A qualitative study on factors influencing older consumer dining out behaviour

Ageing or growing old is inevitable; rather than viewing this as another life stage, this transition period is not easily welcomed by many. The main reason is because with age we are getting more susceptible to disease and disability. This mind-set is changing slowly thanks to the progress in healthcare and government policy that not only care for their health but also helps the older people to lead a better life in their golden age. It is important to acknowledge this age group not just because they are living longer; it is also because they are getting bigger in size and economic power. Restaurant preferences and patronage behaviours of older adults in Malaysia is literally unknown even though there had been numerous amount of research done involving this population. The purpose of this study is to find out what would be the factor for older adults in Malaysia to dine out. Semi-structured indepth interviews were done with Malaysian older people ages 55 and above. 15 informers were interviewed for this study and the interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed. Atlas.ti software (version 7) was used to complement researchers’ analyses of interview transcripts and develop a visual representation of qualitative data. Major thematic categories identified by older consumer in this study included cleanliness and food taste. Data are visually mapped and relationships between different themes are presented. This study will be beneficial in providing more insight to this untapped market segment