ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on consumer behaviour in the hospitality industry, and in particular on the concept of consumer choice. It advocates a more prosaic view of these two concepts, suggesting that continuity, rather than change, is the hallmark of consumer behaviour in the sector and that changes in such behaviour are slow and incremental. At its best, the subject 'consumer behaviour' seeks to systematically combine knowledge from disciplines including psychology, sociology and economics in pursuit of understanding why people choose to purchase a particular good or service from among available alternatives. Food is everywhere – in our newspapers, magazines, on television, online and visible on the streets of our towns and cities. Research on how consumers select restaurants has tended to focus on eliciting and ranking the role of variables in the choice of restaurant given a number of alternative scenarios.
