Space production in grassland culture-themed hotel and customer perception: A case study of Inner Mongolia Hotel

Grassland cultural-themed hotels are a type of regional culture-themed hotel with grassland culture as the core, themed space as the scene, and featured products and services, which are also effective carriers of grassland culture display, activation, and utilization, as the bases. Based on the theory of space production, this study explores the development process, dimension composition, and customer’s perception of space production in the Inner Mongolia Hotel using the qualitative research method of field research, in-depth interview, and network text analysis. The conclusions were as follows: 1) The spatial production of Inner Mongolia hotels has undergone the developmental process and has undergone a transformation, reconstruction, and thematization, in which the spatial production structure of the themed hotel of grassland culture was gradually formed. 2) The spatial practice of Inner Mongolia Hotel comprised different spaces, such as the hotel lobby, accommodation space, and dining space. The representation of space was driven by resource background, government policy, and capital power, and the space of representation comprised functional and cultural representations. 3) The environmental atmosphere, service supply, and characteristics of products were the main focus of customers for space production in Inner Mongolia. 4) Generally, the emotional attitude of customers towards the Inner Mongolia Hotel tended to be positive; however, a few negative emotions were mainly caused by material factors such as room area, facilities, and equipment. Finally, some suggestions and inspirations were put forward regarding space production and operation management of the themed hotels.