Publication Details
Abstract
Heritage tourism destinations face a dual challenge: sustaining rapid commercial growth in their foodservice sector while preserving the culinary heritage that underpins their distinctiveness. This study examines how culinary heritage and service-quality attributes jointly shape customer satisfaction and the sustainable competitiveness of foodservice enterprises in Bukhara, a UNESCO-listed Silk Road city in Uzbekistan. Three complementary data sources are combined: a regional panel (2016–2025) of sector indicators, a consumer survey (n = 512), and an enterprise-level survey covering 50 firms and more than 500 customers. A multifactor ordinary-least-squares model of customer satisfaction is estimated, the macro turnover process is modelled and projected to 2030, and investment efficiency is assessed through return-on-investment and marginal-product measures. The satisfaction model (R² ≈ 0.79) identifies food quality (24.8% of explained influence), sanitation–hygiene (22.8%) and the availability of national “heritage” dishes (16.1%) as the three strongest positive determinants, ahead of price–quality balance and staff conduct, while waiting time exerts a small negative effect. The sector’s turnover is projected to grow from UZS 1,724.8 bn (2025) to about UZS 5,684 bn by 2030, with average return-on-investment of 486% over 2015–2024. The findings reposition culinary heritage from a cultural amenity to a measurable economic driver and motivate a cluster-based, green-oriented development pathway capable of cutting operating costs by 20–30% while raising revenue by 25–40%.