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2005) along with the emotional responses they elicit. Furthermore, a priority is placed on
understanding context and the meaning of experience to those involved. However, whilst the
importance of social sharing and the infl uence of others is highlighted, most studies predominately
retain the notion of the judgement of satisfaction as pertaining to the individual.
Yet, tourists are not isolated from society, they are fully participating members. Therefore, as
Williams and Buswell (2003: 75) note, 'it is not enough to interpret the individual's thoughts and
impressions as self-centred acts; the experience in which the tourism meaning is formed should
also be studied'. This chapter explored approaches that place more emphasis on the collective
nature of tourist experience and the social context in which they occur. These share with
experiential approaches the goal of understanding the complex world of lived experience from
the point of view of those concerned and an understanding that the lived world of reality (and
meaning) is constructed by social actors (Schwandt 1998). However, rather than focus on the
matter of individuals' inner states, attention is turned to how reality is intersubjectively shared,
and thus socially constructed.
This view is predicated on the assumption that the terms by which the world is understood
are social artefacts and products of historically situated interchanges among people (Gergen 1985
cited in Schwandt, ibid.). As Wang (2000) argues, it is actually expected that people will designate
some of their resources in order to acquire new experiences geographically remote from their
daily life as part of their leisure time. Similarly Krippendorf (1987: 18) argues that going on
holiday is something taken for granted as normal behaviour: 'We don't ask “what are you doing
during the holidays?” but “where are you going?”'. Each holiday can therefore be understood
not only as a holistic experience but also within the wider cultural 'practice' of taking holidays.
The emphasis from a social constructionist perspective is therefore on the collective generation
of meaning as shaped by conventions of language and other social processes.
As Curtin (2005: 2) notes 'there are few major purchasing decisions which are based on a mere
promise, a notion, and a socially constructed image of what constitutes an interesting or appealing
experience'. Similarly, Smith (1995: 3) states 'tourism is an activity that individuals enjoy'. This
statement is not disputed. Rather it is repeated here as a way to draw attention to a fundamental,
yet neglected assumption. That is, discourses of tourism regularly construct holidays as enjoyable
experiences. Ryan (1997) argues that holiday-making is a goal driven activity whereby the goal is
'to have a good time'. Krippendorf (1987: 38) similarly identifi es the 'have a good time' ideology,
which sets the tone for holidays. The social construction of holidays as good and, or, positive
experiences, may therefore be more of an infl uence on satisfaction than the actual experience itself.
Research that explores the collectively held beliefs and values in the tourists' community may
be of use in developing the understanding of satisfaction with that specifi c consumption
experience. More than simply touching on a different level of analysis, emergent approaches
therefore reframe satisfaction from approaches that emphasize the individual psychological
notion of the concept to one involving collective intersubjective meaning. The plethora of
research which has been conducted in an attempt to understand tourist satisfaction has
undoubtedly contributed to our knowledge of the subject. However, as Pearce (2005: 173) notes,
'there is still much to be done to develop satisfaction studies specifi cally in the tourism context'.
The quest for the Holy Grail therefore continues.
References
Andereck, K., Bricker, K.S., Kerstetter, D. and Polovitz Nickerson, N. (2006) 'Connecting Experiences to
Quality: Understanding the Meanings behind Visitors' Experiences', in G. Jennings, and N. Polovitz
Nickerson (eds)
Quality Tourism Experiences.
Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
