Summer brings an influx of visitors looking for places to relax, recharge, and experience a destination like a local. For many tourists, a café visit becomes one of the small moments that shape how they remember an entire trip.
That’s not just a marketing claim. It’s the conclusion of a peer-reviewed study out of Modul University Vienna, which surveyed 187 international tourists about their coffeehouse experiences and what those visits meant for their overall perception of the destination.
For café owners looking to attract more tourists this summer, the findings offer several useful lessons:
1. Create an Atmosphere Tourists Can’t Find Anywhere Else
The study measured six factors that contribute to tourist satisfaction: love of coffee, cultural understanding, ambience, local preferences, expectations, and sensory experience. When the data came back, ambience ranked among the strongest predictors of how satisfied guests felt – stronger than the coffee itself.
Lighting, comfort, sound, visual consistency, the overall feeling a space creates – guests are registering all of it. For venue operators, this confirms something important: investment in atmosphere isn’t decorative, it’s functional. It directly influences whether guests leave feeling good about their visit.
For tourists choosing between dozens of cafés they discover online, atmosphere often becomes the deciding factor. The spaces that feel inviting, distinctive, and memorable are the ones visitors seek out and recommend to others.
2. Make Sure Your Online Presence Matches the Experience
Researchers found that tourists’ overall impressions were primarily shaped by whether their experiences lived up to the expectations they had before arriving. When expectations were met or exceeded, satisfaction followed. When they weren’t, even a genuinely good product couldn’t fully recover the impression.
For any venue with a presence on social media, Google, or review platforms, this has clear implications. The way you represent your space online: the photos, the captions, the tone, is setting a standard guests will measure you against in person. Representing the experience accurately, rather than over-styling it, leads to better outcomes on both sides of the visit.
This is especially important during tourist season, when many visitors discover cafés through AI, Google Maps, Instagram, TikTok, and travel recommendations before ever setting foot inside. The experience you showcase online should accurately reflect what guests will find when they arrive.
3. Create Small Moments Guests Will Remember
Guests who engaged more deeply with the sensory elements of a café visit – the presentation of a drink, the aroma, the visual atmosphere – reported significantly higher satisfaction and were more likely to form lasting memories of the experience.
When a drink arrives looking thoughtful, distinctive, or personalized, it signals that the venue has gone beyond simply fulfilling an order. It creates a moment that captures attention, leaves an impression, and becomes part of the guest’s overall experience.
For café owners, this presents an opportunity. Small touches that make a drink feel special can transform an everyday coffee order into part of the travel experience.
Seasonal drink presentations, locally inspired menu items, distinctive glassware, personalized service, and custom drink designs can all help create moments guests are more likely to remember and share.
Personalization technologies, such as the Ripple Maker drink printer, enable venues to print images, logos, and custom messages directly onto foam-topped beverages. A guest who receives a drink featuring their name, a favorite team logo, or a bespoke design is receiving more than a beverage – they are receiving a personalized experience.
4. Showcase What Makes Your Café Local
Tourists who chose local coffeehouses over international chains reported stronger engagement and more positive impressions of their overall visit. The study links this to what researchers call “existential authenticity” – the feeling of being genuinely somewhere, rather than somewhere that could be anywhere.
For independent cafés, this is worth leaning into. A locally rooted menu, a visual language that reflects the venue’s character, a sense of place that couldn’t be replicated by a chain – these aren’t just branding decisions. They’re what guests are actively looking for, and what they remember when they leave.
During the summer months, visitors are actively searching for experiences that feel unique to the places they’re visiting. The more a café reflects its local community, culture, and character, the more likely it is to stand out from familiar chain alternatives.
The practical takeaway is straightforward: For cafés hoping to attract more tourists this summer, the lesson is simple: the atmosphere, presentation, sensory details, and local character of a café all contribute to how guests remember both the venue and the destination itself.
The cafés that succeed aren’t necessarily the ones serving the most coffee. They’re the ones creating moments tourists want to photograph, talk about, recommend, and revisit.
And in a season driven by discovery, those memorable moments can become one of your most valuable marketing tools.
For more tips and expert insights on how to make your business stand out with practical advice and proven ideas straight to your inbox – Join Ripples’ email list and stay ahead.
Want more tips and business insights to help increase your revenue and attract more customers? Join our mailing list:
Get on the list!
"*" indicates required fields
