tourist experience in tourism industry

Tourist Experience in Destinations: Rethinking a Conceptual Framework of Destination Experience

Journal of marketing research and case studies.

Walid BERNAKI and Saida MARSO

Encg, university of abdelmalek essaadi, tangier, morocco, academic editor: esther sleilati, cite this article as: walid bernaki and saida marso (2023), “tourist experience in destinations: rethinking a conceptual framework of destination experience ", journal of marketing research and case studies, vol. 2023 (2023), article id 340232, doi: 10.5171/2023.340232, copyright © 2023. walid bernaki and saida marso. distributed under creative commons attribution 4.0 international cc-by 4.0.

Tourism experience is a genuine source of destination attractiveness and long-lasting competitive advantage. Understanding the main drivers of the tourist experience in destinations is a critical step toward managing and delivering a satisfying destination experience to tourists. However, amidst a stream of research that explores experiences in different service settings, a framework of destination experience remains underexplored. To fill this gap in research, this article aims to draw an integrated conceptual framework of what makes a tourist experience in destinations along the travel journey and depicts the antecedents and consequences. By doing so, DMOs and other tourism stakeholders can fit their marketing strategies to cater to tourists’ needs and preferences. Also, this article discusses several measures and emerging research methods to capture the components of the destination experience.

Introduction

Recently, the concept of customer experience has received renewed attention in the tourism and leisure literature (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020a; Verhulst et al., 2020; Chen et al., 2021; Kim & Seo, 2022). Indeed, many businesses have adopted customer experience management, incorporating the concept of experience into their core objectives (Kundampully et al., 2018). Admittedly, a survey by Gartner (2014) reveals that 89% of companies consider experiences on the front line of their business competitiveness. It is now one of the leading marketing strategies embraced by hospitality firms (e.g., Disneyland, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Starbucks, to name only a few) and tourist destinations (e.g., Morocco, Thailand, Korea, Spain, etc.) (Ketter, 2018). To date, Hudson and Ritchie’s (2009) case study of branding destination experience illustrates this paradigm shift in the marketing and management of destinations. Furthermore, Berry, Carbone, and Haeckel (2002) suggest that organizations that continue to reduce their costs to support lower prices as an alternative to customer experience to gain a competitive advantage may affect the value of their product and service offerings, potentially jeopardizing their competitiveness (Vengesayi, 2003).

Nowadays, all that someone wants when one is on travel is to engage in memorable experiences to satisfy their emotional and psychological benefits, to be part of the destination experience, local culture and people, and country history (Morgan, Elbe, and de Esteban, 2009; Boswijk et al., 2007; Pine & Gilmore, 1999). This suggests that the choice of a particular tourist destination is enhanced by the significant mental image it portrays or the “pre-experience” the tourist expects to have upon arrival rather than the functional and utilitarian benefits that used to consider when making their choices (Oh et al., 2007; Kirillova et al., 2016; Ketter, 2018). Thus, destinations are now challenged to provide experiences that cater to postmodern tourists’ expectations, dazzle their senses, and go beyond alternatives in the marketplace. In this context, providing a conceptual framework of what makes an overall tourist experience in the destination is mandatory for destination marketing to design, manage and deliver a superior experience to tourists as a source of long-lasting competitive advantage (Karayilan & Cetin, 2016; Cetin et al., 2019; Crouch & Ritchie, 2005). In this framework, this study is an attempt to set an integrated conceptual framework of destination experience that depicts the factors of tourist experience during the tourist journey. Notwithstanding, despite the wide stream of research looking at tourist experience in various service settings in destination (Arnould & Thompson, 1993; Quan & Wang, 2004; Vitterso et al., 2004; Prentice et al., 1998), understanding the total experience in destinations is challenging.

This article raises several concerns. The first concern defines the theoretical knowledge of the concept of customer experience in tourism literature. The second concern comprises a conceptual framework of destination experience, including the antecedents, the formation, and the consequences of the tourist experience in destinations. The final concern concludes with marketing and management implications and avenues of future research.

 Literature Review

The Customer Experience in Tourism Literature

Since the late 1970s, the concept of experience has been an important research stream in consumer research (Jensen et al., 2015). By recognizing the experiential aspects of consumption, consumption has begun to be seen as an activity of production of meanings and a field of symbolic exchanges (Baudrillard, 1970), encompassed by what Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) call “the experiential view.” In their study, Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) refer to the experience concept as a personal and subjective occurrence with high emotional significance resulting from consuming goods and services. Fundamentally, this experiential perspective questions the limitations of conceptualizing consumption as a need-driven activity, wherein a customer is considered merely a cognitive agent, passive participant, and rational decision-maker that affords no emotions, symbolic, or spiritual relief (Angus, 1989) and focuses only on the quest for information and multi-attribute assessment (Addis & Holbrook, 2001). Against this background, it has replaced this functional and utilitarian view of consumption with an experiential view that emphasizes subjective responses and hedonism in the consumer’s way of thinking and acting (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). 

Particularly, since the emergence of the experience economy by Pine and Gilmore in 1999, the concept of customer experience has been increasingly cited at the forefront of researchers’ interest, particularly in tourism studies (e.g., Walls et al., 2011; Lugosi & Walls, 2013; Lemon & Verhoef, 2016; Andersson, 2007; Oh et al., 2007), in the same way, the management of customer/tourist experience has received growing attention in the general tourism literature (Schmitt, 2010; Verhoef et al., 2009; Tung & Ritchie, 2011; Brakus, Schmitt, & Zhang, 2008; Adhikari & Bhattacharya, 2016; Meyer & Schwager, 2007; Kundampully et al., 2018). Seemingly, tourism as a concept implies an experience. According to Holbrook and Hirschman (1982), this is explained by the fact that tourist and leisure activities, entertainment, and the arts are inherently defined by symbolic meanings and experiential aspects that make them intriguing research subjects. 

Following Kim and Seo (2022), the tourism experience is central to the tourism and hospitality industry and the main determinant of tourists’ behavioral intention and decision-making (Huseynov et al., 2020; Shafiee et al., 2021; Klaus & Maklan, 2013). To date, many studies in tourism literature have described the prevalence of tourists’ emotions and their strong influence on service performance and tourists’ behavioral intentions, such as willingness to recommend and spread positive word-of-mouth (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020b; Verhulst et al., 2020; Hosany et al., 2015).    

In the literature, more studies have exemplified an exhaustive and perplexing set of definitions and theoretical meanings of the experience construct (see table 1). Furthermore, numerous components emerge in the literature (e.g., affective, cognitive, conative, sensorial, and social), raising difficulties for academics and practitioners to fathom the concept of tourist experience (see table 2). These above components reflect a holistic structure of the destination’s positive and compelling tourism experiences (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020a).

Interestingly, the concept of customer experience has been approached primarily as a subjective, affective, and personal reaction to an event, market stimulus, or activity at different phases of the consumption process. For example, Otto and Ritchie (1996) define tourist experience as “the subjective mental state felt by participants during a service encounter” (p. 166). In their ground-breaking work, the authors claim that affective or emotion-based reports—i.e., the subjective, individual, and feelings experienced by tourists while traveling, are typically substantial in consumer behavior and marketing research. However, in conventional analysis, they are often neglected in explaining variances in tourists’ satisfaction evaluations, thereby limiting the understanding of consumer behavior. In addition, Schmitt (1999) considers customer experiences as “the private events that occur in response to stimulation (e.g., as provided by marketing efforts before and after purchase). They often result from direct observation and/or participation in events-whether they are real, dreamlike, or virtual” (p. 60). Also, Packer and Ballantyne (2016) refer to tourist experience as an individual’s immediate or ongoing, subjective, and personal reactions to an event, activity, or occurrence that usually happens outside one’s daily routine and familiar environment. 

In anthropological and ethnological studies, experience is an individual’s expression of their own living culture (Bruner, 1986). In conceptual terms, customer experience differs from an event. While an event happens to others, to society, and to the world, an experience is unique, personal, and differs from one person to another (Abrahams, 1986, as cited in Carù and Cova, 2003, p. 270). 

From a broader perspective, Verhoef et al. (2009) suggest that customer experience is more than the result of a single encounter; it is affected by every episode of the customer’s interaction process with a firm. This is in line with Larsen (2007), who argues that the tourist experience cannot be conceived simply as the various events that arise during a tourist visitation but as an accumulation of ongoing travel stages (e.g., pre-trip expectations, events at the destination, and post-visitation consequences). This implies that the experience occurs before the event or any other service and may last long after the experience (Gretzel & Jamal, 2009; Arnould, Price, & Zinkha, 2002; Lugosi & Walls, 2013). Accordingly, these mutual influences continue to affect tourists’ future behavior and expectations for the next journey (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020a). In this regard, some scholars, like Walls (2014) and Carbone and Haeckel (1994), shed light on experience as the “takeaway” impression or outcome people generate during their encounters with organizations’ products or services. For instance, Park and Santos’s (2016) investigation of the memorable experience of Korean backpackers states that the remembered experience is critical when determining future behavior and decision-making. The latter falls within the experience economy, wherein Pine and Gilmore (1999) submit that experience memorability captures customers’ hearts. 

From a management and marketing standpoint, experience is seen as a novel and distinctive economic product that can be acquired as a separate good or service that satisfies postmodern consumer needs (Pine & Gilmore, 1999). As a result, the creation of an immersive backdrop for customers is now considered by the marketing discipline known as experiential marketing (Schmitt, 1999). According to Carù and Cova (2003), an experience is “mainly a type of offering to be added to merchandise (or commodities), products and services, to give the fourth type of offering which is particularly suited to the needs of the postmodern consumer” (p. 272). As an offering, experience has become closely related to a trip, journey, or even the attraction itself (Volo, 2009). Admittedly, an experience is created when “a company intentionally uses services as the stage and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event” (Pine & Gilmore, 1999, p.11). That is, experiences are not self-generated but occur in response to staged modalities and the environment (Schmitt, 1999). Palmer (2010), in his conceptualization of customer experience in a retail setting, stated that it implies a variety of market stimuli that hold the potential to create value for customers. These stimuli are viewed as external factors that give birth to the experience.

Furthermore, Meyer and Schwager (2007) contend that contact with the service provider, whether direct or indirect, affects the customer’s experience. Direct contact occurs when a product or service is purchased, used, or provided. In contrast, indirect contact refers to unplanned encounters with service providers and touch-points that may entail reputation, a recommendation, advertising, after-sales support, and other factors (e.g., Payne et al., 2008). This shows that factors outside of an organization’s control, as well as those inside its control, have an impact on the customer experience (Verhoef et al., 2009).

In recent studies, in an attempt to define an all-comprehensive definition of the construct of experience, Lemon and Verhoef (2016) defined the concept of customer experience as “a customer’s cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial, and social responses to a firm’s offerings during the customer’s entire purchase journey” (P.70). In this perspective, Bagdare and Jain (2013) refer to customer experience as all-inclusive and define it as “the sum total of cognitive, emotional, sensorial, and behavioral responses produced during the entire buying process, involving an integrated series of interaction with people, objects, processes, and environment in retailing” (p. 792). These definitions embrace the cognitive, emotional, sensory, and behavioral components of experience produced in the frame of different interactions with customers, stakeholders, and management processes. Generally speaking, managers and marketers have found it challenging to understand the relevance of the notion of the tourist experience and to identify the various interactions and relationships between customers/tourists and destination elements.

Table 1: An overview of definitions regarding the concept of customer/tourist experience

Table 2: Components of the concept of customer/tourist experience

The Value of Tourism Experience in Tourist Destinations:

Nowadays, with the increasing worldwide competition and the changing situation the world lives in due mainly to the post-pandemic period, the global economic crisis, and the emergence of a new form of technologies and behaviors, tourist destinations are not spared from these challenges. To adapt to these changes and maintain their position in the market, the tourism industry players need to develop and reinvent their tourism. Understanding their experiential offerings is therefore prominent to accomplish this. According to Pine and Gilmore (1999), the core value of destinations lies in the quality of the experience it offers. This experience can be strong that tourists might develop a deep emotional bond with their travel destination (Hidalgo & Hernandez, 2001) and influence their behavioral intentions (Prayag et al., 2017; del Bosque & San Martin, 2008). Nevertheless, limited studies address a comprehensive framework of what makes an overall tourist experience in the destination or implicitly depict the antecedents, formations, and consequences of the tourist experience in the destination (Cetin et al., 2019; Karayilan & Cetin, 2016). It is, therefore, within this context where this conceptual paper is located.

More specifically, within the context of tourist destinations, everything a “tourist goes through at a destination is an experience, be it behavioral or perceptual, cognitive or emotional, expressed or implied” (Oh et al., 2007, p. 120). Stated in another way, the destination elements, such as natural and cultural assets, spectacular scenery, and friendly local people, are no longer sufficient to satisfy the contemporary tourists’ needs and differentiate places in a highly competitive market (Hudson & Ritchie, 2009; Ketter, 2018). Instead, by providing a satisfying destination experience, destination managers and policy-makers can set their offering apart from their competitors (Schmitt, 2010), enhancing destination desirability to tourists and increasing, in return, destination profitability (Morgan, Elbe, and de Esteban, 2009; Lugosi and Walls, 2013).

To date, a great deal of research has explored experiences in specific settings, such as food experience (Quan & Wang, 2004), tourist attractions (Vitterso et al., 2000), backpackers (Park & Santos, 2016), heritage parks (Prentice et al., 1998), to name only a few. However, while these studies concentrate on a specific type of tourism experience, few studies have thoroughly approached the factors that holistically drive the tourism experience in destinations. The reality is, regarding the lack of a clear definition of the concept per se, the subjective nature of the construct, the timeframe of the experience, the dynamic nature of the destination itself, and the diverse approaches to the tourist experience are among the factors that make capturing the critical drivers of destination experience a difficult task (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020a).

Since the tourism experience extends a period of time and simultaneously involves synergistic interactions and consumption of products and services, destination managers cannot wholly orchestrate the drivers of the tourist experience in the destination (Lugosi & Walls, 2013; Walls et al., 2011). At best, they can only influence the psychological environment and the prerequisite that facilitate the conditions for the experience to take place (Mossberg, 2007). According to Lugosi and Walls (2013), experiences are a flow of emotions and thoughts that occur during destination encounters, including the influence of the physical environment (e.g., atmospherics, infrastructure, and superstructure), the social environment (e.g., the local community), and other customers (e.g., fellow tourists, friends and relatives). This is because a tourist’s experience entails a series of engagements and interactions with the tourism industry, meanings, and people’s surroundings (Moscardo, 2003). This interplay of interactions represents the core of the overall destination experience (Karayilan & Cetin, 2016). Within this analysis, the tourist experience can be regarded as a compound construct that originates from a set of interactions between tourists’ internal factors, such as cognition and senses; and an organization’s external factors, such as the physical environment, other tourists, employees, local communities, and tourism operators (Adhikari & Bhattacharya, 2016; Albayrak et al., 2018).

The Co-creation Perspective in Tourism Experience

In the last decade, consumer research has witnessed an ongoing period of changes in its theoretical and philosophical foundations. The framework within which the debates have been conducted is labelled “modernism versus postmodernism” (Featherstone, 1988; Firat, 1990; Firat & Venkatesh, 1993; Hirschman & Holbrook, 1992; Turner & Turner, 1990; Firat & Venkatesh, 1995; Fırat & Dholakia, 2006; Cova & Cova, 2009). The starting point of the first reflection is none other than the consumer who has changed status and even multiplied his functions and roles about the meanings he attributes to his consumption. Specifically, customers (e.g., tourists) have become less concerned about the material values of consumption and more interested in the experiential value they derive from activities and products (Firat & Dholakia, 2006). Arguably, Tarssanen and Kylänen (2006) put forward that the value in tourism activities is accumulated by means of more experiential elements and active participation, as opposed to simply visiting a particular tourist destination. Under this approach, Saraniemi and Kylänen (2011) consider the destination a dynamic entity where the tourist can “jump in.” Meaning that tourists are willing to co-create value with destination providers. For instance, Wu et al. (2015) argue that participatory experiences influence tourists’ perception of and satisfaction with their salt tourism experience.

