The Relationship between Customer's Acculturation and His Perception of the Physical Environment of Service: A Qualitative Study of Old Palaces Rehabilitated as Restaurants in the Historic City of Damascus

This research focuses on studying perception of physical environment of a place, which holds rich history, heritage and architectural significance. It contributes to knowledge on environmental perceptions by investigating the role of acculturation in the case of rehabilitated services places. The current research has two objectives i) to identify dimensions of a service space holding significant cultural value and ii) to investigate how varying degrees of consumers acculturation and familiarity with local culture i.e. the old city of Damascus Syria, influences their perceptions about the physical service space. We introduce the concept of "acculturation" to understand the various level of perception and the appropriation of the servicescape. Our results show that the level of customers' acculturation mediates the perception of physical environment. The paper discusses how some old and traditional building, could be perceived as rehabilitated in a service place.