Questions                                                                                                                                                                                              Åsa Halleröd
1 When you are on holliday/travelling, how often do you usually go out eating?
2  Do you find it easy to find a restaurant in your taste? Why/why not?
3 Do you usually have a good food experience when you are out travelling? Why/Why not?
4 How do you usually find a place to eat that will meet your expetations?
5 Please, tell me about how you found good restaurants last time you were travelling....(problems? solutions? happy with the solutions etc...)
6 If you had any problems, how did you solve them?

Answers from person 1. (Swedish, male age 50+).
1 About 50 % of the meals.
2 No, it´s not easy. The recommendations at Tripadvisor doesn´t work so well. Many times places that that you don´t like yourself are recommended, so I usually ask local people or ask at the hotel. Not always that works either, but better than Tripadvisor and I get the kind of food or quality that I´m looking for.
3 Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The majority of times are good.
4 I use Tripadvisor and google and ask local people. It´s not always easy to interpret the recommendations at Tripadvisor. Also you have to be lucky to find the perfect place by google. One exception was the tapas tours in Nerja that was just perfect!
5 Tripadvisor + chance. The recommendation was a perfect match. I searched for comments in italian (locals) and best restaurent and it worked that time.
6 The recommendations with tripadvisor are often made by tourist and not locals thats why they usually doesn´t corresponds to my expetations.

Answers from person 2. (swedish, female, age 40+)
1 Every day.
2 Most of the time because i have learned asking questions in a concrete way to local people by explaining exactly what I´m looking for.
3 Yes, almost all the time. I guess it is a result of my questions and our approach. If you are nice as a customer it usually means that you´ll get good service.
4 I google place + recommendations or ask local people.
5 See number 4. Many times I google reataurents I´ve been to afterwards and find most of the time that the recommendations doesn´t correspond with my opinion.
6 I am happy with the solutions. You have to make mistakes sometimes. Difficult to follow recommendations because it all depends on your taste and the total experience.

Answers from person 3. (swedish, female, age 45+)
1 25%
2 No. Many destinations is focused on one target group that doesn´t correspondent to what I´m looking for. For example if I´m in Spain, I´m not looking for a ”stekhouse”.
3 I have learned over the years so I eat more at home instead of at a restaurant. When I eat out I really put a lot of energy to find the right place at Tripadvisor. I always go to the hairdesser and ask them for recommendations.
4 See above. And also social media. I always check the menu.
5 The hairdresser- works just fine! And I can as well cook my own food at home instead of paying more money for food that I could have prepared better my self.
6 I am aware of that some places will not satisfy me but I go there anyway because I need to eat.

                                       

Name: Astrid

Gender: Female

Age: 24

Nationality: Norwegian

1. I usually go out to eat every day, when I am on vacation. It usually depends of my accommodation. If I have rented an apartment, I would probably eat some of the meals there, and the other meals on a restaurant. If I stay at a hotel, I suppose I would eat all the meals on restaurants.

 2. I usually find it most easy to use the Tripadvisor app/Internet page, when choosing restaurants abroad. The app/internet page is very straight forward, and “user friendly” in my opinion. So I guess that my answer to this question will be Yes, I find it easy to find a restaurant I my taste.

 3. Before I discovered Tripadvisor and started googleing restaurants, I often experienced restaurants with very boring food (typical tourist food like french-fries, hamburgers and ok pizzas). The food is ok, but not if you want a more authentic food experience, like many people tend to want. With that said, I have had some amazing food experiences the last couple of years, after I started to research restaurants before going out, or as I have had friends with recommendations in the different countries I have visited.

4. Tripadvisor, articles with restaurant reviews, or recommendations.

5. Last time I traveled, I was in Iran during Ramadan so that is probably not a good example. We mostly ate in people’s homes, and in Teheran, we got recommendations from people living there. I also visited Italy 5 months ago, and we had to use tripadvisor/google to find the good restaurants in Tuscany.

Name: Nikoline

Gender: Female

Age: 24

Nationality: Norwegian

1: I eat at restaurants every day, all meals when I'm on vacation, unless I live with friends / visit someone.

2: No, I did not have trouble finding restaurants with food I like, but it can often be a bit time consuming.

3: Mostly I have a great food experience at restaurants, but my gluten allergy can anyone walk limiting selection I have to choose.

4: Last time I traveled, I did research on restaurants before I left. I ask friends and often ask for tips from people with the same desire as me. Internet helps me too often to find the restaurants I like. Otherwise, I often ask the hotel I was staying for tips and advice.

Name: Marianne

Gender: Female

Age: 26

Nationality: Norwegian

1. Every day I eat out! On some rare occasions I eat at home if we are renting an apartment

2. Yes, but it can take some time, because it is important to me that restaurants are cozy and nice.

3. Yes, usually I do, because I tend to choose safe options from the menu, which I know I like.

4. Google or just find a restaurant on the street.

5. Googled and advice from other friends who have been in the city before. Usually quite happy with the solution.