Building on this theoretical analysis, the idea that the tourist experience is only determined by the industry and carried out by passive customers is contested in light of this theoretical approach. For example, Walls et al. (2011) proceed to argue that an experience is “self-generated and that the customer can control or choose whether he will have an experience or not (including negative experiences)” (p. 18). This is consistent with extant research, implying that tourists recall what they perform rather than what they see (Park & Santos, 2016). In fact, tourists form their own experiential space that fits their vision for what it should be, depending on their motivation and reasoning (Suvantola, 2002). This is why King (2002) explicitly notes that “customers interested in travel and tourism have an enormous range of experiences and destination options open to them, but they are increasingly in the driving seat when it comes to how they uptake their planning information, what they receive and the process they choose to go through in marketing their purchase” (p. 106). For this reason, many studies have emerged to recognize the modifying role of tourists in the creation and design process because the value of service and product offerings rely on tourists’ active participation in the consumption process.

Indeed, with the democratization of the Internet and the growing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), Neuhofer et al. (2012) posit that tourists have become active participants in creating the experience they want to live in. Following these developments, Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004) assign tourists as co-creators of their own experiences. They presume that the value creation of destinations depends on the ability of destination management processes to facilitate tourists’ interactions within the tourism system, which allows tourists to personalize their own experiences. Thus, by leaving space for tourists, Richards and Wilson (2006) imply that such an approach can lead tourists to construct their trip narrative of their surroundings and form their personal perspective.

In this context, Ritchie and Hudson (2009) exhort marketers to concentrate their marketing actions and advertising on tourism experiences to evoke tourists’ senses and inspire them to co-create their experiences while co-constructing the meanings they are looking for (Cova, 1996). Similar to this, Scott et al. (2009) propose, for future research, a shift from experience as something inherent for the visitor to a management approach in which experience is co-created by the visitor and supplier. In summary, it can be concluded that a tourist experience is highly personal, subjective, and co-created by tourists and providers through a series of interactions with the physical environment and activities, tourism businesses, and other fellow tourists.

Measurement of Experience and the Emergence of New Research Method

One of the most difficult and crucial problems for any destination or organization looking to establish a sustainable competitive edge is understanding the components of tourist experiences in the destination and managing all clues during tourists’ interactions with destination service providers (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016; Becker & Jaakkola, 2020). Indeed, by understanding the key factors of the tourist experience, managers and marketers can respond to the needs of potential tourists and influence their behavior. 

However, academics and practitioners suffer from measurement myopia because the tourist/customer experience is individualized, vague, and multifaceted. Our analysis of prior research generally brings forth the core tenants of measurement complexities and challenges as follows: these complexities include a lack of an accepted definition of the concept, the multiple elements that underpin the construct in itself, the dynamic nature of the context-specific variables, the intangible nature of tourism products and services, the highly subjective, unique, and personal reactions of tourists, and the number of tourism players and stakeholders that exist within the tourism system (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020b; Hwang & Seo, 2016; Gentile et al., 2007; Meyer & Schwager, 2007; Palmer, 2010; Bagdare & Jain, 2013; Gnoth & Matteucci, 2014).

One degree of complexity arises from the fact that tourists differ in their motivations, attitudes, travel behavior, and preferences (Kundampully et al., 2018). For example, Andersson (2007) and Morgan et al. (2009) affirm that the expected value of a particular experience may differ from that of others. Similarly, Hwang and Seo (2016) suggest that the consumption experience might easily change the affective attitude generated by a customer experience over time. Furthermore, Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi (1988) argue that some personal characteristics may influence customers to engage in “flow” experiences more frequently, more intensely, and longer than others. Similarly, Ritchie and Hudson (2009) argue that tourists bring different social and cultural backgrounds; that is, each tourist holds a specific personal value that filters through their lives and affects their decision to select a particular destination and tourism experience (Madrigal & Kahle, 1994). Furthermore, Milman et al. (2017) report that visitor experience dimensions might not be concrete or objective when visiting a mountain attraction. This may induce different attributes and yield different interpretations, which vary from one customer to another.

Other scholars refer to the broad spectrum of research methodologies that have emerged in the business field and might be adjusted to investigate the concept of customer experience in the tourism and hospitality industry. These research methodologies are heterogeneous to the extent that customer experience is measured either quantitatively or qualitatively using a wide range of measurement tools, such as structured surveys, direct observation, structured or unstructured interviews, and measurement scales. Nevertheless, most researchers fail to consider the drivers of customer experience in its totality, for example, in pre-, during-, and post-experience (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020a). For example, many scholars (Verhulst et al., 2020; Godovykh & Tasci, 2020b; Kuppelwieser & Klaus, 2019; Palmer, 2010) have questioned the substantial reliance on conventional and retrospective self-report metrics to capture the dynamic aspects of tourists’ emotional responses from past experiences and current customers’ feelings, ignoring the dynamic nature of affective dimensions of experience. Accordingly, this may not predict consumer behavior or service performance outcomes. In this context, the online experiment by Godovykh and Tasci (2020b) supports the significant impact of post-visit emotional stimulation on several aspects of customer loyalty, demonstrating that the dynamic nature of the customer experience can be altered even long after the customer journey.  

On the other hand, many scholars note a shortage of innovation-related methods to identify the key elements of the tourist experience and the inability of many researchers to convey theory to research methods. For example, Palmer (2010) deems the inadequacy of survey design to assess the changing nature of affective and experiential dimensions of experience and, adding to the above, the concern that respondents’ answers might be misrepresented by their mood when answering questions (Skard et al., 2011); alternatively, it can be biased to the fact that they may not recall experienced emotions accurately. 

In this regard, Fick and Ritchie (1991) advocate using additional qualitative measures to abstract critical dimensions and highlight that a strictly quantitative scale fails to consider those affective and hedonic factors “which contribute to the overall quality of the service experience” (p. 9). From this point of view, Ritchie and Hudson (2009) argue that qualitative methods are convenient for researchers. For example, Holbrook (2006) surmises that due to the context-specific and non-linear nature of experiences, qualitative methods are well-suited to assess customer experience. Godovykh and Tasci (2020b) draw attention to more psychophysiological measures of emotions, such as electrodermal activity and electromyography, electrocardiography, pupillometry, etc., to overcome the limitations of conventional self-report measures. Correspondingly, Verhulst et al. (2020) adopt neurophysiological metrics to measure emotions and their dynamic nature along with customer experience. Their experimental results show that neurophysiological measures may better delineate arousal levels throughout different customer experience phases, although not self-reported by participants. Thus, Verhulst et al. (2020) emphasize the critical stake of such measures to managers and service designers, as they depict how emotions vary across different touch-points and channels throughout the customer experience. Hence, such a measurement approach might underpin which moments better predict customer behavioral intentions and service performance outcomes. However, using neurophysiological methods for data analysis is more difficult and costly for analyzing; therefore, managers and academics may reject it (Verhulst et al., 2019).

Hwang and Seo (2016) propose innovative methodologies to approach customer experience and recommend using experience sampling, grid techniques, netnography, structured content analysis, and emphasizing a cultural perspective. According to Lugosi and Walls (2013), a wide range of approaches and methods have been provided to studies regarding destination experiences, such as autoethnographic, ethnographic, visual methods, netnographics, and other forms of Internet research approaches, along with more traditional survey-based and quantitative approaches (see also, Hosany & Gilbert, 2010; Oh et al., 2007; Raikkonen & Honkanen, 2013). In accordance with Godovykh and Tasci (2020a), capturing the fundamental nature of tourist experiences must call upon a mixture of different research approaches, including self-report methods, interview techniques, experience sampling methods, and psychophysiological metrics, to allow researchers to instantly measure components of the total experience and respondents’ reactions as they unfold before, during, and after the experience, as opposed to looking only at transactional touch-points. Kim and Seo (2022) confirm that a combination of such methodologies reflects the true nature of customer experience. Similarly, Klaus and Maklan (2013) assert that quality of service experience (EXQ) should be considered alongside more traditional metrics for measuring customer experience. For example, customer satisfaction and net promoter score are commonly known as better and direct predictors of customer behavior, and their applicability is relatively practical and cost-effective. In general terms, Verhulst et al. (2020) and Verhulst et al. (2019) posit combining neurophysiological measures with conventional metrics (e.g., self-report and behavioral measures), which may help to strengthen validity and reliability.

Last but not least, in light of the development of ICTs, Lugosi and Walls (2013) claim that hardwired technologies, such as mobile phones, GPS, and geographic information systems, have lately gained more ground in the investigation of daily tourist movements and activities in a location. 

For example, Lee et al. (1994) employed a self-initiated tape-recording model (SITRM) to gather data. This technique requires participants to wear electronic pagers and carry self-report booklets in addition to a quantitative survey form, making researchers more willing to collect immediate participant experiences. In doing so, it minimizes memory decay and mood bias. Volo (2009) sheds light on the benefits of unobtrusive methods (e.g., sensory devices, use of GPS, travel diaries, and videos) as an alternative to access tourists’ emotions and feelings. Chen (2008) examined travelers’ mental representations of their family holiday experiences and actions using the Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET). Supplementing this approach, Lugosi and Walls (2013) recommend adopting the actor-network theory (ANT) technique to examine travel destinations and visitor experiences through various players, actions, processes, and relationships as a complement to this strategy. Kim and Seo (2022) provide insight into new big data sources for gathering information on consumer experience.

An Integrated Conceptual Framework of Destination Experience

Tourist Experience is a complex and wide-ranging construct arising from a broader set of interactions with actors, stakeholders, and other tourists (Jaakola et al., 2015; Verhoef et al., 2009; Packer & Ballantyne, 2016; Kandampully et al., 2018; Meyer & Schwager, 2007). In light of the above discussion, many studies refer to the tourism experience as cumulative of each moment experienced by tourists during their journey, i.e., before the experience occurs, during the travel destination, and long after the tourist returns to their home environment. This ongoing process influences tourists’ future behavior and expectations of the next trip. To illustrate, Tung and Ritchie (2011) define an experience as “an individual’s subjective evaluation and undergoing (i.e., affective, cognitive, and behavioral) of events related to their tourist activities that begin before (i.e., planning and preparation), during (i.e., at the destination), and after the trip (i.e., recollection)” (p. 1369). Thus, different factors influencing tourist behavior can be illuminated during each stage of the experience process (Chen et al., 2014). Still, no prior holistic conceptual model exists in the literature that has examined all the elements that form the tourist experience in the destination.

Our approach to the present study is to build on the initial work of Godovykh and Tasci (2020a), Lugosi and Walls (2013), and Walls et al. (2011), an integrated conceptual framework of destination experience (see Figure 1). This conceptual framework portrays a process that covers components, processes, and stakeholders and depicts how they combine to form what is fundamentally the destination experience. It takes the tourist experience antecedents from a diverse body of literature and deals with tourist experience as a construct created due to tourist interactions with the physical and social environment of the destination along their journey (i.e., pre, during, and post-destination experience), creating, in consequence, opportunities for positive outcomes to tourists and destinations as well.

From a marketing perspective, this framework is suggested as a tool for decision-making to help DMOs and other tourism stakeholders to capture the holistic nature of the tourist experience in the destination setting. This may have practical implications for DMOs and other tourism stakeholders operating at the destination to fit their marketing practices to design a superior destination experience in response to the tourists’ needs and preferences. Practically, future research on tourist experience in destinations may pinpoint the specific roles of each stakeholder and the destination elements when considering the construction of the experience the tourists receive.

In doing so, we consider the definition proposed by Godovykh and Tasci (2020a), which is holistic from its perspective, to explain the concept of the destination experience. We include the social interaction dimension as a crucial element of the tourist experience in the definition mentioned above in order to widen the scope of experiential appeal and dwell on the implications of developing an integrated destination experience (see the works of Murphy, 2001; Milman, Zehrer, & Tasci, 2017; Bharwani & Jauhari, 2013). 

In this perspective, a destination experience can be described as the total of tourists’ internal reactions (i.e., affective, cognitive, sensory, conative, and social) enhanced by external destination-related elements (e.g., destination stakeholders and managers, physical environment, tourism activities, local community, and other tourists) that occur within a series of dynamic interactions encountered directly or indirectly along the travel journey; during pre- destination experience, during the core of the experience and post-destination experience. As a result, it might be interpreted differently according to tourists’ characteristics, resulting in distinct consequences related to tourists and the visited destination. This proposed definition may be particularly constructive in explaining and measuring destination experience. It describes the holistic structure of experience components (e.g., cognitive, affective, sensorial, conative, and social) as tourist responses during their journey. Accordingly, this proposed definition is highly consistent with previous conceptualizations of other tourism and hospitality scholars (e.g., Packer and Ballantyne, 2016; Adhikari & Bhattacharya, 2016; Palmer, 2010; Verhoef et al., 2009).

Antecedents

In the tourism and hospitality industry, a number of antecedents have been offered as reliable predictors of customer experience, some of which have been argued to affect the quality, formation somewhat, and/or purchasing of experiences. This is due to the fact that each tourist’s experiences are unique based on their perceptions, consumption, and interpretation.

One set of antecedents is related to tourists’ characteristics in terms of socio-demographics (gender, age, nationality, occupation, salary), psychographic profile (personality and lifestyle), and culture (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020a; Adhikari & Bhattacharya 2016; Kim et al., 2012; Andersson, 2007; Hwang & Seo, 2016; Park & Santos, 2016; Morgan, Elbe, & de Esteban. 2009), level of familiarity, knowledge and previous experience background (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982; Finsterwalder & Kuppelwieser, 2011; Adhikari & Bhattacharya, 2016; Hwang & Seo, 2016), group characteristics and ethnic background (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982;  Adhikari & Bhattacharya, 2016; Hwang & Seo, 2016; Heywood, 1987), tourists’ expectations (Arnould and Price, 1993; Ofir & Simonson, 2007), their preferences and purposes of trips (Adhikari et al., 2013; Hu & Ritchie, 1993; Wijaya et al., 2013), skills, abilities, and attitudes (Andersson, 2007), and tourist motivation and level of involvement (Prebensen et al., 2013). Such factors are critical drivers of one’s experience at the destination and post-purchase experience evaluation.

The other set of antecedents is concerned with destination-related features and situational characteristics. On the one hand, most researchers claim that destination attractions represent the core elements of tourism (Gunn, 1972). Furthermore, Buhalis (2000) reports that tourists’ selection of a particular destination is motivated by existing tourism attractions, accessibility, available packages, activities, and ancillary services. Similarly, Lin and Kuo (2016) suggest that the destination’s culture, history, religion, nature, events, architecture, hospitality, and other related variables likely influence the tourist experience. Also, Mossberg (2007) suggests many factors influencing the tourist experience, i.e., service personnel, physical environment, products/souvenirs, other tourists, and themes/stories. More broadly, Kim (2014) proposes ten factors to form memorable tourism experiences, including local culture, various activities, hospitality, infrastructure, environment, management, accessibility, quality of service, physiography, place attachment, and superstructure. From another perspective, marketing literature considers that tourist behavior depends heavily on the nature and quality of the tourism experience. For example, Gronroos (2001) highlights the significant determinants of service quality on customer satisfaction, behavioral intentions, and customer experience. On the other hand, situational characteristics include situational factors, such as the nature of the consumption context (Hwang & Seo, 2016) and macroeconomic and environmental factors (Grewal, Levy & Kumar, 2009; Hwang & Seo, 2016; Hudson & Ritchie, 2009) that likely influence the tourist experience in various contexts. The tourist and hospitality business as a whole has undoubtedly been impacted by several uncontrolled factors, such as natural disasters and climate change, financial crises, unfavorable exchange rates, and sanitary concerns.

Consequences

The concept of experience is central to customer behavior (Klaus & Maklan, 2013; Addis & Holbrook, 2001). Many studies have discussed the positive relationship between positive tourist experiences and behavioral intentions and attitudes to make inferences about the destination.

