A Geospatial Perspective on the Factors Influencing Tourist Dining Satisfaction

Comprehending the elements that shape tourist dining satisfaction is pivotal for refining the travel encounter and boosting the prospects of repeat visits. Whereas previous studies predominantly concentrated on the intrinsic attributes of the cuisine and eateries, alongside the personal factors of the tourists, they overlooked the influence of the restaurant’s external spatial features on the dining experience. Leveraging social sensing theory and harnessing geotagged Weibo data, our research delves into the dining activity spaces within Suzhou City. By meticulously analyzing these areas, we derived spatial characteristic indices spanning three facets—tourists, food and dining establishments, and the surrounding environment. This enabled us to scrutinize how spatial dynamics interact with dining experiences among Suzhou local, short-haul, and long-haul tourists. Our findings reveal that the environmental aspects of these activity spaces significantly impact the dining satisfaction of tourists traveling short and long distances. This geospatial perspective inaugurates a novel avenue for exploration in tourism and gastronomy research.