The Role of Familiness and Cultural Heritage in Touristic Family-Owned Restaurants of Juarez, Mexico

This paper examines the way in which the duo familiness-cultural heritage impulses competitiveness and positioning of family-owned touristic restaurants in the border city of Juarez, Mexico as perceived by owners/managers. Familiness is an elusive concept whose anatomy and nature remain not well understood. On the other hand, cultural heritage is an attribute that is very appreciated by tourist. The tourism is a complex activity in which living an experience is becoming an essential element for a destination. Precisely, the family-owned restaurants possessing familiness and cultural heritage have the potential of attracting tourism because they have the potential of offering tourist of being part of a family. The objective of this work is to evaluate the importance of familiness and cultural heritage in touristic restaurants as perceived by owners/managers. From a qualitative perspective, 20 in-depth interviews were conducted to a similar number of restaurant owners/managers over ten dimensions: history or heritage, ownership, consumer as family, labor, symbolic values, physical resources, name, business pride, intellectual capital, and continuity and expansion. The results show that the reinforcement of familiness and cultural heritage is being recognized as a profitable strategy to attract new customers and to promote repeated visits. In addition, owners/managers showed a high degree of pride in being a family business.