¹VO MINH VINH, ²TRAN VU THUY LINH

¹Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University, Czech Republic Orcid https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4100-770X
²The Olympia Schools, Hanoi, Vietnam

DOI : https://doi.org/10.58806/ijsshmr.2026.v5i8n23

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ABSTRACT

This study investigates the links among historical storytelling integration, heritage inspired hospitality design, AI-powered interactive services, and memorable dining experience in cultural tourism destinations while assessing the moderating influence of cultural curiosity. Building on Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory and Experience Economy Theory, it frames memorable dining experience as the product of narrative, environmental, and technological stimuli that foster cultural learning, sensory immersion, emotional engagement, personalization, and meaningful recollection. Cultural curiosity acts as a boundary condition that determines whether historically grounded narratives convert into stronger dining memories. A quantitative cross sectional design gathered responses via a five point Likert scale questionnaire from 385 domestic and international diners who had recently visited restaurants situated in or closely tied to cultural tourism destinations in Vietnam. IBM SPSS version 26 handled reliability checks, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple linear regression, whereas Hayes’ Process Macro Model 1 tested the moderating effect. Results show that historical storytelling integration (β = 0.550), heritage inspired hospitality design (β = 0.512), and AI powered interactive services (β = 0.587) significantly improve memorable dining experience. AI powered interactive services produce the strongest direct impact, underscoring the experiential worth of personalized, responsive, and interactive cultural engagement. Cultural curiosity further intensifies the positive link between historical storytelling integration and memorable dining experience via a significant interaction coefficient of B = 0.422. The outcomes reveal that cultural narratives, heritage settings, and technological novelty by themselves cannot secure lasting dining memories. Cultural tourism restaurants should therefore blend credible historical stories, culturally coherent design, contextually suitable AI services, and genuine chances for diners to explore local heritage.

KEYWORDS:

memorable dining experience; historical storytelling integration; heritage-inspired hospitality design; AI-powered interactive services; cultural curiosity; cultural tourism destinations.

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Cite this Article: VINH, V. M., & LINH, T. V. T. (2026). Transforming Memorable Dining Experiences through Historical Storytelling, Heritage-Inspired Design, And AI-Powered Interactive Services: Evidence from Cultural Tourism Destinations. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE HUMANITY & MANAGEMENT RESEARCHS, 5(8), 2305-2320. https://doi.org/10.58806/ijsshmr.2026.v5i8n23

VOLUME 05 ISSUE 08 AUGUST 2026