Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The third category,
FUSION
, groups experiences whereby consumers are both involved in its
organization and aim to immerse themselves within the destination. This immersion can be linked
to an interest in the destination's culture, natural elements and/or local inhabitants. Tourists have
the need to 'feel' the destination through different senses: see, try, taste, smell, feel, etc. They appre-
ciate the possibility to organize their own travel and seek authenticity and real connections with
the destination. Products which fall in that category are varied and numerous: a hiking trip in a
national park or staying with local inhabitants (
gîtes
, bed & breakfast, couch surfi ng, etc.).
The fourth category,
PROTECTION
, groups consumers who are in need for connections
with the destination visited but who want to stay within the safety net of the tourism industry.
Their experience mixes a need or some degree of discovery but the experience is partly managed
by the tourism industry since consumers have some degree of fear for unknown settings. This
category can group vacations such as an organized holiday led by a guide or a hire and drive
holiday. The following part of the chapter will address how this variety of experiences can
translate into a list of experience standards and attributes that can be considered by practitioners
and academics.
Tourist experience and experiential tourism
The tourist experience is the locus of value creation within the tourism sector. Studies show that
the tourism industry is based on creating unforgettable experiences (Prentice, Witt and Hamer
1998; Buhalis 2000). Offering high quality services and unforgettable experiences is then the
focus of the tourist industry. Tourists travel to different places, interact with people from different
cultural backgrounds, and bring back travel memories, and these travel activities become embed-
ded within the totality of lived experiences (McCabe and Foster 2006). Thus, the tourist experi-
ence is a socially constructed term whereby the meaning of the tourist experience is associated
with multiple interpretations from social, environmental, and activity components of the overall
experience (Tussyadiah and Fesenmaier 2009). The attributes of socially constructed tourist expe-
riences encompass a set of qualities such as symbolism (meaning, feelings and emotion), socializa-
tion (meeting the locals, participation), immersion, memories, etc. These qualities may be used by
tourism professionals to enhance tourist experiences and immersion within the destination.
Based on a review of the tourism literature, a set of attributes can be considered by tourism
professionals to defi ne experiential tourism. This list of standards has been adapted from the
works of Haugen and Erffmeyer (2004) and Hedin, Barnes and Chen (2005), and might be used
as either a checklist, with a simple check to point out presence or absence of the standard, or as
an evaluation form, rating each standard, for example, on a scale of one (little or none of the
attribute) to fi ve (full compliance with the standard):
• People create meaning through direct experience.
• The experience includes the people met, the places visited and the activities participated in.
• Experiential tourism can draw people into local nature, culture and history.
• Experiences can also take place in closed environments (resorts) with little contacts with
local culture/nature.
• The experience includes pre-departure trip planning and post-trip follow-up, including
memories.
• Experiential tourism is very personal, individual and perceived as unique for each visitor.
• Quality, memorable visitor experiences are a shared outcome between the visitor and the
experience provider, but some experiences can take place independently from the provider
(auto-creation).