From a tourist perspective, as mentioned before, experiential responses have broadly been expressed as a combination of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial, and social reactions by a tourist as a result of active interactions and engagement with the destination’s physical environment, people, and tourism stakeholders. In this regard, the tourism experience is proposed to result in emotional responses such as fun, feelings, fantasies, entertainment, and refreshment (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982; Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982; Holbrook, 2000; Tynan & McKechnie, 2009; Hwang & Seo, 2016; Babin et al., 1994); cognitive responses such as knowledge, skills, learning, and memories (Oh et al. 2007; Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982; Pine & Gilmore, 1999; Lin & Kuo, 2016); conative responses such as practices, involvement, and engagement (Palmer, 2010; Schmitt, 1999; Unger & Kernan, 1983; Kim et al., 2012; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004); sensorial responses such as taste, sound, smell, sight, and touch (Berry, Carbone, and Haeckel, 2002; Hudson & Ritchie, 2009); and perceived motivation (Pearce & Caltabiano, 1983; Oh et al., 2007). In a nutshell, when tourists value the experience, they begin valuing everything they feel, hear, see, and smell during their encounters with the destination. 

From a destination perspective, DMOs can meet tourists’ expectations and sway their behavioral intentions in terms of satisfaction and behavioral loyalty intentions by having an understanding of how tourists evaluate and benefit from their experiences at the destination (Klaus & Maklan, 2013; Hosany & Gilbert, 2010). According to Oppermann (2000), travelers’ positive experiences at a destination may affect their desire to return and strengthen their ability to recommend the destination to friends and family. Hidalgo and Hernandez (2001) argue that experiences might be so powerful that tourists might become attached to the destination. These marketing outcomes are based on the importance of literature and research, emphasizing their weight as a consequence (Godovykh & Tasci, 2020b).  

Figure 1: A conceptual framework of total destination experience

Conclusions, Implications, and Future Research Perspectives

This study aims to develop an integrated conceptual framework of tourist experiences in the destination based on the theoretical and conceptual understanding of tourism experience as an emerging topic in tourism research and consumer behavior. This framework will assist DMOs and policy-makers in broadening their understanding of the various factors and processes when considering the formation of the tourism experience. In doing so, DMOs and other tourism stakeholders can manage the prerequisite of enjoyable experiences for tourists, which will likely inspire tourists to return to the destination and recommend it to others.

The relevance of this research lies in the topicality of experience themes in tourism studies; the different insight that stems from this conceptual paper might have theoretical and managerial implications. From a theoretical perspective, this study aims to extend the conceptual and theoretical investigations of the experiential paradigm for destination management and marketing (Lugosi and Walls, 2013; King, 2002; Morgan, Elbe, and de Esteban, 2009). Therefore, the conceptual framework supplements the traditional framework of management through an experiential approach that considers the neglected experiential reactions of tourists (i.e., affective, conative, sensorial, and social responses) evoked as a result of dynamic interactions and active engagement with destination elements and stakeholders, alongside their destination visitation. From a management and marketing perspective, we believe that the conceptual framework of destination experience management may function as a guideline framework for destination managers and marketers to empirically study tourist experiences during the tourist journey in a destination. Hence, a clearer understanding of the relationship between specific tourist experiences, as they relate to the destination, can signal destination managers and marketers to establish a well-conceived marketing strategy to stage and deliver the desired tourism experience as part of a tourist value proposition.

Recently, intensive work has shed light on the co-creation experience process as critical to marketing strategies and differentiation in the general business literature. From this perspective, tourists are no longer considered passive recipients of a pre-conceived tourism product or experience but rather active partners in the co-creation experience design and management process (Lusch & Vargo, 2006; Lugosi and Walls, 2013; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2003; Mossberg, 2007; Binkhorst & Den Dekker, 2009). Morgan, Elbe, and de Esteban (2009) imply that the delivery of co-creation tourist experiences can only be achieved through an effective combined effort between the private and public sectors. This is in line with previous research that considers tourist experiences derived from broader networks of actors, stakeholders, tourists, suppliers, host guests, brands, fellow tourists, and the local community (Jaakola et al., 2015; Verleye, 2015). Therefore, destination managers and marketers must focus on an eco-tourism system that includes destination managers and stakeholders in managing the co-creation destination experience. Therefore, further investigations are required to design co-creating experiential marketing strategies to assist tourists in co-constructing their desired tourism experience that provides the emotional state or pre-image they are looking to live in.

Last but not least, we propose empirical studies investigating causal linkages between different variables with related interactions, antecedents and consequences to fully leverage the relevance of the proposed conceptual framework.

Statements and Declarations

The author(s) reported no potential conflicts of interest.

The author(s) received no financial support for this article.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Tourism experience and construction of personalized smart tourism program under tourist psychology.

• 1 Faculty of International Tourism and Management, City University of Macau, Macao, China
• 2 Faculty of Law, Hebei University, Baoding, China
• 3 School of Public Economics and Administration, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China
• 4 School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, China
• 5 Department of Environmental Art and Design, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China

The present work aims to boost tourism development in China, grasp the psychology of tourists at any time, and provide personalized tourist services. The research object is the tourism industry in Macau. In particular, tourists' experiences are comprehensively analyzed in terms of dining, living, traveling, sightseeing, shopping, and entertaining as per their psychological changes using approaches including big data analysis, literature analysis, and field investigation. In this case, a model of tourism experience formation path is summarized, and a smart travel solution is proposed based on psychological experience. In the end, specific and feasible suggestions are put forward for the Macau tourism industry. Results demonstrate that the psychology-based smart travel solution exerts a significant impact on tourists' tourism experience. Specifically, the weight of secular tourism experience is 0.523, the weight of aesthetic tourism experience is 0.356, and the weight of stimulating tourism experience is 0.121. Tourists prefer travel destinations with excellent urban security and scenic authenticity. They give the two indexes comprehensive scores of 75.14 points and 73.12 points, respectively. The proposed smart travel solution can grasp the psychology of tourists and enhance their tourism experiences. It has strong practical and guiding significances, which can promote constructing smart travel services in Macau and enhancing tourism experiences.

While China's national strength is improving continuously, people's requirements for the quality of life also becomes higher, and tourism expenditure has increased its share of all living consumption expenditures ( Sun et al., 2020 ). Tourism is an important indicator to measure the happiness and life satisfaction of people; it also reflects the level of living standards. In China, the central government proposed a strategic plan for the development of smart tourism in 2011 ( Watson et al., 2017 ). Supported by the national tourism policy, many smart tourism cities have emerged one after another. The key to smart tourism is to integrate tourism data, including traffic, weather, management, passenger flow, and other data that need to be integrated and considered ( Gretzel et al., 2015 ). Before tourists leave for their destinations, various types of consultation, navigation, and information-sharing services are very critical. As the internet advances, applying new information technology to the tourism industry has become a general trend; as a result, data of the tourism industry has become a hot issue ( Alaei et al., 2019 ). Big data technology is developed on the basis of information technologies, including the internet and cloud computing. This technology plays a vital role in developing tourism products, improving tourism services, and tourism marketing ( Lv et al., 2019 ). A smart tourism service platform is built according to the data of the tourism industry to provide tourists with diversified services and make the tourism experience more personalized and authentic. This model is of great significance for promoting the transformation, upgrading, and sustainable development of the tourism industry.

The smart tourism is centered on the personalization of tourists. Supported by the new generation of communication and internet technologies, smart tourism increases interactive experience, gathers tourism information, and promotes the upgrading and transformation of the tourism industry ( Skavronskaya et al., 2020a ). The research on psychology-based tourism experience focuses on the travel psychology and preferences of tourists. Analyzing several reports on tourism psychology, Cicerali et al. (2017) found that the most critical factors that harmed tourism satisfaction among tourism environmental factors were sanitary conditions, social influence, scenic area design, and tourism atmosphere. Studying the negative psychology of tourists, Nawijn and Biran (2019) discovered that different types of negative emotions would affect the lives of consumers, while traveling could promote the emotional experiences and improve the negative emotions. Skavronskaya et al. (2020b) proposed a conceptual model called “cognitive evaluation of novelty in unforgettable tourism experience.” They believed that future works should consider applying this model to advance the tourism experience and analyze such experience as a psychological phenomenon. However, the existing methods cannot solve the problems hindering the sustainable development of tourism fundamentally. Therefore, constructing a smart tourism platform based on tourists' psychology is a critical and urgent issue in the tourism industry.

Therefore, influencing factors of the smart tourism industry are analyzed to clarify the specific evaluation indexes. Besides, three tourism experiences, namely secular tourism experience, aesthetic tourism experience, and stimulating tourism experience, are analyzed from six perspectives: dining, living, traveling, sightseeing, shopping, and entertaining. At last, a personalized smart tourism platform founded on tourism psychology is proposed. Through simulation experiments, the platform's effectiveness is validated; on this basis, countermeasures and suggestions are put forward for constructing the smart tourism of Macau. To sum up, a smart tourism platform is built using data mining technology, which can promote the smart tourism development in Macau and provide a basis for the sustainable development of Macau's tourism industry.

Literature Review

Related works of smart travel.

Smart travel uses new technologies such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) to actively perceive information about tourism resources, tourism economy, tourism activities, and tourists through the internet or mobile internet using portable terminal internet devices. It then timely releases the perceived information, allowing people to access the information they need in time to arrange their schedules. Eventually, intelligent perception and convenient use of all kinds of travel information can be achieved ( Kharisma and Muni, 2017 ). Smart travel can be reflected in tourism management, tourism services, and tourism marketing. When people propose the concept of smart travel, they put forward various thoughts on smart travel as per different research directions ( Cui and Long, 2019 ). Li et al. (2017) believed that smart travel was a unique creative tourism. Liberato et al. (2018) thought that smart travel was first a change in the concept of development. Buhalis (2019) pointed out that smart travel was an integration of the new generation of information and communication technologies. Femenia-Serra and Neuhofer (2018) researched the development momentum of smart travel regarding its driving factors. Thakuriah et al. (2020) introduced the relationship between smart city and smart travel and expounded the role of smart travel from multiple angles. Shafiee et al. (2019) introduced the history, framework, value, and development trend of smart travel. Gretzel and de Mendonça (2019 ) explained the deficiencies of smart travel. Sun et al. (2019) researched smart travel according to the current situation and problems, development countermeasures, and development prospects. Gretzel and Koo (2021) proposed to build and manage a “smart travel public service platform.” Smart travel is a significant innovation in the tourism industry. Its innovation path is formed based on the efficient flow and effective integration of tourism information in the tourism industry. The innovative means include the internet, big data, cloud computing, and other new-generation information technologies, as well as business model innovation. Ultimately, the purpose of innovation is to improve tourism services and tourists' satisfaction.

Development and Application of Big Data

Big data refers to a collection of data whose content cannot be captured, managed, and processed with conventional software tools within a time frame. Big data technology can quickly obtain valuable information from various types of data. Technologies applicable to big data include massively parallel processing databases, data mining grids, distributed file systems, distributed databases, cloud computing platforms, the internet, and scalable storage systems ( Le et al., 2019 ). Lately, new technologies such as IoT, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing have been accepted in various fields. Chen et al. (2019) believed that these new things were inseparable from the support of big data. A large number of research results have also emerged in the process of assisting in the transformation and upgrading of various industries ( Chen et al., 2019 ). Zhu et al. (2019) proved that combining big data and cloud computing could give new value to the data held by operators. Liu et al. (2020) suggested that big data could bring new ideas to the operation and management of the hotel industry. Du et al. (2020) believed that big data would contribute to tourism management and the development of global tourism. As mobile internet and big data develop rapidly, research on smart travel has gone beyond the theoretical level; scholars begin to combine smart travel with big data and cloud computing to explore a way to practice smart travel ( Du et al., 2020 ). Joubert et al. (2021) studied the operation mode of smart travel by combining value chain management, supply chain management, and other operation management theories. Gao (2021) improved the practicability of smart travel by studying the technical implementation methods behind smart travel. They also explored the combination of smart travel and rural tourism from different angles.

Related Works of Tourism Psychology

People participating in tourism activities include actual tourists, potential tourists, and various practitioners of the tourism industry. They have different psychological activities in tourism activities and therefore behave differently ( Skavronskaya et al., 2020c ). There are always contacts and connections among tourists, “tourism products,” tourism service personnel, and tourism enterprise management personnel in tourism activities. These mutual contacts and interpersonal relationships depend on people's psychological activities. Tourism psychology studies the laws of these people's psychological activities and behaviors in tourism activities. Psychological activities and behaviors are inseparable. Psychology governs behavior, and behavior reflects psychology ( Kesenheimer and Greitemeyer, 2021 ). Tourism experience is a comprehensive experience based on super-utilitarian experience. While enjoying this experience, tourists can obtain aesthetic pleasure by observing the scenery, appreciate a colorful life in the interaction with others, discover and develop themselves in the process of actively imitating other roles, and also relish secular pleasures through tourism consumption.

A Review of Related Works

Related works analyzed above suggest that research results of big data, smart travel, and platform operation are very rich after decades of exploration. These findings provide important ideas and methods for designing smart travel platforms and operating systems based on big data, laying a firm theoretical foundation. However, previous works rarely discuss how to give full play to the important role of big data in global tourism, how to build a new model of smart travel platform operation, how to promote the development of the modern tourism service industry, and how to adapt to the upgrade of tourism consumption needs ( Elizabeth et al., 2021 ). Smart travel is not just the internetization of the traditional tourism industry that is common in the current “Internet +” era, such as “Internet + travel e-government,” “Internet + travel e-commerce,” and “smart scenic spots.” New issues often appear during development, which must be solved through new technologies.

Regarding new demands and new problems, the deep integration of modern big data technology and traditional tourism has created a new operation model for tourism platforms, called smart travel. Because of the differences in tourism informatization and smart travel research worldwide, domestic and foreign tourists have big differences in tourism behaviors; in particular, domestic tourists pay more attention to sightseeing, while foreign tourists pay more attention to leisure. Therefore, there are different tendencies toward smart travel research. For example, the research on smart travel in foreign academia is biased toward the tourism informatization. In contrast, coincided with the explosion of innovation in China due to the demographic dividend, the domestic academia focuses on defining smart travel from different aspects, such as the theory of management changes derived from the research on how information technology affect the management of tourism enterprises, the theory of technology application derived from directly applying information technology to the tourism industry, and the theory of how information technology affects the tourism experience from the perspective of tourists. However, most of these works focus on researching the concepts of smart travel; the essence of smart travel is rarely discussed, and the research on the relationship between big data and smart travel and studies taking smart travel as the core are seldom reported, which can hardly reference the actual smart travel practice.

Methodology

Swot analysis of tourism industry in macau.

SWOT analysis discusses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the research object to formulate policies accordingly ( Peng, 2019 ). As the leading industry in Macau, tourism plays a significant role in coordinating and consolidating Macau's economic development. Through the SWOT analysis, the advantages and opportunities of Macau's tourism industry can be utilized to make improvements; meanwhile, the disadvantages and deficiencies encountered in the developmental process can be adjusted and upgraded.

Strengths Analysis

(1) Macau is located between Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, China. During its development, Macau can take advantages of Hong Kong's convenient seaport transportation and international background, as well as Guangdong's rich human resources and vast market. Macau has a vast potential market, and simple entry procedures have attracted tourists from all over the world. (2) Macau, as a platform for cultural exchanges between China and the West, continues to develop more broadly under the background of inheriting Chinese traditional culture and integrating Western culture. Macau's unique advantage has played an essential role in opening up the mainland and foreign markets, especially in cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries. (3) Although Macau has a small land area, it has many natural and cultural resources. The historic city of Macau, which has a long history, has been listed as a United Nations cultural heritage. Tourists to Macau can feel the local customs and appreciate the long history and culture of Macau. On the one hand, these cultural resources have greatly enhanced tourists' yearning for Macau. On the other hand, the development of the tourism industry has also promoted the upgrading of other industries to better serve tourists.

