Post-pandemic restaurant patronage: the importance of neuroticism in shaping in-person dining intentions

<jats:sec> <jats:title>Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>Even after the lifting of all government restrictions, introduced to combat the spread of Covid-19, many consumers remain fearful of in-person dining. This paper seeks to understand this reticence, and explain post-pandemic restaurant dining intentions.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Design/methodology/approach</jats:title> <jats:p>The paper introduces and tests a conceptual framework for understanding in-person dining intentions in the post-Covid-19 era, utilizing structural equation modelling. To empirically validate the model, survey data collection (n = 436) occurred in China after the government lifted its “Zero-Covid” policy.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Findings</jats:title> <jats:p>Neuroticism, as a personality trait, negatively affects restaurant trust and increases fear of Covid-19 (threat appraisal), which in turn reduces intentions to dine in a restaurant post-pandemic. Neuroticism also increases the importance placed on preventative measures by diners (coping appraisal), with the latter positively affecting in-person dining intentions.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Practical implications</jats:title> <jats:p>The paper details the hygiene-related actions that restaurateurs can take to strengthen consumers’ intentions to dine, post-pandemic. We encourage restaurant managers to communicate the measures they implement to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and other viruses, to encourage in-person dining. Managers should regard such measures not as short-term actions, but important to long-term, post-pandemic restaurant viability.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Originality/value</jats:title> <jats:p>The paper introduces and validates a novel model, which relates neuroticism to Protection Motivation Theory. It identifies that neuroticism increases the fear of Covid-19 (threat) and the importance placed on restaurants’ preventive measures (coping strategy). Neuroticism is associated with maladaptive coping strategies and underpins reticence to dine out even after the lifting of all government restrictions.</jats:p> </jats:sec>