Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
• Experiential tourism opportunities allow for personal growth and refl ect the values and
interests of the individual visitor.
• Experiential tourism provides diverse experiences that match the visitor's interests and
provide a sense of personal accomplishment, thereby creating their own unique memories.
• The desired outcome of experiential tourism is to achieve a complete participatory
experience that provides new knowledge and experiences.
• Experiential tourism opportunities can encourage the meeting and coming together of
different cultures, their problems and potential.
• Cultural elements are shared in an atmosphere of traditional or non-traditional ways
of life.
• Experiential tourism involves visitors in what is being experienced rather than merely
describing.
• Experiential tourism opportunities expand personal horizons.
• Experiential tourism opportunities should provide personal enrichment, enlightenment,
stimulation and engagement as motivators.
• Experiential tourism attracts people to destinations and attractions.
• Experiential tourism attracts markets to merchandise.
• Experiential tourism engages all fi ve senses.
• Experiential tourism will be laden with strong emotions and will most probably be a
transformative experience.
• Experiential tourism opportunities include learning a new skill, engaging in a new activity
or experiencing an existing activity differently.
•
Experiential tourism includes the story of a place/person/culture.
These attributes serve as a framework for managers of service providers as they adjust and grow
their enterprises in the twenty-fi rst century. Each comparison will provide some opportunities
to make small or large adjustments in current practices in order to provide more meaningful and
memorable experiences for customers. The next section will go beyond the experience standards
by providing a deeper theoretical context to the discussion of tourist experiences. In this part
authors will include issues of a new theoretical approach, Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) to
better understand the characteristics of the 'new tourist' behaviours.
The defi nition of the 'new tourist' through the multidisciplinary
paradigm of CCT
As discussed earlier in the chapter, marketing and consumer researchers such as Arnould and
Thompson (2005) and Belk and Sherry (2007) have placed the concept of 'experience' at
the heart of an emerging paradigm through the philosophy of CCT. It is a multidisciplinary
approach based on the works of some French sociologists such as Baudrillard (1970), Bourdieu
(1980) and Certeau (1990), which are partly responsible for the emergence of a cultural and
a symbolic approach in the consumption fi eld. In consumer research, Belk and Sherry
(2007: xiii) in the fi rst conference dedicated to CCT, defi ned it as 'an interdisciplinary
fi eldencompassing macro approaches, interpretative and critical perspective of the consumer
behaviour'. Following this perspective, CCT researchers take into account the social
representations and the cultural practices when studying the complex behaviour of the
consumer/tourist. The main objective is then to study each cultural group in relation to the
meanings he provides to his consumption practices and the symbolic dimensions he expects
within his experiences. Thus, adopting a cultural consumption posture through a CCT