Weaknesses Analysis

(1) Because Macau has a small land area, a large population, and not too many important enterprises, tourism has always been a pillar industry of Macau. This is undoubtedly a significant drawback for a city seeking comprehensive development. Adjusting the industrial structure and realizing all-round industrial development is the direction of Macau's continuous advancement of reform. (2) Macau is close to Hong Kong. Many tourists drop by Macau after visiting Hong Kong. Macau's convenient transportation also makes many tourists choose to go to Hong Kong or Zhuhai, Guangdong instead of staying in Macau after a day of sightseeing. According to statistics, the average time of tourists staying in Macau is 1.4 days, which is much lower than the time that tourists stay in the true sense. Therefore, Macau needs to speed up the construction of supporting facilities, add a wealth of tourism projects, and attract the attention of tourists as much as possible to extend the stay time of tourists. (3) The rapid development of tourism is inseparable from the support of human resources. As the training of talents cannot keep up with the development of the tourism industry, gaps in professional talents and job vacancies appear, which limits the development of Macau's tourism industry to some extent.

Opportunities Analysis

(1) The support of national policies and the influence of surrounding areas have brought new development opportunities to Macau's tourism industry. Macau is backed by mainland China and facing foreign markets; it is supported with a strong human market and resources. The advantages of “One Country, Two Systems,” the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, the establishment of the Guangdong Free Trade Zone, the signing of the Guangdong-Macau Cooperation Framework Agreement , and the implementation of “The Belt and Road” initiative all contribute to the development of Macau's tourism industry and the overall economy, infusing the city with vitality and vitality. (2) Macau can exploit various types of tourism and develop the exhibition industry. Macau has the intersection of Chinese and Western cultures, which significantly promotes the “going out” and “bringing in” of the local economy. Enterprises in mainland China hope to strengthen cooperation with international enterprises via Macau, and international enterprises can enter the vast mainland market via Macau. The development of the convention and exhibition industry not only promotes the development of tourism but also increases the visibility of tourist destinations, attracts more tourists, and extends their stay time. Moreover, it has also promoted local economic development. The improvement of various large-scale infrastructures has attracted more investment and strengthened scientific and technological exchanges with different countries and regions ( Liu and Li, 2019 ; Li, 2019 ).

Threats Analysis

(1) The narrow land area and inconvenient transportation restrict the further development of tourism. The imbalance between Macau's land area and population makes the tourism infrastructure incomplete. Famous scenic spots, such as Ruínas da Antiga Catedral de São Paulo, Largo do Senado, and Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, will be overcrowded during the holidays, which will not only affect road traffic but also induce safety accidents. (2) The competition is fierce in the surrounding tourism market. As tourists continue to travel abroad, more countries and regions begin to focus on developing tourism. The rapid development of tourism in Southeast Asia has impacted Macau's tourism. Fierce market competition makes Macau tourism industry have to face a new round of reforms and upgrades ( Su and Zhao, 2019 ).

The above analysis reveals the following demands: (1) the demand for tourism industry development. The current development of Macau's tourism industry has entered a tough period of transformation and upgrading. The imbalance between the supply and demand structure of the tourism market is very prominent. The development and operation modes of the industry are relatively traditional. (2) The demand for liberalized, diversified, and personalized tourism consumption. Looking up information and booking travel services anytime and anywhere are new demands for tourism consumption. This has put forward an unprecedented high standard of demand for the comprehensiveness, vividness, and detail of tourism public information services. (3) The demand for the transformation of service-oriented government functions and improvement of administrative efficiency. In the past, Macau's tourism industry was supervised and supported by government administration. They have acted as rule-makers and executors more often. With the deepening of marketization and the development of modern information technology, this type of management cannot solve tourism problems in Macau during the development of the industry.

Smart Travel Big Data Analysis Platform Based on Resources and Psychology

The present work is based on the resource-based smart travel service platform. On this basis, big data processing methods are added to analyze the impact of the smart service platform through different indexes. Hence, a big data travel service platform that is more suitable to the Macau region can be proposed through data optimization. The analysis and application of big data can ensure the sustainable development of tourism ( Ardito et al., 2019 ). Figure 1 presents the structure of the designed platform.

Figure 1 . The standard system of smart travel service platform.

Data used in the present work are collected through data mining, including data collection, data analysis, and result analysis. Figure 2 shows the data collection method of web crawlers. Data can also be obtained through third-party purchase (after filtering out the privacy information, data about the user's consumption status and ability are obtained). The tourism data can be captured in real-time through the above approaches. Government and enterprises need to fill in and report the data. Hence, the personnel need to enter the big data platform and input the information manually to ensure the data integrity. The collected data are analyzed and compared using algorithms according to the specific knowledge base and the corresponding database to draw and visualize the conclusions ( Del Vecchio et al., 2018 ). Data mining is applied at the most basic layer of the model. Different classifications and algorithms are practiced to achieve the best model efficiency and ensure the integrity of the information on the travel service platform.

Figure 2 . Schematic diagram of web crawler data scraping steps.

Tourism experience refers to the visual aesthetic experiences and the spiritual experience that tourists feel during traveling, such as learning and cognition; tourists not only observe the external expressions of things but also think about the rational world ( Sedera et al., 2017 ). As one of the representative studies, Luo et al. (2018) classified tourism experience in their research. They believed that the ultimate pleasure of tourists through compensation or realization was defined as travel pleasure. Pleasure was the core of the tourism experience, and the purpose of the tourism experience was to seek happiness or pleasure. Pleasure could be divided into tourism aesthetic pleasure; that is, the pleasure obtained through transcendental tourism experience was tourism secular pleasure, which was the pleasure obtained through regressive tourism experience ( Luo et al., 2018 ). The so-called secular tourism pleasure is the usual pleasure form of entering life. It is based on the utilitarian understanding of the perceived object through other organs other than the audiovisual senses. It is the collective term for all the pleasures in addition to the aesthetic pleasure experienced by tourists during the traveling process. The prerequisite and intensity of secular pleasure are related to the accumulation of previous experience, which varies with time, place, person, and event. It is a kind of pleasure that is obtained by a single low-level sense organ (such as touch, taste, and smell) other than audiovisual. The aesthetic tourism pleasure is the primary goal of tourism experience. It is a kind of psychological experience that gets rid of the sense of interest and utilitarianism. It refers to a psychological experience generated by tourists when they appreciate the beautiful nature, artwork, and other artificial products. In essence, experience is “a comprehensive aesthetic practice that integrates natural beauty, artistic beauty, and the beauty of social life.” Figure 3 shows the “4E” tourism experience model proposed by Pine and Gilmore ( Santos et al., 2019 ). According to Pine and Gilmore, the essence of tourism is to obtain a pleasant experience. They divide the pleasure of tourism into aesthetic pleasure and secular pleasure.

Figure 3 . “4E” model based on tourism experience.

Indicator Analysis and Model Construction

Literature about tourism psychology is reviewed and reorganized to build the three-level index system. As shown in Table 1 , the system includes the secular experience, the aesthetic experience, and the stimulating experience ( Li, 2019 ; Li et al., 2020 ). The secular experience is reflected in dining, living, and sightseeing, including food safety, food delicacy, accommodation safety, accommodation comfort, and traveling convenience. The aesthetic experience is reflected in the sightseeing activities, including the convenience of sightseeing, the condition of nature/culture, and the comfort and safety of sightseeing trips. The stimulating experience is reflected in the freshness and stimulus brought by shopping and entertaining.

Table 1 . Construction of smart tourism index system based on tourist psychology.

According to the investigations of literature, models, and data, problems in the smart tourism construction in Macau are analyzed. On this basis, a smart tourism platform based on tourism psychology is built, as shown in Figure 4 . This platform specifically includes: (1) the basic service layer: this layer adopts the big data processing method. It includes the functions of data analysis and data collection, such as the corresponding calculation rule, storage pool, and network pool. (2) The psychological analysis of tourists: the tourism experience is divided into secular experience, aesthetic experience, and stimulating experience according to the consumption data and consumption-ability of tourists. These three experiences are analyzed from the six perspectives: dining, living, traveling, sightseeing, shopping, and entertaining to draw the psychological prediction of tourists. (3) The software service layer: as per the predicted psychological data of tourists, the software service layer is oriented to the special application subsystem, which implements business applications such as real-time passenger flow analysis and prediction, tourist value prediction, passenger flow monitoring analysis, and satisfaction index analysis. At the same time, the software can be expanded and updated. The system not only runs independently but also exchanges and shares data, which continuously expands the functions of the smart tourism service platform.

Figure 4 . The smart tourism platform based on tourist psychology.

Model Performance Evaluation and Data Sources

Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a qualitative and quantitative analysis tool that classifies factors affecting the decision-making according to the target layer, the criterion layer, and the plan layer. Through AHP, the optimal solution can be obtained ( Ho and Ma, 2018 ). Figure 5 illustrates the AHP structure of Macau's tourism industry. Here, factors affecting the services of Macau's tourism industry are determined by the scaling method. Besides, the opinions of experts are combined to score the indexes objectively. Suppose that W n represents the variable of the matrix, and aij refers to a collection of various variables. In that case, the judgment matrix between them is:

In the meantime, (1) (2) a i j = 1aji, ( I , j = 1, 2, 3, ⋯ n ) (3). Therefore, the following equation is obtained:

The experimental environment is summarized in Table 2 below. The operating system is Microsoft Windows 10. The platform is written in Python. The Oracle10g database is used as the basis for building the network framework.

Figure 5 . The AHP structure of Macau's tourism industry.

Table 2 . Experimental development environment.

Questionnaires are distributed to survey whether this platform is helpful to the tourism experience. The questionnaire is designed according to the indexes in the performance evaluation. For each question, there are five options: “Excellent,” “Good,” “Fair,” “Poor,” and “Very Poor,” corresponding to 1, 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, and 0.2 points, respectively. A total of 300 questionnaires were issued, and 285 were returned, of which 270 were valid. The response rate is 95%, and the valid rate is 94.7%. The statistical software is utilized to analyze the reliability and validity of all questionnaires for subsequent in-depth research and analysis.

There are three data sources: (1) data provided on the Macau official tourism website are collected. The Macau tourism department is interviewed through telephone to obtain first-hand field survey data. Through analysis, summary, and induction, the problems in the development of Macau's tourism industry are summarized. (2) Comparative analysis: smart travel platforms in different provinces are compared to find feasible methods for the Macau tourism industry. In practical applications, the shortcomings and deficiencies of traditional tourism in management, marketing, and services are listed and compared with big data processing results to show the role of big data in the practical application of tourism. (3) Interview: heads of the Macau Tourism Bureau and Macau Regional Tourism Bureau are interviewed to understand the problems of Macau smart travel. Moreover, heads of related technology enterprises such as Beijing Golden Bridge Network Communication Co., Ltd. are interviewed.

The questionnaire survey is conducted to verify and improve the research design of smart travel ways and improve the tourism experience. The purpose is to verify whether the smart travel methods currently applied are helpful to the improvement of the tourism experience. The Forbidden City is added to the questionnaire as a case site. Through specific cases, it is hoped to understand the impact of smart travel on the quality of tourism experience in the current application. According to Sthapit's tourism experience model ( Sthapit et al., 2019 ), the influencing factors in the interference variables include delay, comfort, convenience, accessibility to the destination, the nature of the destination, the quality of accommodation, the number of attractions and activities, and the ethnic nature of the destination. The influencing factors in the interaction process include the gap between actual feelings and expectations, the nature of the interaction with the destination residents and fellow tourists, the ability to distinguish the authenticity and illusion of events, the ability of psychological adjustment, and the ability to communicate. According to the nature of the case, the four factors of comfort, convenience, the gap between actual feelings and expectations, psychological adjustment, as well as the satisfaction of tourists' overall tourism experience, are selected. The questionnaire is designed according to the indexes in the performance evaluation; each question has 5 options: “Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, and Very Poor,” corresponding to 1, 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, and 0.2 points, respectively. Based on the indicator weights of the smart tourism platform of tourism psychology are shown in Table 3 above. A total of 300 questionnaires were sent out, and 285 were returned. Among them, 270 were valid questionnaires, with a response rate of 95% and a valid rate of 94.7%. Statistical software is employed to analyze the credibility and validity of all questionnaires.

Table 3 . Index weight of the smart tourism platform based on tourism psychology.

Effectiveness of the Smart Tourism Platform

The visual data of the smart travel platform based on tourism psychology are illustrated in Figure 6 . In particular, the geographical distribution of tourists in Macau can be collected more accurately through this platform. Through the crawling rules, the system accurately counts the total number of tourists entering Macau. Changes in the number of tourists during 1 week are as follows: the number of tourists begins to increase on Oct. 1st; on Oct. 2nd, it continues to increase; on Oct. 3rd, it starts to decrease; on Oct. 5th, it reaches the peak. The actual number of tourists also show the same trend. Besides, the daily change index is analyzed. The curve can reveal the trend of tourists entering Macau during the National Day Holidays. These results show that the smart tourism platform based on tourism psychology has strong data mining and analysis capabilities, and the visual display effect is noticeable.

Figure 6 . Results of statistical analysis of Macau's tourism data during the National Day Holidays in 2019.

Index Weight of the Smart Tourism Platform

Table 1 shows the result of the index weight analysis of the smart tourism platform based on tourism psychology. A detailed analysis of the questionnaire survey data reveal that tourists have a maximum weight of 0.523 for the aesthetic tourism experience, followed by the secular tourism experience, with a weight of 0.356. This shows that the majority of tourists in Macau undergo aesthetic sightseeing.

Figure 7 summarizes the results of block analysis on the weights of the platform indexes under different index systems. As shown in Figure 7A , in the secular tourism experience, the largest weight is the taste of food, reaching 0.396. The reason is that most tourists pay great attention to the cuisine of a region, and the taste of food can represent the culture and custom of a region. The weight of accommodation safety ranks second position, reaching 0.198. The aesthetic tourism experience is shown in Figure 7B , where the largest weight is the safety of the scenic area, reaching 0.312. The reason is that the safety of the accommodation determines the degree of pleasure of traveling; traveling is a matter of spending money to enjoy happiness, and such enjoyment will be greatly reduced if tourists spend more money due to personal safety. The stimulating tourism experience is shown in Figure 7C , where the weight of freshness sense ranks first, reaching 0.665. The above results suggest that the safety psychology of dining and living in secular tourism experience affects tourism consumption. In terms of sightseeing, more attention is paid to safety, and the sense of freshness id more important to tourists.

Figure 7 . Weighted results of various indexes of the smart tourism platform based on tourist psychology [ (A) is the technical level index weighting result; (B) is the external environment index weighting result; (C) is the basic condition index weighting result].

All index weights are analyzed comprehensively, and the results are demonstrated in Table 4 . The weights of the criterion layer are 0.378, 0.462, and 0.16, respectively. Impacts coming from indexes of the smart tourism platform in descending order are as follows: secular tourism experience > authentic tourism experience > stimulating tourism experience. The above judgment matrix, single hierarchical ranking, and hierarchical total ranking analysis all pass the consistency test; thus, the calculated weights are acceptable. The results obtained from the above data analysis and block weight comparison are consistent.

Table 4 . Building an index system for the Macau smart travel service platform based on big data.

Overall Performance of the Smart Tourism Platform

Figure 8 illustrates the scoring results of the designed platform rated by the heads and staff from various industries. This platform receives a comprehensive score of 68.45, which is excellent. Overall, the secular tourism experience accounts for a large proportion because most tourists seek for leisure and entertainment, and therefore their consumptions are normal and average. They prefer destinations and travel plans that can improve mood and pleasure. From a partial perspective, the most important factor that affects the platform is that people consider the total score of tourism safety to be 75.14, followed by the authenticity of the scenic spot, with a comprehensive score of 73.12. This is the most important issue to construct the smart tourism service platform in Macau. The comfort requirement of tourists for accommodation is not very high, which is only 60.85. Therefore, the local tourism department of Macau should reduce its investment in accommodation and increase its investment in the safety and comfort of tourist attractions.

Figure 8 . Scoring results of the smart tourism platform based on tourism psychology.

