cuisine are the art of the cuisine that stimulates human senses to accompany other
three realms of experience for effectively engaging customers in the memorizing process.
The local restaurants operators should pay attention to designing the passive experiences,
from interior décor to food ingredients and from waiters’ dressing to tourists’ dining
process. For the interior décor design, the “red” lampshades make the dishes presenting a
fresh color of meat. For food ingredients, the “green” peppers augment the scent of the foods
and stimulate the taste with “red” chilies. For the waiters’ dressing, the identifiable dressing
comprising several colorful ethnic components propagate a harmonic style with a serving
cuisine culture. For the dining process, the sound of “puffs” from the churning hotpot makes
customers have a feeling of Chengdu’s enthusiasm. The aspects of sight, smell, taste and
hear together embody the spicy features of Chengdu cuisine.
Tourists are interested in local foods which are different from their home cities.
Therefore, ethnic cuisine is commonly used as an effective tool for destination marketing.
When promoting the ethnic cuisine, the local government, travel agencies and tour guides
can promote the educational experience (as well as other realms of experience) through
educating tourists the knowledge of the ethnic cuisine, such as food ingredients,
characteristics, processing and its history. By having more knowledge of the local foods,
tourists would be more satisfied with and memorized the experience.
When planning the tour itineraries, the travel agencies should arrange the ethnic cuisine,
such as hotpot, that forces tourists to actively participate and immersing in the cooking
process for memorable escapism experience. Furthermore, travel agencies can
systematically combine tourism activities for tourists to have all of the four realms of
experience economy in every tour.
BFJ Limitations and further studies
Different researchers have tested different consequences of the four realms of experience
economy in different research settings as shown in Table I. This study only aims to examine
the effects of four experiential realms on satisfaction and memory that ultimately influence
tourists’ WOM communication regarding the ethnic cuisine in Chengdu. This study does not
try to compare which research models provide a better explanation of the outcome of
experience economy. Researchers may try to find the interrelationship among variables
(e.g. perceived values) in further studies.
Among all tourism activities, gaming (or gambling) activity is the one which enables
tourists to escape from routine and stressful environments. Researchers can test whether
tourists can obtain a satisfying escapism experience in gaming tourism.

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About the authors
Ivan K.W. Lai is Professor in the Faculty of International Tourism and Management at the City
University of Macau. He has published research papers in various journals such as Tourism
Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, Journal of
Travel and Tourism Marketing, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Current Issues in Tourism, International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and International Journal of Hospitality
Management. His current research focuses on research methods for hospitality and tourism studies.
Dong Lu is Associate Professor in the School of Business at the Sichuan Normal University. He
received MS and PhD degrees from Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China in 2003 and 2009.
He has published research papers in various journals such as Sustainability and Knowledge-Based
Systems. His research interests include collaborative consumption and internet marketing.
Yide Liu is Associate Professor at Macau University of Science and Technology. His main
research topics include social media, word-of-mouth and end-user satisfaction. His recent
contributions have been published in Sustainability, International Journal of Distributed Sensor
Networks and Sensors. He has consulted for the Gezhou Dam Water Conservancy and Hydropower
Project Group in China on projects related to the digital divide, ICT capacity building and the
development of the Business Intelligence System. Yide Liu is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: [email protected]

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