ABSTRACT
Several recent studies have considered restaurant consumers’ holistic interpretation of the dining experience based on the physical environment (Ryu and Han 2011), atmospherics (Liu and Jang 2009) and servicescape (Kim and Moon 2009). Generally, the dining atmosphere or environment has been divided into several key components: facility aesthetics, ambience, lighting and layout. These elements add to the attractiveness of a dining environment and can influence consumer traffic to a restaurant (Ryu and Han 2010). Of particular interest in the current study is the ambience element and its impact on consumer responses. Ambience comprises several intangible background characteristics for the consumer, which are generally non-visual in nature. Earlier study has shown a strong connection between ambient conditions and perceptions of service quality (Kim and Moon 2009). Examples of ambience elements include sounds, music, scents and temperature.