Discussion and Conclusion

To construct the Macau Smart Travel Service Platform, emphasis should be placed on designing and development according to tourists' travel psychology. This requires a large amount of tourism data. However, in the actual research process, many scenic spots and enterprises cannot realize the importance of data compared to actual benefits, which cannot guarantee the sustainable development of Macau's tourism industry. Therefore, on the basis of the data results, the following suggestions are put forward: (1) the data concepts shall be changed, and the data awareness shall be cultivated, including data openness and sharing concepts, data analysis concepts, and data application concepts. Data involved in tourism works should be emphasized and respected to be used for publicity and services. (2) The major tourism service platforms shall be centralized to collect tourist consumption data. Then, these data shall be analyzed using big data and in-depth mining technologies to find new growth points of the tourism industry from these data. (3) The interaction with tourists shall be strengthened, the communication with tourists shall be deepened through social media such as WeChat and TikTok, and tourists' travel needs shall be understood in time. In this way, a sustainable smart travel service platform can be established, and market-oriented approaches can be applied to mobilize tourism enterprises to raise funds in various aspects and cooperate in constructing part of the smart travel platform.

The government smart travel public service system refers to the general term for public products and services provided by the government or other social organizations that are not profit-oriented, have obvious publicity, and meet the common needs of tourists as the core. It connects tourism suppliers, tourism regulatory agencies, and other tourism market-themed activities in various tourism information demanding links, such as tourism transportation, tourism safety public services, and tourism environmental public services. The public service system of smart travel takes the improvement of tourist satisfaction as the core and the tourism information service as the main body. Its purpose is to meet the needs of individual tourists for the richness, comparability, timeliness, and convenience of obtaining travel information during the dining, living, traveling, sightseeing, shopping, and entertaining process of the travel. For services that can be achieved through market operations, the government should issue relevant policies and implement supportive supervision; moreover, the government should promote the tasks that enterprises are unwilling to do but are related to the overall situation. For example, online services are mainly travel information services provided by local enterprises, aiming to meet the diverse needs of tourists. The government regulates public information services extended by leveraging the nationwide database resources of travel enterprises such as Ctrip.com and eLong.com. The government should lead components of offline smart travel public service infrastructure. The tourism management department also obtains tourist information and real-time market operation data by providing smart travel public services to enhance the timeliness and pertinence of management. In short, by building a smart travel public service system, methods to promote the tourism industry can be changed thoroughly. The level of tourism services can be improved to make tourists travel conveniently. The image of tourism cities can be enhanced, and the supervision of the tourism market can be strengthened to provide tourists with fast, accurate, and comprehensive information services.

From the perspective of tourism experience, smart travel, a new vane in the tourism field, is analyzed. The experience needs of tourists are understood by studying the ways of experience generation. Through the six major elements of tourism: dining, living, traveling, sightseeing, shopping, and entertaining, a research design for smart promotion of tourism experience is constructed, whose usability in practice is then validated, proving that some of the current smart travel measures can improve tourists' tourism experience. This is theoretically innovative. Besides verifying the active role of existing smart travel methods in improving the tourism experience, practical smart travel measures that can improve the tourism experience are proposed, considering the smart travel participants in real-world applications, such as hotels and scenic spots. The smart travel model based on tourist psychology has strong data mining and analysis capabilities, and the visual display effect is obvious. From a psychological perspective, tourists prefer travel destinations with excellent urban security and scenic authenticity. The comprehensive scores for the two are 75.14 points and 73.12 points, respectively. Therefore, Macau's local tourism department should reduce the investment in accommodation and increase the investment in the safety and comfort of tourist attractions.

Despite the constructed big data smart travel platform based on psychology, some weaknesses are found in the present work. First, due to time and research funding issues, only three regions in Macau are surveyed, only covering a small amount of data. Moreover, the questionnaires are mostly distributed on-site. In the future, they can be issued online. Second, because the data of the major tourism service platforms are commercial secrets, only the available network data are analyzed, with a small data amount. Finally, there are few categories of psychology research on tourists, only considering the sense of experience brought by tourism rather than specific consumption data. In the following works, these aspects will be analyzed and research in-depth to realize the practical application of the platform as soon as possible.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by City University of Macau Ethics Committee. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords: personalization, smart tourism, Macau tourism, tourism psychology, tourism experience

Citation: Lan F, Huang Q, Zeng L, Guan X, Xing D and Cheng Z (2021) Tourism Experience and Construction of Personalized Smart Tourism Program Under Tourist Psychology. Front. Psychol. 12:691183. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.691183

Received: 05 April 2021; Accepted: 23 June 2021; Published: 22 July 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Lan, Huang, Zeng, Guan, Xing and Cheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Ziyan Cheng, t17091105091@cityu.mo

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Tourism in the metaverse: Can travel go virtual?

Imagine a future where your travel choices have no geographic constraints. Where you can join your friends in the front row of a concert by your favorite star—but the crowd is 300 million strong, your friends are on the other side of the world, and it’s all happening at the Great Pyramid of Giza. Later you’ll do some shopping at the virtual souk and take a digital Nile cruise, before teleporting back home in an instant.

Impossible? Or a tempting package trip that might soon be available from the comfort of your home? With the internet’s rapid evolution, many see this vision of transformed travel on the horizon—in the metaverse. Others caution that this future might take a little longer to arrive, and that travelers resist “metaversification” of key parts of the tourism journey.

The metaverse is seen as the next evolution of the internet—a collective space where physical and digital worlds converge to deliver more immersive, interactive virtual- or augmented-reality (VR/AR) user experiences, often referred to together as extended reality (XR). The underlying technology for this exists and is proving relatively cheap and fast to implement. Driven largely by inspirational advertising and virtual events, the potential rewards for the travel industry are already substantial: more than $20 billion by 2030, by McKinsey estimates.

This has potential to revolutionize the way we explore new worlds: already, you can attend concerts, shop, test products, visit attractions, and take workshops, all without physically traveling anywhere. Currently, the user demographic trends very young, but it’s crucial for the tourism sector to appeal to this segment. 1 Hristina Nikolovska, “Metaverse Statistics to Prepare You for the Future,” February 16, 2023. After all, these are the travelers of the future—and players not keeping pace with their interests will lose out.

But does XR live up to all the hype—with appeal beyond a gamer demographic? A virtual trip can never replace the thrill of certain tangible, real-word experiences, and some traveler touchpoints have proved more ripe for disruption than others.

Despite these hesitations, the XR ecosystem is maturing at pace. Immersive VR/AR devices may well follow the steep adoption curves of laptops and smartphones. Widespread use could lead to a radical extension of the global economy from physical into virtual life, not least in tourism.

So how does a tourism player go about monetizing this virtual paradigm, which is still taking shape and many struggle to define? It’s time for the sector to take a serious look at these complex opportunities—and figure out what best drives traction in the new XR universe.

Touring the metaverse: early trends

The metaverse could enrich the tourism experience in countless unprecedented, innovative ways—but which use cases have the most potential, and which are still deemed risky? Early adopters have already started experimenting, and several trends have emerged. Virtual elements can be layered onto an established business:

• In the wake of the fire that damaged the famous cathedral in 2019, French start-up Histovery produced an augmented exhibition on the history of Notre-Dame de Paris—motivated in part by an increased awareness of the fragility of physical landmarks. To navigate the exhibition, each visitor uses a “HistoPad” touch screen to take an immersive tour that allows interaction with physical elements: giant photographs, 3-D models of statues, replica flooring and stained glass, and audio of Notre-Dame’s organs and bells. Effects include animation and a virtual scavenger hunt for younger visitors. 2 “Notre-Dame de Paris: The Augmented Exhibition,” National Building Museum, April 2022.
• In December 2021, faced with record staff turnover, MGM Resorts International decided to apply a virtual solution. In partnership with immersive platform provider Strivr, MGM developed VR headsets that give aspirant front-of-house staff a realistic sense of what working at MGM casinos and hotels entails. The training package was rolled out at the company’s properties in 2022. It’s designed to speed up onboarding and upskilling, increase employee confidence, and familiarize potential hires with MGM procedures and culture. 3 Grace Dean, “MGM Resorts is letting job seekers try out roles using virtual reality as it looks to reduce employee churn,” Business Insider, December 12, 2021; Phil Albinus, “Rising Star goes all in on VR talent marketplace for MGM Resorts,” Human Resource Executive, June 14, 2022; “4 Examples of Strivr Virtual Reality Training,” Strivr.com.

Other virtual platforms allow visitors to explore major global landmarks, incorporating rich edutainment and retail opportunities. Several such initiatives have been launched:

• Responding to pandemic travel restrictions, ZEPETO World is a smartphone app that allows users to create personal avatars and travel around Korea. For example, the tour includes a highly detailed interactive map of Han River Park; this feature gets almost 257,000 visitors a day. Users are also able to communicate with each other, shop, and watch performances. ZEPETO World has approximately 190 million members. 4 Majid Mushtaq, “Korea Virtual Travel with ZEPETO World,” KoreabyMe, September 6, 2021.
• The BCB Group—a leading crypto banking group—has created a metaverse city that includes representations of some of the most visited destinations in the world, such as the Great Wall of China and the Statue of Liberty. According to BCB, the total cost of flights, transfers, and entry for all these landmarks would come to $7,600—while a virtual trip would cost just over $2. 5 “What impact can the Metaverse have on the travel industry?” Middle East Economy , July 29, 2022.
• Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) recently announced that the ancient city of Hegra had entered the metaverse, in line with a national program to drive technological transformation and innovation. It is the first UNESCO World Heritage Site to be placed in the metaverse, allowing digital tourists to explore the surroundings as well as Hegra’s Tomb of Lihyan son of Kuza. 6 Divsha Bhat, “Saudi’s Royal Commission for AlUla enters the metaverse,” Gulf Business , November 15, 2022; “Vision 2030,” The Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; “Saudi Arabia’s AlUla enters the metaverse,” Arabian Business , November 14, 2022; One Carlo Diaz, “Hegra’s Tomb of Lihyan in AlUla is recreated in the metaverse,” NTravel, November 7, 2022.

Instead of attempting to replicate real-world experiences, entirely novel environments can also be created, convening people in a single immersive space—as in multiplayer online games. (Indeed, many people currently associate the metaverse largely with games.) The travel industry can harness this utility too.

This is particularly relevant to the meeting, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) sector, with virtual gatherings, exhibitions, and trade fairs looking to become mainstream. These allow people to gather and take part in activities in the same immersive space, while connecting from anywhere. This dramatically reduces travel, venue, catering, and other costs, while avoiding setbacks like adverse weather conditions or disease scares. For example, one Japanese start-up recently held a virtual market that attracted a wide response, with around 60 well-known companies participating. 7 “Metaverse x MICE; 3D virtual world that will transform MICE industry in the future,” Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau.

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What areas of tourism show promise.

As innovative formats become more mainstream, new economic models are emerging. The travel experience of the future will not be exclusively online or offline. Instead, we’ll most likely see a proliferation of hybrid offerings, with virtual events, edutainment, and inspiration combined with physical destinations.

One way to grapple with this complexity is to adopt a traveler-first mindset. By putting themselves in the shoes (or bedroom slippers) of their target tourist, travel companies can identify opportunities to embed relevant virtual elements.

Individual touchpoints, not end-to-end offerings

Virtual experiences that show promise are focused on a few specific, discrete steps in the end-to-end traveler journey (exhibit). Which touchpoints can be most effectively disrupted? Which hold the greatest possibilities for integration? Which steps can be elevated by an immersive element, allowing for exhilarating, fantastical or deluxe experiences not available in the physical world? Three touchpoints show great potential: travel inspiration, virtual events and visitor support.

Inspiration and planning: The metaverse creates a $13 billion opportunity for tourism inspiration, mostly driven by digital travel advertising. Virtual spaces—which can be used to showcase hotel amenities, airline classes, or an entire landmark—spark the desire to travel, give a holistic idea of a destination, help in traveler decision-making, showcase broader offerings, and raise awareness of unfamiliar locations. The case studies of AlUla and ZEPETO demonstrate how this can work. Qatar Airways offers another example: a recently launched VR experience called QVerse allows travelers to view cabin interiors, the business-class QSuite, and the VIP check-in area at Hamad International Airport. 8 Rose Dykins, “Qatar Airways creates virtual reality ‘QVerse’ experience,” Globetrender, June 13, 2022.

Leisure and entertainment: Live streaming soared during the pandemic, followed by a wave of interest in virtual concerts—with significant increases in consumer demand, spend, and audience numbers. 9 John Koetsier, “Virtual Events Up 1000% Since COVID-19, With 52,000 On Just One Platform,” May 27, 2020. In 2020, the metaverse accounted for 0.1 percent of live-music revenues—a figure which rose more than tenfold by 2021. By 2030, we estimate that virtual events could account for up to 20 percent of revenues, driven in part by their capacity to accommodate huge audience numbers at reduced cost.

Ariana Grande leads the way into the music future

In August 2021, Epic Games launched its latest Fortnite event, the Rift Tour, starring Grammy-winning artist Ariana Grande. 1 Isamu Nishijima, “Ariana Grande x Fortnite Rift Tour: The Apogee of Pop Culture or Just the Beginning?”, Headline Asia Publication , Aug 30, 2021. It was a match made in heaven: Fortnite, a wildly popular battle-royale game with then around 350 million registered users, and Ariana Grande, a universally adored pop artist. 2 Emi La Capra, “The Metaverse Concerts: Where Online Games and Music Performances Meet,” Alexandria , 2022. One of the first of such Fortnite collaborations, this was particularly significant: the first time Ariana Grande had performed in nearly two years, and the first concert to allow attendees to participate in minigames.

The concert was an acclaimed success. The Rift Tour was viewed by as many as 78 million players (compared to average conventional concert attendance of under 15,000); the number of streams of Grande’s songs rose by up to 123 percent during the concert, and other featured artists also saw a streaming boost. 3 Maggie Klaers, “PCP: Concert attendance,” SLP Echo, April 29, 2022. While a traditional concert by a top North American performer might rake in less than $1 million, it’s estimated that Grande made more than $20 million from her headline performance—which may be remembered as a critical inflection point for the live-entertainment industry. 4 Bob Allen, “Concert Industry Roars Back! Pollstar 2022 Mid-Year Report,” Pollstar, June 24, 2022.

With top artists generating around $20 million per metaverse concert, this industry has an anticipated income potential of upwards of $800 million by 2025, according to McKinsey estimates (see sidebar, “Ariana Grande leads the way into the music future”). Taken together with XR MICE, this sector is a rich opportunity: an expected $7 billion by 2030.

Visitor support: Some destinations have been exploring the idea of virtual concierges to support travelers at every stage of the journey with real-time itineraries, information, troubleshooting, visa issues, and more. Qatar Airways, for example, provides a MetaHuman cabin crew for an interactive customer experience. Immersive use cases already account for over 1 percent of chatbot investment, and this is expected to increase. Still, it may be several years before this touchpoint gains real traction.

Then there are touchpoints where the disruption potential of the metaverse is still debatable, or where opportunities may take longer to mature:

• Shopping: Multiple stores could be built in virtual destinations, adding a revenue stream with the sale of accessories, souvenirs and other items. These might be digital, or goods to be shipped in the real world. Iconic real-life stores might also operate as digital recreations.
• Booking: Customers are already comfortable with online booking, so a shift to XR interactions with virtual travel agents could be seamless. However, this is a relatively small business opportunity, with uncertain added value: the new technology is not expected to change or boost the functionality of current booking processes in any fundamental way.

There is currently limited interest in adding virtual elements to aspects of travel that are necessarily physical, such as mobility, accommodation, the logistics of arrival and departure, and food and drink (F&B).

Mobility is currently expected to have very limited XR use cases: tourists may access a metaverse experience while in a taxi, but are unlikely to replace physical with virtual mobility. The “stay” category is similarly sized. While people may wish to explore virtual stays in hotels or on cruise ships, these will not yet replace actual stays. Hotel developer CitizenM, for example, has announced plans to build a hotel in gaming world The Sandbox, allowing virtual visitors to explore the digital property and raise awareness of its brand. 10 Cajsa Carlson, “CitizenM to become ‘first hospitality company to build in the metaverse’,” dezeen, April 7, 2022.

Similarly, arrival-and-departure use cases are largely limited to customers seeking XR versions of modes of transport, such as business-class flights or special railway routes, without intending to visit. (Such experiences may serve as “portals” to expanded immersive worlds, however.) The F&B industry will likely be among the last to enter the metaverse.

Post trip, the real potential lies in the capacity to inspire further travel. However, actual follow up, currently often achieved via surveys, is unlikely to be deeply impacted.

