Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
3
A framework for dramatizing
interactions for enhanced
tourist experience value
Nina K. Prebensen
Introduction
Tourists interact with people and natural or man-made elements. Consequently, interactions
are core mediators of (and thus create an imperative for acknowledging) experience value in
tourism. Interaction has traditionally been considered a core characteristic of tourism as a result
of simultaneous production and consumption, described as 'prosumption' by Toffl er (1967).
Despite the importance of acknowledging how and why consumers visit places and exploring
interactions between people including tourists, hosts and locals, the issue of interaction has
scarcely been researched in tourism contexts. In tourism, interactions are more often performed
for social and pleasure-seeking reasons affecting autotelic actions, i.e. actions performed here
and now for instant enjoyment (Holt 1995), such as appreciating learning at a museum or having
fun with fellow travellers. Interactions may, however, also refl ect other goals or motives, e.g.
instrumental, such as ordering a meal or questioning a guide to get information, with the aim of
fulfi lling other needs.
This chapter focuses on tourist interaction practices during a vacation journey and further
indicates how these practices improve experience value for the tourists. The chapter ends with
proposals for how a fi rm may facilitate, develop and motivate tourists to enhance experience
value through interaction practices. Consumer practices (Holt 1995), customers' value perceptions
(Holbrook 1999; Sheth
et al
. 1991) and the dramaturgy metaphor (Goffman 1959) are utilized as
theoretical frameworks to delineate the relationship between what tourists do and value and
how interaction practices may be stimulated through staging, storytelling and involvement.
Tourism research has adopted theories from the service fi eld, defi ning services as 'a deed, a
performance, and an effort' (Rathmell 1966: 33). In doing so, tourism has more or less focused
on the service provider as someone who produces valuable offers for the tourists to favour and
buy in order to use and enjoy after the transactions. In the last decade, this perspective, separating
the producers and the consumers, has been strongly debated and as discussed in the previous
chapter, has resulted in the development of a new service-dominant logic (SDL) (e.g. Vargo and
Lusch 2004, 2008). This logic conjectures that 'co-creation is about joint creation of value by the
company and the consumer' (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004: 8). SDL holds that value cannot
be extracted without customer interaction. The value for the tourist then lies in being at the
