Foreign food consumption as an extraordinary experience

The purpose of this research is to explore theperceived value of extraordinary experience and compare it with an ordinary onein the context of food consumption. We examine how Japanese and Thai peopleperceive local ordinary food and foreign extraordinary food. We used aperceived value scale and past experience for independent variables andcustomers’ general attitudes for dependent variable. We collect survey data in Japan and Thailand andconduct analyses by PLS-SEM. Five factors are extracted as elements of perceived value. The most influential factor ofJapanese attitudes toward local food is conditionalvalue , followed by emotional andepistemic value and menu variety .Conversely, value for money is theonly factor that affects Thai customers’ attitudes. In the case of foreign food, Japanese respondents aremost affected by emotional and epistemic value , followed by functionalvalue (quality) , and menu variety . Past experience has a significantnegative effect on consumers’ attitude. For Thai respondents, emotional and epistemic value is themost influential factor, followed by functionalvalue (value for money) , and pastexperience . We found significant differences of perceived value of localfood and foreign foods.