Travel Disruptors: Sonder’s Francis Davidson on the future of hospitality

“no-regret” metaverse moves.

Taking the above factors into account, there are certain no-regret functions that tourism-industry players can pursue to be at the forefront of disruption. These promising use cases have already gained traction, with fast-moving industry players stepping in early to bet on their viability.

They fall into two categories: virtual event centers, and recreations of memorable landmarks that inspire visits. As we’ve seen, event centers are already showing substantial revenue potential for organizers and destinations through business gatherings and entertainment, with ticket sales, attendance fees, and ancillary retail opportunities.

At XR landmarks, visitors can explore, socialize, shop, and learn—all while gaining awareness of lesser-known destinations. Young people and tourists may flock to these social spaces for immersive fun. There may be edutainment opportunities, including specialized archaeology, geology or architecture classes. These spaces can be built on established or upcoming platforms (such as Metapolis) and operate in collaboration with third-party vendors to increase retail opportunities.

Themed gaming, too, can drive engagement with a location, and caters to a core XR demographic. This includes game developers: Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is a newly released PC application for designing and publishing games and experiences directly into the online video game Fortnite. 11 The Fortnite Team, “Unreal Editor for Fortnite and Creator Economy 2.0 are here. New worlds await,” Fortnite, March 22, 2023.

There appears to be public appetite for recreations of individual landmarks rather than entire destinations: a metaverse Eiffel Tower rather than a complete metaverse Paris. An example is Dubai’s Burj Khalifa virtual experience, launched by event-management platform Eventcombo, which offers users a focused tour of the world’s tallest building. 12 “Dubai: Take an immersive tour of Burj Khalifa in metaverse,” Khaleej Times, October 8, 2022. For now, there seem to be fewer opportunities to create whole customer journeys (although this may work well for certain cases like theme parks). When it comes to end-to-end tourism experiences, travelers still seem prefer the “real thing.”

Preparing for the future of travel

How can travel companies leverage the metaverse to create more compelling experiences for their customers? Certain challenges must be overcome: these include enabling interoperability between decentralized worlds, protecting data security, and making immersive devices more readily available.

However, it’s prudent for travel players to think proactively about engaging with the metaverse—and perhaps seize a first-mover’s advantage. Early control will help to sidestep thorny issues like third parties claiming virtual rights to a location.

Once travel players have plotted out potential traveler journeys (whether hybrid or fully digital), they can find the right collaborators to bring these experiences to life—such as virtual-universe and retail platforms, communications channels, and designers. As many tech players are still only starting to come to grips with immersive experiences, companies may be able to secure favorable partnership agreements and experiment with different executions.

Four steps for travel players contemplating the metaverse

Step 1: Create a strategy based on individual traveler touchpoints to be disrupted. Develop offers targeted at travelers of the future, considering demographic groups, travel purpose and likely journeys. Imagining specific future touchpoint needs and desires and how these can be satisfied or enhanced in a virtual world will ensure a targeted strategy.

Step 2: Identify the platform you want to play on. There are several options here, depending on factors like the strength of your brand and how much independence you require. With a very strong brand, you might be in a position to create your own platform. If your brand is less widely recognized—as with most tourism destinations—or the advantages of a dedicated platform are not clear, then it might be unwise to go it alone. It may be possible to integrate your experience with another organization’s platform, with the added benefit that their established users can stumble across your product. Or partner with an existing platform, as Saudi Arabia’s RCU have done with browser-based platform Decentraland and Korean tourism with the ZEPETO app.

Step 3: Choose the right talent. Developing any offer will likely require new skills—not just to make your immersive world look good, but to ensure that it’s smooth and exhilarating to use. Excellent “game mechanics” motivate users to come back repeatedly for new experiences. In turn, this requires constant maintenance, operation and innovation, as with any great tourist attraction. Talent for these tasks can be either recruited or outsourced. Hiring a new, dedicated workforce might make sense for a large service that requires intensive modification and security monitoring. For simpler or once-off offerings developed to test the waters, outsourcing will ensure a smoother, faster process.

Step 4: Understand the agreement you have with your partner. Be sure to clarify safeguards related to IP and other potential challenges. Also ensure that virtual experiences cohere with your existing brand identity, as well as the values and cultural context of heritage assets.

The metaverse promises to shake up many sectors of the global economy. Virtual experiences have huge potential for the tourism and travel industries, with the prospect of hybrid and fully immersive digital destinations. But our research indicates that opportunities may, for now, be limited to a few key touchpoints—most prominently, travel inspiration, events, and edutainment. It may take longer for the metaverse to reveal its utility for end-to-end travel experiences, if it ever does.

Nonetheless, there are undeniably travel touchpoints where metaverse integration feels inevitable, profitable and “no regret.” Players in the sector would do well to start planning their metaverse strategy now, focusing on specific touchpoints and destinations, while this rapidly developing arena matures.

Margaux Constantin is a partner in McKinsey’s Dubai office, where Kashiff Munawar is an expert associate partner; Giuseppe Genovese is a consultant in the Dallas office; and Rebecca Stone is a consultant in New York City.

The authors wish to thank Samvit Kanoria, Hamza Khan, and Kevin Neher for their contributions to this article.

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Stimulating Tourist Inspiration by Tourist Experience: The Moderating Role of Destination Familiarity

Jianping xue.

1 College of Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

2 School of Economics and Management, Yibin University, Yibin, China

Zhimin Zhou

Salman majeed.

3 International Center for Hospitality Research & Development, Dedman College of Hospitality, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States

Ruixia Chen

4 School of Tourism Management, Henan Finance University, Zhengzhou, China

Associated Data

All datasets generated for this study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

The tourist experience is a core indicator of destination management for the comprehensive evaluation of destination value. Tourist experience and tourist inspiration are important concepts in the stream of research on destination marketing and management. However, these relationships remained under-explored in the extant literature. This study examined the impact of tourist experience on tourist inspiration under the moderating impact of destination familiarity. To achieve the objective of this study, data were collected online from 622 Chinese tourists. We employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to statistically analyze the gathered data. Findings show that four types of tourist experiences, namely education, esthetics, entertainment, and escapism, significantly and positively influenced the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration, which further influenced the inspired-to-state of tourist inspiration. Destination familiarity exerted a significantly negative moderating impact on the relationship between education experience and inspired-by state of tourist inspiration. Sensitivity analysis presents that education experience was the strongest predictor of the inspired-by state followed by aesthetics, escapism, and entertainment facets of the tourist experience. Findings contribute to the theory and practice of tourism management with a robust interpretation of tourist experience, tourist inspiration, and destination familiarity to solidify the effective management of tourist destinations. Limitations and future research directions are noted.

Introduction

Shopping and consumption at a tourist destination is an important tourist behavior, which fuels destination revenue and revitalizes local economies, especially in the context of declining tourist inflow during destination crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic ( Rasoolimanesh et al., 2021 ). Tourist behavior, such as purchase and consumption of destination products and services, is often sudden, temporary, unplanned, and is inspired by destination situation and tourist experience during tourist visit to a destination ( Woodside and King, 2001 ). For example, at the Lantern Festival in China, tourists in Zigong, a city in Sichuan Province of China, get inspired by Zigong’s special cultural lanterns, and make unplanned and sudden purchase decisions about Zigong’s specialty lanterns. Inspiration is a motivational state that promotes the transition from consumption ideas to consumption behavior ( Böttger et al., 2017 ). The inspiration theory advocates that an individual may get inspired by new things to generate novel ideas, and the transcendence of these ideas may promote an individual’s intrinsic motivation to realize new ideas ( Thrash and Elliot, 2003 ).

Tourist inspiration is defined as a motivational state that drives tourists to realize consumption-related new ideas ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Dai et al., 2022 ). Inspiration includes three core characteristics, i.e., evocation, transcendence, and approach motivation, and two states, i.e., an inspired-by state and an inspired-to state ( Thrash and Elliot, 2004 ). Evocation means that external stimuli provoke inspiration, which is a spontaneous process rather than self-awakening ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Dai et al., 2022 ). Transcendence means that an individual discovers new and better possibilities, which have never been discovered in the past ( Winterich et al., 2019 ), with a feeling of positivity, clarity, and self-enhancement ( Böttger et al., 2017 ). Finally, approach motivation refers to an individual’s inner drive to turn new ideas into actions ( Dai et al., 2022 ). The inspired-by state of tourist inspiration is an epistemic activation component ( Böttger et al., 2017 ) that demonstrates how external stimuli, such as destination environment, activities, and marketing efforts, induce consumption-related ideas into tourist cognitive filters and generate tourist awareness about new and better consumption possibilities ( Winterich et al., 2019 ). The inspired-to state is an intention component ( Böttger et al., 2017 ) that demonstrates how a tourist derives an intrinsic motivation to actualize consumption-related ideas. Tourist inspiration drives consumption-related ideas into tourist consumption behavior, which may provide a potential shortcut to characterize tourist purchase decisions ( Dai et al., 2022 ). Scholars document that the inspired-by-state significantly and positively affects the inspired-to state ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Izogo et al., 2020 ). Tourist inspiration occurs when the inspired-by state and the inspired-to-state exist in a causal and sequential manner ( Thrash et al., 2014 ). Previous studies on the tourist decision-making process mainly focused on pre-travel tourist destination choice decisions and ignored tourist consumption and purchase decisions during a tourist visit to the destination ( Dai et al., 2022 ). Research on tourist inspiration and associated consumption-related decision-making process during tourist visit to a destination remained mixed and fragmented in the extant literature, which demands research attention for conclusive evidence.

Tourists are consumers of destination products and services; however, tourist purchase decision might be different from ordinary consumer purchase decision. As a classic theory of the consumer decision process, the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) model assumes that consumer decision-making is a completely rational process ( McCabe et al., 2016 ) that passes through five stages, i.e., need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase choice, and post-purchase ( Darley et al., 2010 ). Given the facts of information overload or information insufficiency, cognitive limitations, and personal energy/time/cost constraints, tourists are not fully rational to find and evaluate available potential alternatives ( Wattanacharoensil and La-ornual, 2019 ). Tourist consumption behavior reflects the pursuit of pleasure rather than utility maximization ( Dai et al., 2022 ). The five stages of the EKB model sometimes do not fully correspond to tourist purchase decision-making process. It is because the EKB model’s decision-making stages may be simplified or even omitted by tourists during the information search and evaluation of alternatives during the consumption-related decision-making process. Thus, the EKB model may fail sometimes in explaining tourist consumption-related decision-making processes during tourist visit to destinations. Dual-system theories propose that there are two distinct and complementary decision-making systems. System 1 relies on emotions to make decisions, which is an intuitive response, with rapid, heuristic, and affect-driven characteristics. System 2 relies on cognition to make decisions, which is a process of deliberate considerations, with slow, rational, analytic, and reflective characteristics ( Kahneman, 2011 ). Ordinary consumers who make purchase decisions following the decision-making steps of the EKB model are more likely to rely on System 2 of the dual-system theories, while tourists who make purchase decisions following tourist inspiration are more likely to rely on System 1 of the dual-system theories. Tourists get inspired by discoveries or new experiences obtained from the destination environment, activities, and marketing efforts, which prompt tourists to get new consumption-related ideas ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Dai et al., 2022 ). A unique and novel travel-related experience gleaned from tourist interaction with a destination stimulates tourist imagination and fuels tourist inspiration. Since tourist inspiration promotes the transition of new consumption-related ideas to consumption behavior ( Böttger et al., 2017 ), it is important to explore the factors that trigger tourist inspiration, which remained under-explored in the previous studies ( Khoi et al., 2019 ; He et al., 2021 ). A profound understanding of tourist inspiration may bridge the gap where the EKB theory may not fully explain tourist’s consumption-related decision-making processes during visits to tourist destination.

The tourist experience is defined as an interaction between a tourist and a destination ( Stamboulis and Skayannis, 2003 ). An individual’s experience of destination events may be unique and completely different from that of others ( Pine and Gilmore, 1998 ; Stamboulis and Skayannis, 2003 ). Scholars document the notion of the tourist experience in terms of education, esthetics, entertainment, and escapism realms of the tourist experience ( Oh et al., 2007 ). The experience economy creates memorable events for individuals ( Pine and Gilmore, 1999 ). From the perspective of the experience economy, the notion of tourist experience has been examined by scholars across different fields ( Larsen, 2007 ; Ritchie and Hudson, 2009 ; Volo, 2009 ). Existing research in the stream of tourism attempted to explore the outcomes of tourist experience, such as tourist wellbeing ( Hwang and Lee, 2019 ), pleasant arousal ( Loureiro, 2014 ), and tourist inspiration ( He et al., 2021 ). A study on wellness tourism experience explored the relationship between tourist experience and tourist inspiration and found that education, esthetics, and escapism facets of tourist experience significantly impact tourist inspiration except for entertainment experience ( He et al., 2021 ). Different tourism-related studies emphasize the dimensions of tourist experience differently and report mixed findings in a specific context that limit the generalizability of the findings of the studies. For example, Luo et al. (2018) focused on escaping and education dimensions of the tourist experience in the context of wellness tourism and Choi and Choi (2018) examined the entertainment and escaping dimensions of the tourist experience in the context of mass tourism. He et al. (2021) focused on tourist experience and measured tourist inspiration in the context of wellness tourism. Nevertheless, there is a need to investigate the impact of tourist experience on tourist consumption-related inspiration in the broader context of tourism, such as conventional tourism. This study examines the relationship between tourist experience and tourist consumption-related inspiration in a conventional context of tourism, which is broad, to expand the generalizability of the conceptual understanding of the tourist experience and tourist inspiration. Moreover, this study explores how education, entertainment, esthetics, and escapism dimensions of the tourist experience affect tourist inspiration, i.e., the inspired-by-state that ultimately affects the inspired-to-state of tourist inspiration.

Destination familiarity means tourists’ subjective assessment of their existing knowledge and information alongside learning new knowledge and skills during visits to tourist destinations ( Hernández Maestro et al., 2007 ). Some tourists prefer to choose unfamiliar destinations to obtain a novel travel experience ( Chark et al., 2020 ), which increases the probability of tourist inspiration, while some tourists get inspired by familiar destinations to obtain a stable travel experience with intentions to reduce travel-related uncertainties, which reduces the probability of tourist inspiration ( Kim et al., 2019 ). From this, it is discerned that destination familiarity exerts its impact on the relationship between tourist experience and tourist inspiration. Existing studies show that tourists who are familiar with a destination exhibit positive attitude and behavioral intentions, such as intention to visit tourist destination ( Chaulagain et al., 2019 ; Shi et al., 2022 ), satisfaction ( Sanz-Blas et al., 2019 ), and destination evaluation ( Chen et al., 2017 ; Kim et al., 2019 ). Scholars believe that destination familiarity may increase tourist confidence in choosing a destination in parallel to triggering tourist decision-making process to choose familiar destinations ( Milman and Pizam, 1995 ). Tourists’ prior knowledge or destination familiarity may increase tourists’ sense of safety and reduce tourists’ perceptions of perceived risk during visits to destinations ( Karl, 2016 ).

An individual’s familiarity affects his/her information search behavior ( Gursoy, 2019 ). While taking decisions to visit a tourist destination and consume destination products and services, tourists who are familiar with destinations reduce their search for external information regarding tourist destination because such familiar tourists hold sufficient destination information ( Gursoy and McCleary, 2004a ). On the other hand, unfamiliar tourists lack sufficient destination-related information and, thus, increase their search for external information regarding tourist destinations to reduce the levels of uncertainty and perceived risk during travel to tourist destinations ( Carneiro and Crompton, 2009 ; Karl, 2016 ). The inspiration theory maintains that inspiration is triggered by external stimuli rather than internal self-awakening ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Dai et al., 2022 ). External stimuli may likely trigger more tourist inspiration in low-familiar tourists as compared to high-familiar tourists ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Winterich et al., 2019 ). From the perspective of tourist consumption-related decision-making, tourists who are familiar with a destination are more likely to make decisions based on the system 2 approach of the dual-system theories, which is similar to the theoretical premises of the EKB model. It is because high-familiar tourists might have sufficient destination information for a rational decision to visit a tourist destination ( McCabe et al., 2016 ). However, low-familiar tourists are more likely to make decisions based on the system 1 approach of the dual-system theories, which is similar to tourist consumption-related inspiration. It is because tourists might lack sufficient destination information and rely on their intuition and cognitive reactions to external stimuli for consumption-related destination decision-making ( McCabe et al., 2016 ). However, studies that demonstrate the role of tourist destination familiarity in tourist decision-making to visit tourist destinations remained succinct. Drawing on the above and to bridge the identified research gap, this study also examines how destination familiarity exerts its moderating impact on the relationship between tourist experience and tourist inspiration.

