Los servicios pet friendly y la oferta de restauración en el casco urbano de Ambato

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to analyse the relationship between pet friendly services and the restaurant offer in the urban area of Ambato, in order to diagnose their level of implementation and propose improvement strategies. This topic is relevant because it responds to the growing emotional bond between people and their pets and to the need for food service establishments to adapt to this demand in an orderly, safe and competitive way. A mixed-method approach was applied, with a nonexperimental, descriptive and cross-sectional design. An exploratory survey was carried out to identify restaurants that describe themselves as pet friendly; a Likerttype questionnaire was administered to 164 customers of restaurants in the urban area; and semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight owners or managers. Data were analysed through descriptive statistics and hermeneutic triangulation. The results show an emerging and still incipient pet friendly offer, concentrated in a few areas, with motivations that combine affection for animals and commercial differentiation, but with poorly formalised rules, limited physical adaptations, scarce staff training and fragmented communication of the service. It is concluded that the pet friendly restaurant offer in Ambato is positively valued by customers and sector actors, but it requires basic guidelines, minimum adaptations and a practical guide to orient service management and consolidate a more coherent, standardised and sustainable proposal in the local context.