Customers choose a Michelin-starred restaurant experience based on satisfaction, not on "likes" on social media

According to a study published in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, consumers of luxury restaurants highly value two factors: owning a renowned chef and employing innovative techniques. The study involved Natalia Daries, Eduard Cristóbal-Fransi, and Estela Mariné-Roig from the Department of Economics and Business at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Tourism of Universitat de Lleida, along with Javier Sánchez García from the Department of Business Administration and Marketing at Universitat Jaume I of Castellón.

These findings support the theory that customers seek satisfaction during the experience, and that status and acceptance from others are not the main reasons for the visit. Thus, with the recommendations of a satisfied public, the restaurant becomes a significant tourist attraction. Furthermore, the role of the clientele has also changed, now becoming part of the promotion process through their critiques, recommendations, and social media posts.

For the analysis, 1,500 surveys were conducted with customers who, over the past two years, had visited Spanish restaurants included in the Michelin Guide located outside their city of residence or on the outskirts, within a 50-kilometer radius. In the first part of the survey, demographic questions were asked, and in the second part, questions were asked about the behavior acquired during the restaurant visit, such as satisfaction levels with textures, ambiance, presentation, whether they would recommend the visit to their followers, whether they would revisit the destination, etc.

The research aimed to determine whether customers truly enjoy their gastronomic experiences or if they visit Michelin restaurants to gain status and acceptance on social media, as indicated in previous studies. To do this, the research team used two methods of analyzing survey results based on the causes and relationships of responses, whose combination establishes that the satisfaction variable carries more weight than others. In numerical values, the response related to satisfaction was chosen three times more often than the response linked to status.

Moreover, the review of results demonstrates that the popularity of the chef and innovative techniques are the two factors that have most increased customer satisfaction and, therefore, the restaurant's performance. It is also noteworthy that customers with lower income levels, who consequently make a greater effort to dine at the restaurant, recommend the destination more.

In the conclusions, the research team emphasized that visits to luxury restaurants benefit the destination and that the restaurant can become a dominant element in the strategic planning of the tourist destination. Additionally, they highlight that Michelin-starred restaurants should be considered resources capable of attracting tourist profiles of great interest to destinations, leaving open as a possible future research whether the gastronomic experience provides a strong enough motivation to influence the choice of tourist destination.

The study "Revalorización de los destinos a través de los aspectos semióticos de la imagen gastronómica y los contenidos generados por los turistas" [Revaluation of destinations through the semiotic aspects of gastronomic image and the contents generated by tourists] has been funded through the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism by the European Union - Next Generation EU, within the GASTROTUR project [Grant Id. TUR-RETOS2022-017].