This study aims to examine the following: (1) How does tourist inspired-by state impact tourist inspired-to state? (2) How does tourist experience impact tourist inspiration, i.e., tourist inspired-by state? (3) How does tourist destination familiarity exert its moderating impact on the relationship between tourist experience and tourist inspiration, i.e., tourist inspired-by state? Findings unravel the psychological mechanism of tourist purchase motivation from the perspective of tourist inspiration. This study fills theoretical gaps with a proposed conceptual framework and offers guidelines to destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in solidifying destination management and promotion efforts to skyrocket sales revenue of tourist destination. This study provides roadmaps for scholars and practitioners to conduct future research on destination marketing and management.

Literature Review

Tourist inspiration: inspired-by state and inspired-to state.

Customer inspiration is defined as a state of temporary motivation evoked by corporate marketing efforts, promoting the generation of new ideas related to consumption, and driving consumers to take action on new ideas ( Böttger et al., 2017 ). As an important concept of the inspiration theory in marketing, customer inspiration includes inspired-by and inspired-to states in its breadth and depth and focuses on the generation of new ideas inspired by corporate marketing efforts and customer consumption behavior ( Böttger et al., 2017 ). Tourist inspiration and its cognitive importance in tourist decision-making have gained the widespread attention of scholars and practitioners from different fields ( Khoi et al., 2019 ; Khoi et al., 2021 ; Dai et al., 2022 ). Dai et al. (2022) note the importance of travel inspiration at the tourist dreaming stage and refer travel inspiration as a motivational state that may influence tourist behavior, such as tourist destination choice. Gollwitzer (1990) proposed the mindset theory of action phases and divided the consumer decision-making process into two phases i.e., a pre-decision phase of deliberation and a post-decision phase of implementation, embodying a sequential relationship. Böttger et al. (2017) argue that the inspired-by state belongs to the deliberation phase, while the inspired-to-state reflects the transition to the implementation phase. In the stream of tourist inspiration, there is a causal and sequential relationship between the inspired-by state and the inspired-to state where the inspired-by-state exists before the inspired-to state ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Cao et al., 2021 ; Dai et al., 2022 ).

External stimuli, such as destination environment, destination events, and discovery of new possibilities in a tourist destination, may trigger tourist inspired-by-state in tandem with generating new ideas regarding tourist consumption with self-transcendence ( Khoi et al., 2019 ). According to the theory of self-determination, the attractiveness of new ideas regarding tourist consumption drives tourist self-realization and fuels tourist unplanned purchases ( Ryan and Deci, 2000 ), which is sketched as the inspired-to state of tourist inspiration on the canvas of this study. For example, when a tourist is inspired by a product with destination characteristics, the idea of purchasing such a product and giving the same to a friend as a gift may emerge naturally ( Böttger et al., 2017 ). The appropriateness of the product as a gift becomes an internal driving force that generates tourist purchase intention, which is an inspired-to state of tourist inspiration ( Thrash and Elliot, 2004 ). Some scholars argue that inspired-by state may also be a precursor to inspired-to state ( Hinsch et al., 2020 ; Izogo et al., 2020 ; Izogo and Mpinganjira, 2020 ). For example, in a cross-cultural study, Izogo et al. (2020) found that inspired-by state significantly and positively affects the inspired-to state. Similar findings were found in research on augmented reality ( Hinsch et al., 2020 ) and social media content ( Izogo and Mpinganjira, 2020 ). However, most studies advocate the causal and sequential impact of inspired-by state on inspired-to state ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Dai et al., 2022 ). Thus, there is a need to testify the impact of inspired-by state on inspired-to state for conclusive evidence. Drawing on most studies reflecting the impact of inspired-by state on inspired-to state, we propose the following hypothesis.

• Hypothesis H1 : Tourist inspired-by state exerts a significantly positive impact on the inspired-to state of tourist inspiration.

Tourist Experience

The tourist experience is the application of the experience economy in a tourism context. The concept of the experience economy is widely accepted by tourism scholars and practitioners. According to the two dimensions of customer connections, namely absorption and immersion, and the level of customer participation, namely passive and active participation, four experience realms of tourist experience are identified in the extant literature for business promotion, i.e., education, esthetics, entertainment, and escapism ( Pine and Gilmore, 1999 ). A unique tourist experience stems from an interaction between destination event and tourist cognitive reaction ( Pine and Gilmore, 1998 ) that may stimulate tourist psychological arousal ( Hosany and Witham, 2010 ) alongside provoking tourist inspiration ( Khoi et al., 2019 ). Tourist experience influences tourist psychological arousal, which is the first step toward tourist inspiration ( Loureiro, 2014 ).

Education Experience

Education experience may impact tourist inspiration ( Whiting and Hannam, 2014 ). Tourists attempt to find new ways to gain new knowledge about tourist destinations to improve consumption-related decision-making ( Oh et al., 2007 ). Education experience has two characteristics, i.e., active participation and absorption ( Pine and Gilmore, 1998 ). From the perspective of tourism, education experience allows tourists to acquire new knowledge and skills to identify new and better possibilities, stimulates tourist imagination, and generates new ideas relevant to tourist consumption of destination products and services ( Winterich et al., 2019 ). Since tourist inspired-by state is an epistemic activation process, which reflects evocation and transcendence of tourist inspiration ( Böttger et al., 2017 ), tourists learn new knowledge and skills as a part of educational experience during visits to a tourist destination that may inspire tourists, trigger tourist novel consumption-related ideas, and grab tourist attention, which reflects the evocation characteristics of tourist inspiration ( Pine and Gilmore, 1999 ; Dai et al., 2022 ). The discovery of new and better possibilities during visits to a tourist destination allows tourists to realize the quality of new ideas and gain a sense of self-transcendence, which reflects the transcendence characteristics of tourist inspiration ( Thrash and Elliot, 2003 ). Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis.

• Hypothesis H2 : Education experience exerts a significantly positive impact on the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration.

Entertainment Experience

Personal experience linked to entertainment is the most emphasized dimension of the tourist experience in destination marketing ( Pine and Gilmore, 1999 ). Destination performances and activities attract tourist attention and make tourists feel happy and excited about destination performances and activities ( Oh et al., 2007 ). During this process, tourists do not directly participate in destination activities, which presents that entertainment experience encapsulates the characteristics of passive participation and absorption in its breadth and depth. It is noted that entertainment experience provokes tourist positive emotions when tourists watch a destination performance ( Hwang and Lee, 2019 ). The broaden-and-build theory in the field of positive psychology argues that positive emotions broaden individuals’ cognitive scope alongside building individuals’ physical, intellectual, social, and psychological resources ( Fredrickson, 2001 ). Existing shreds of evidence demonstrate that the broaden-and-build theory has been applied to research on tourist wellbeing ( Sirgy, 2019 ), value co-creation ( Lin et al., 2017 ), and social media sharing behavior ( Chen et al., 2021 ). Tourists with positive emotions are more open-minded, flexible to adopt changes, and able to generate more creative ideas, which can promote tourist self-efficacy to overcome destination challenges ( Chen et al., 2021 ). According to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions instantly expand an individual’s creative thinking ( Fredrickson, 2001 ). Watching destination performances may stimulate tourists’ happy feelings, promote broader and more imaginative tourist thinking, and generate new ideas regarding tourist consumption. Destination performances and activities may activate tourists’ positive emotions to gain new consumption-related ideas, which reflect the evocation characteristic of tourist inspired-by state. New ideas and creative solutions induce a feeling of self-transcendence, which reflects the transcendence characteristic of the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration ( Thrash and Elliot, 2003 ). Thus, we also propose the following hypothesis.

• Hypothesis H3 : Entertainment experience exerts a significantly positive impact on the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration.

Esthetics Experience

The esthetics experience is a process in which tourists feel and appreciate objective matters and the environment ( Pine and Gilmore, 1999 ). Tourists feel completely immersed in the objective environment and start perceiving and explaining esthetic meanings of destination environment from their unique perspectives, which may trigger tourist inspiration ( Khoi et al., 2019 ). Hosany and Witham (2010) document that an individual’s interpretation of the physical environment fuels an individual’s esthetic experience. Tourists are immersed in the destination environment, passively appreciate, and feel destination beauty, and do not intend to bring changes to destination environment ( Oh et al., 2007 ). This process requires an individual’s full concentration on the environment ( Pine and Gilmore, 1999 ). Therefore, esthetic experience mirrors the characteristics of both passive participation and immersion ( Pine and Gilmore, 1998 ). Esthetic appreciation has a strong cognitive component that requires tourists to invest energy and cognitive resources. When tourists are inspired by the beauty of objective matters or the environment of a destination, tourists discover new and better possibilities in generating consumption-related new ideas ( Khoi et al., 2019 ). Drawing on the above, we propose the following hypothesis.

• Hypothesis H4 : Esthetics experience exerts a significantly positive impact on the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration.

Escapism Experience

Escaping reality is an important motivation for tourists ( Kozak, 2002 ). Tourists temporarily escape the unsatisfactory aspects of daily life and seek places to tour and participate in activities arranged at tourist destinations ( Oh et al., 2007 ). Therefore, escapism has the characteristics of both active participation and immersion ( Pine and Gilmore, 1998 ). To escape reality, tourists expect to travel to specific tourist destinations and participate in destination activities to distance themselves from daily life matters for rest, relaxation, and a feeling of stress alleviation. Traveling to tourist destinations allows tourists to feel that they are in a different time and space and this feeling helps tourists to enjoy a new lifestyle with new and better possibilities of life activities in tourist destinations alongside inspiring tourists with new consumption-related ideas ( Pine and Gilmore, 1999 ). Based on the above, we propose the following hypothesis.

• Hypothesis H5 : The escapism experience exerts a significantly positive impact on the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration.

The Moderating Role of Destination Familiarity

As an important construct in the field of marketing, familiarity with a product or brand refers to consumer experience and knowledge about a product or brand that may influence consumer decision-making regarding a product or brand ( Alba and Hutchinson, 1987 ). Previous studies present that consumer positive decision-making and resultant favorable behavior are linked to consumer familiarity with brand products or services, such as first-time and repeat purchases ( Tam, 2008 ; Paasovaara et al., 2012 ), as compared to consumer unfamiliarity with brand products or services. Destination familiarity is defined as an individual’s subjective assessment of destination information and knowledge ( Hernández Maestro et al., 2007 ). Tourists’ behavioral intentions are influenced by tourists’ subjective familiarity assessment of destination attributes ( Rao and Sieben, 1992 ; Park et al., 1994 ). When tourists feel that they are familiar with a tourist destination, they are more confident in their decision-making to visit tourist destinations ( Milman and Pizam, 1995 ).

Existing studies show that destination familiarity has an important impact on tourist information search behavior ( Gursoy, 2019 ). Tourists first conduct an internal search to obtain desired information from their memory and experience ( Coupey et al., 1998 ). Tourists who extract desired information from their memory attempt to make informed decisions and do not engage in additional information search from external sources ( Brucks, 1985 ). Tourists who do not find the desired information from their memory and experience search for information from external sources for rational travel-related decision-making ( Gursoy and McCleary, 2004b ). Evocation as a salient feature of tourist inspiration means that tourist inspiration is spontaneously evoked by an external stimulus ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Dai et al., 2022 ). Tourist inspiration is more likely to be triggered in low-familiar tourists as compared to in high-familiar tourists, because information obtained from outside may help tourists learn new knowledge, make discoveries, and gain new insights, which stimulate tourist imagination ( Winterich et al., 2019 ). High-familiar tourists extract information from their memory and experience for decision-making, which may not fully trigger tourist inspiration due to the lack of external new things ( Böttger et al., 2017 ). Tourists who are familiar with destinations show the favorable evaluation of destination attributes and develop positive behavioral intentions as compared to unfamiliar destinations ( Chaulagain et al., 2019 ; Sanz-Blas et al., 2019 ; Shi et al., 2022 ). Previous studies note that destination familiarity moderates the relationship between brand equity and tourist revisit intention ( Shi et al., 2022 ), the relationship between logotype and tourist attitude toward a destination ( Roy and Attri, 2022 ), and the relationship between perceived quality and tourist visit intention ( Chi et al., 2020 ). As tourist familiarity with a destination will increase, novel experiences and discoveries from external stimulation will decrease, which will reduce tourist inspiration. Therefore, we also propose the following hypotheses.

• Hypothesis H6 : Destination familiarity exerts a significant moderating impact on the relationship between education experience and the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration such that the relationship is weak when destination familiarity is high.
• Hypothesis H7 : Destination familiarity exerts a significant moderating impact on the relationship between entertainment experience and the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration such that the relationship is weak when destination familiarity is high.
• Hypothesis H8 : Destination familiarity exerts a significant moderating impact on the relationship between esthetics experience and the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration such that the relationship is weak when destination familiarity is high.
• Hypothesis H9 : Destination familiarity exerts a significant moderating impact on the relationship between escapism experience and the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration such that the relationship is weak when destination familiarity is high.

The proposed theoretical associations among the constructs of this study are presented in Figure 1 .

Conceptual model.

Methodology

Questionnaire design.

A survey questionnaire was designed to gather data from Chinese respondents having tourist experience. Screening questions were made a part of the survey questionnaire: (1) What type of destination was your last trip? (2) What is the name of your recently visited tourist destination? (3) How recent is your tourist experience? To measure the proposed constructs in this study, scale items were adapted from the previous studies. Scale items for education, esthetics, entertainment, and escapism dimensions of tourist experience were adapted from Oh et al. (2007) , scale items for tourist inspiration (including the inspired-by state and the inspired-to state) were adapted from Böttger et al. (2017) , and scale items for destination familiarity were adapted from Gursoy and McCleary (2004a) . All scale items were measured using a seven-point Likert scale, which ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) (see Appendix 1). Scholars document that the seven-point Likert scale is well-suited to conduct online surveys ( Chaulagain et al., 2019 ). The survey questionnaire was originally developed in English. Three native Chinese doctoral students, who were proficient in English and had academic and industry experience in tourism marketing, were invited to translate the English version of the questionnaire into Chinese. By following the work of Majeed et al. (2020a) , we used the blind-translation back-translation method to translate the English version of the questionnaire into the Chinese language. Two bilingual professors, who were unfamiliar with the field were invited to convert the translated Chinese version of the survey questionnaire into English. The quality of the English and Chinese versions of the survey questionnaires were compared for clarity and similar intended meanings of the questions and minor adjustments were made to the content and composition of the survey questionnaire before the full launch of the survey ( Chen et al., 2020 ).

Data Collection

This study conducted an online survey at Wenjuan Xing 1 , a professional online academic survey platform in China, between November 5, 2019 and November 10, 2019, to gather data from Chinese tourists who were at least 18 years old to ensure the consent requirement of the study respondents ( Majeed et al., 2020b ; Xue et al., 2020 ). Wenjuan Xing undertakes a random sampling method to administer surveys and records responses from its more than three million registered users, who demonstrate diverse backgrounds and belong to different cities in China ( Cao et al., 2021 ). Wenjuan Xing adopts a multichannel approach to distribute questionnaires to randomly invited users to reflect a greater representation of the relevant study population for the survey ( Cao et al., 2021 ). The participants in the online survey were Chinese adult tourists who had traveled to tourist destinations. A total of 626 responses were received during the data collection process. After removing responses carrying missing values and respondent age as less than 18 years, a total of 622 were retained for the final analysis.

