Interruption of an immersive experience in an ethnic restaurant

The service industry has evolved towards experience immersion, representing a viable strategy for long-term sustainability of food service – one of the top five industries providing the highest employment across Canada. This topic is explored from two perspectives, (1) the context of ethnically-themed restaurant operations, and (2) cognition as related to the attention of diners to aspects of their restaurant experience and effects of distraction on these attentional processes. This study investigates whether distraction by personal electronic devices (PEDs) reduces diners’ attention to their experience. The hypothesis was tested across two interrelated studies. Study One is comprised of qualitative work to develop a bank of questionnaire items that assess the range of content and a scaling model for the dependent variables assessing diners’ attention. Study Two investigates the dimensionality of the items comprising the dependent measures. Results suggest that, rather than a distraction, PED usage might enhance diners’ sensory immersive experience.