Food and dining are integral to the travel experience for tourists. Despite this, there is a lack of research on how tourists choose between dining in and dining out. Furthermore, these choices may be influenced by the tourists’ personality traits. To address this gap, this study explores how the Big Five personality traits impact tourists’ preferences for dining in or dining out hospitality services. We gathered data from 790 tourists through an online survey and employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data. The results reveal that Openness to Experience is positively associated with the preference for dining in services but negatively associated with avoiding dining in or out. Conscientiousness is positively related to avoiding dining in or out. Extraversion is positively linked with the preference for dining in or out services, while Agreeableness has no association with either approaching or avoiding dining in/out. Neuroticism is positively associated with both approaching or avoiding dining in or out services. This study is not only one of the initial studies examining the influence of personality traits on tourists’ dining preferences but also help practitioners develop strategies via tourists’ personality traits to increase revenue for dining in/out services.