Restaurants Health Measures and Customers’ Dining Preferences during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Egypt and Jordan

Abstract

The influences of COVID-19 on dining activities varied from a country to country. The influences included a wide array of impacts, starting from the complete shutdown of restaurants dining-in to only adopt strict new norms to re-open. Researchers around the globe afforded trials to explore customers’ post COVID- 19 preferences. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) pointed to existing differences between people, afforded a justification for this, and pointed to the necessity of differentiation between nations during pandemics and the lavish increase in health risks. This added importance to this research, as it investigated new geographical areas, and compared between two countries, i.e., Jordan and Egypt. These two countries were selected, as they were considered as examples for key tourism destinations in the middle east, they host two of the seven wonders of the world, and there was no evidence that previous research tried to bridge this gap of knowledge in this geographical area. The research aimed to investigate the influences of geographical boundaries on customers’ dining preferences and its related health practices with an implication on Egypt & Jordan in the post COVID-19 world. This aim was achieved via answering research questions. Stratified and snowballing sampling technics were used to generate 411 valid online survey forms. Statistical tools were used to analyze the collected data. A list of recommendations was developed for restaurateurs to help in handling the customer's preferences in the post COVID-19 era. The research findings will help in understanding dining industry customers’ priorities, perceptions, and intentions. It also will contribute in developing restauranteurs performance to attract customers, and to handle their fears at different geographical regions.