Study Respondents’ Demographic Details

The number of male and female respondents in this study was relatively balanced, accounting for 45.7 and 54.3%, respectively (see Table 1 ). Most respondents were under the age of 40 years (80.38%), corporate staff (66.1%), and were married (67.2%). Table 1 shows that approximately 67.4% of the study respondents mentioned their education level as undergraduate. Approximately 63.5% of the study respondents mentioned 2–3 trips per year, 62.8% of respondents traveled for the first time, 50.6% of respondents liked to travel with family, and 31.5% respondents liked to travel with friends. Approximately 94.1% of respondents traveled to domestic tourist destinations. Destinations related to natural and heritage landscapes were favored by most of the study respondents, i.e., 47.7 and 42.1%, respectively. Approximately 74.8% of the study respondents visited tourist destinations within the previous 3 months from the date of the survey.

Demographic and destination characteristics.

Data Analysis Strategy

The four realms of tourist experience and the two states of tourist inspiration are lower-order latent variables in this study. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the proposed relationships among tourist experience, tourist inspiration, and destination familiarity. PLS-SEM is preferred to the co-variance-based approach because PLS-SEM is one of the most used methods in analyzing the structural relationships of latent variables ( Chin and Newsted, 1999 ) and moderating roles ( Wong, 2016 ; Nitzl and Chin, 2017 ). Smart PLS 3.2.7 was used for data analysis in this study.

Measurement Model Results

Table 2 presents the items and reliability evaluation results of the constructs of the study. Except for three items in the range from 0.667 to 0.697, which is above the minimum acceptable value of 0.50 recommended for factor loadings ( Hair et al., 2010 ), all factor loadings were above 0.70 and were considered acceptable ( Chin, 1998 ). The Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability values of all constructs were above the recommended threshold of 0.70 ( Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994 ), indicating good internal reliability of the study constructs.

Measurement model results.

AVE, average variance extracted; CR, composite reliability; α, Cronbach’s alpha.

a Reverse coded.

The convergent validity and discriminant validity of each construct were evaluated. The average variance extracted (AVE) of all constructs ranged from 0.582 to 0.772 (see Table 2 ), which is above the recommended threshold of 0.50, indicating that all constructs of the model have good convergent validity ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ). The Fornell-Larcker criterion and the heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratio were calculated to evaluate the discriminant validity of the constructs ( Henseler et al., 2015 ; Hair et al., 2021 ). Table 3 shows that the square root of the AVE of each construct was found greater than the correlation coefficient of other constructs, indicating that all constructs have good discriminant validity and met the Fornell-Larcker criterion. The maximum value of the HTMT ratio ( Table 4 ) was found as 0.857, which is less than the recommended threshold of 0.90 ( Henseler et al., 2015 ; Rasoolimanesh et al., 2021 ), indicating that all constructs had acceptable discriminant validity.

Fornell-Larcker criterion.

Bold diagonal values represent the square root of AVEs.

Heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratio.

Structural Model Results

Before the bootstrapping procedure, destination familiarity was set as a moderator, inspired-by state as a dependent variable, and education, entertainment, esthetics, and escapism dimensions of tourist experience as independent variables to generate four moderating impacts. Since destination familiarity is a reflective-reflective construct in this study, a product indicator calculation method was selected while generating the moderating impact on the relationship between dimensions of tourist experience and the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration. To exclude the influence of other factors, demographic and destination variables mentioned in Table 1 were operationalized in the model as control variables. Complete bootstrapping with 5,000 sub-samples was performed to examine the hypothesized relationships presented in the conceptual model. Findings ( Table 5 ) show that R 2 values of the dependent variables are over 0.1 and Q 2 values are over 0, presenting the predictive ability and predictive relevance of the structural model ( Falk and Miller, 1992 ). To solidify the investigation of the goodness of fit and the significance of hypothesized relationships in the model, path coefficients were examined. Findings ( Table 5 ) show that inspired-by state has significantly positive impact on inspired-to state (β = 0.431, t = 10.456, p < 0.001). Thus, hypothesis H1 is supported. Findings for education experience (β = 0.373, t = 9.606, p < 0.001), entertainment experience (β = 0.184, t = 4.685, p < 0.001), esthetics experience (β = 0.218, t = 5.612, p < 0.001), and escapism experience (β = 0.231, t = 7.122, p < 0.001) show that education, entertainment, esthetics, and escapism dimensions of tourist experience exert significantly positive impact on the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration. Therefore, hypotheses H2, H3, H4, and H5 are supported. Findings show that destination familiarity has a significantly negative impact on the relationship between education experience and inspired-by state of tourist inspiration (β = −0.109, t = 3.095, p < 0.05), indicating that when tourist destination familiarity is high, the relationship between education experience and the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration is weak. This supports hypothesis H6. However, findings show that destination familiarity has no moderating impact on the relationship between entertainment experience and inspired-by state (β = 0.002, t = 0.051, p > 0.05), between esthetics experience and inspired-by state (β = 0.049, t = 1.523, p > 0.05), and between escapism experience and inspired-by state (β = 0.042, t = 1.38, p > 0.05). Thus, hypotheses H7, H8, and H9 are not supported. The structural model of the study is presented in Figure 2 .

Path analysis.

*Destination familiarity = the moderating role of destination familiarity; *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001.

Path co-efficient model. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01, *** P < 0.001, n.s P > 0.05.

Sensitivity Analysis

The objective of sensitivity analysis is to determine how much of the change in the dependent variable is caused by the change in the relevant independent variable ( Han et al., 2021 ) and to obtain a ranking of the importance of the independent variable’s influence on the dependent variable ( Ahani et al., 2017 ; Leong et al., 2020 ). Artificial neural network (ANN) modeling is the most used method for sensitivity analysis because of its obvious advantages over traditional statistical methods ( Sharma et al., 2021 ), such as regression analysis. ANN does not require the data to follow a normal distribution and is also suitable for the analysis of non-linear relationship variables ( Tan et al., 2014 ; Leong et al., 2020 ). An ANN model usually consists of three layers, namely the input layer, the hidden layer, and the output layer, and each layer is connected by an activation function ( Sharma et al., 2021 ). In terms of activation function, the sigmoid function is generally considered by researchers due to its advantages of squeezing the original data ( Chiang et al., 2006 ). The IBM’s SPSS 21 neural network module and its multilayer perceptron were employed to perform ANN analysis and a feed-forward-backward-propagation (FFBP) algorithm for training and testing data in this study ( Taneja and Arora, 2019 ). In line with Leong et al. (2020) , 90% of data was used for training, while the remaining 10% of data was used for testing where sigmoid is the activation function for the hidden and output layers ( Sharma and Sharma, 2019 ). Referring to the method of Sharma et al. (2021) , a 10-fold cross-validating procedure was used to avoid the overfitting problem in ANN analysis. The root mean square error (RMSE) is widely used by scholars to validate the results of the ANN analysis ( Chong, 2013 ; Liébana-Cabanillas et al., 2017 ), and, hence, followed for ANN analysis in this study.

To analyze the importance of education, entertainment, esthetics, and escapism dimensions of tourist experience and their associated impact on the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration, we constructed one ANN model. In the ANN model, the four dimensions of tourist experience, i.e., education, entertainment, esthetics, and escapism, are in the input layer, the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration is in the output layer, and there are three hidden nodes in the hidden layer (see Figure 3 ). Table 6 shows that the average RMSE values for both training and testing processes were relatively small at 0.074, indicating an excellent model fit ( Leong et al., 2019 ; Leong et al., 2020 ). To rank the predictive power of the input neurons, a sensitivity analysis was performed. Table 7 shows the importance and normalized importance of each input neuron, i.e., education, esthetics, entertainment, and escapism dimensions of the tourist experience. The value of normalized importance refers to the importance of each input neuron divided by the maximum importance and expressed as a percentage ( Leong et al., 2020 ). The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that education experience had the greatest normalized importance at 98.1%, suggesting that education experience was the most powerful predictor of the inspired-by state followed by esthetics (59.3%), escapism (46%), and entertainment (37.7%) dimensions of the tourist experience.

Artificial neural network architecture.

Root mean square error (RMSE) for artificial neural network model.

SSE, sum square of errors; N, sample size; ANN, Artificial neural network model.

Sensitivity analysis.

EDU, education; EST, esthetics; ENT, entertainment; ESC, escapism; ANN, Artificial neural network model.

Discussion and Conclusion

The findings of this study show that tourist inspired-by state significantly and positively influenced tourist inspired-to state which is in line with the previous studies demonstrating a significant and positive correlation between the inspired by state and the inspired-to state of customer inspiration ( Böttger et al., 2017 ; Hinsch et al., 2020 ; Izogo et al., 2020 ). For example, Böttger et al. (2017) found that inspirational content affects the inspired-to state through the inspired-by state in the high idea shopping condition. Hinsch et al. (2020) and Izogo et al. (2020) also confirmed the significant and positive relationship between tourist inspired-by state and tourist inspired-to state in the context of research on cross-culture and augmented reality topics that support the findings of this study. Mediation analysis (see Appendix 2) shows the significant mediating role of inspired-by state between the relationships of education, entertainment, esthetics, and escapism dimensions of the tourist experience and inspired-to state of tourist inspiration. Since the direct impact of inspired-by state on inspired-to state is significantly positive, the significant mediating role of tourist inspired-by state between the dimensions of the tourist experience and inspired-to state of tourist inspiration reflects partial mediation and solidifies the existance of a causal relationship between inspired-by and inspired-to states of tourist inspiration. As stated in the theory of self-determination, the transition of tourist inspiration from the inspired-by state to the inspired-to state is driven by the self-transcendence and attraction of a new consumption idea ( Ryan and Deci, 2000 ), and the intrinsic motivation for autonomy and competence may be an internal driving force to implement new ideas regarding consumption ( Böttger et al., 2017 ). Tourist inspiration is an extension of general inspiration in the field of tourism, and, thus, our findings showing the relationship between the inspired-by and inspired-to states are consistent with the extant literature on inspiration ( Böttger et al., 2017 ).

The findings of this study show that the education experience positively and significantly influenced the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration. A strong beta (β) value for the relationship between education experience and inspired-by state of tourist inspiration reflects a strong impact of education experience on the inspired-by state as compared to the impacts of entertainment, esthetic, and escapism dimensions of the tourist experience. These findings are consistent with the work of He et al. (2021) where the scholars validated the relationship between education experience and tourist inspiration in the context of wellness tourism. The education experience improves tourist knowledge and skills through active learning during tourist visit to tourist destination ( Oh et al., 2007 ). The acquisition of new knowledge and skills can enhance tourist cognition, broaden tourist horizons, and stimulate tourist imagination ( Rudd et al., 2018 ) to help tourists discover new possibilities and ideas regarding consumption ( Winterich et al., 2019 ). It is estimated that approximately 50% of the total inventions are inspired by new scientific knowledge ( Callaert et al., 2014 ), and creativity is closely related to the application of new knowledge ( Gurteen, 1998 ). Our findings support the works of Gurteen (1998) and Callaert et al. (2014) .

The findings of this study also show that the entertainment experience significantly and positively influenced the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration. Compared with the other three dimensions of tourist experience, entertainment experience has a weak relationship with the inspired-by state of tourist experience due to the smallest path coefficient. The impact of the entertainment experience on tourist inspiration is investigated in this study which remained under-explored in the previous studies. Destination performances and activities inspire tourists by provoking tourists’ positive emotions and feelings of happiness, which are the prominent features of the entertainment experience ( Oh et al., 2007 ). From the perspective of the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions and feelings of happiness motivate tourist imagination, enhance tourist creativity, and promote tourist divergent thinking to help tourists discover new ideas regarding consumption ( Fredrickson, 2001 ).

This study demonstrates that esthetics experience significantly and positively influenced the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration. Compared with education experience and escape experience, the path coefficient of the influence of esthetics experience on the inspired-by state is weak. These findings are consistent with the work of He et al. (2021) . The esthetics experience reflects an individual’s cognitive response to the environment or events, which might be unique and different from others ( Pine and Gilmore, 1998 ). Tourists’ appreciation of the environmental beauty and other objective matters of tourist destination reflects tourists’ inspiration and imagination ( Böttger et al., 2017 ). The findings of this study provide robust support to the previous studies that demonstrated a strong relationship between imagination, i.e., the inspired-by state in this study, and esthetic experience ( Brady, 1998 ; Joy and Sherry, 2003 ).

This study revealed that the escapism experience significantly and positively influenced the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration, which is also consistent with the work of He et al. (2021) . However, compared with the other three dimensions of tourist experience, He et al. (2021) reported a strong path coefficient for the relationship between escapism experience and tourist inspiration, which differs from the findings of this study. The escapism experience refers to tourists’ escaping experiences from daily life and traveling to destinations to participate in specific activities ( Oh et al., 2007 ). The previous literature has confirmed that escape experiences can be very memorable, pleasurable, and inspiring for tourists ( Tom Dieck et al., 2018 ; Hwang and Lee, 2019 ). Different environments and lifestyles allow tourists to discover new possibilities and develop new ideas related to consumption with self-transcendence.

The findings of this study revealed a negative, however, weak, moderating impact of destination familiarity on the relationship between education experience and the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration. Nevertheless, the impact of entertainment, esthetics, and escapism dimensions of tourist experience on the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration was not negatively moderated by destination familiarity and the moderating impact remained comparatively weak due to co-efficient values near zero. Destination familiarity is described as tourist cognition and tourist knowledge and experience regarding tourist destination ( Tan and Wu, 2016 ; Liu et al., 2018 ). As tourists become more familiar with destinations, fewer new possibilities are discovered, which reduces the probability of obtaining new ideas and exerts a little impact on tourist inspiration. Extant literature presents that familiarity negatively impacts imagination expansion ( Sharman et al., 2005 ), which is consistent with the findings of this study. Entertainment, esthetics, and escapism dimensions of tourist experience are more related to tourist emotions and feelings and are less affected by cognition-based destination familiarity. Thus, destination familiarity exerts no moderating impact on the relationships among entertainment, esthetics, and escapism dimensions of tourist experience and tourist inspiration.

Theoretical Contribution

This study makes several important theoretical contributions to the extant literature. First, from the general perspective of tourism, this study puts forth empirical evidence to demonstrate the impact of tourist experience, i.e., education, esthetics, entertainment, and escapism, on tourist inspiration, i.e., the inspired-by state, that provides a broader lens to DMOs to understand tourist cognitive responses for destination promotion, which previously remained context-specific and limited, such as wellness tourism ( He et al., 2021 ) and international travel ( Khoi et al., 2019 ). This study expands the critical understanding of the relationship between tourist experience and tourist inspiration by clarifying the influence of entertainment experience on tourist inspiration which remained inconsistent and mixed in the previous studies on conventional tourism and wellness tourism ( He et al., 2021 ). Tourist inspiration reveals the psychological mechanism of tourist experience that promotes tourist purchase behavior. Tourist shopping or consumption behavior at a host destination is likely to be driven by tourist inspirations. Second, based on the transmission model of inspiration, which was proposed by Thrash et al. (2010) and Böttger et al. (2017) found that inspired-by state mediates the influence of marketing stimulus on inspired-to state. In the field of marketing, previous studies verified the significant impact of inspired-by state on the inspired-to state ( Hinsch et al., 2020 ; Izogo et al., 2020 ). In the field of tourism, some empirical studies explored the antecedents and consequences of tourist inspiration ( He et al., 2021 ; Khoi et al., 2021 ). However, the relationship between the inspired-by state and the inspired-to state, as the two components of tourist inspiration, remained deeply under-explored. This study explored tourist consumption inspiration and found that the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration can significantly and positively affect the inspired-to state in the context of tourism, thus, consolidating the theory of customer inspiration and extending the applicable boundaries of the general inspiration theory in the field of tourism. Third, He et al. (2021) found that education experience significantly affects tourist inspiration in the context of wellness tourism, and this relationship is positively moderated by openness to experience. Our findings show that the education experience can significantly and positively impact the inspired-by state of tourist inspiration and destination familiarity negatively moderates the relationship between education experience and the inspired-by state, which extends knowledge and understanding regarding the impact of tourist education experience on tourist inspiration for additional theoretical insights.

Managerial Implications

Destination marketing organizations can design and arrange destination performances and events to enhance tourist experience, which may motivate tourist inspiration and increase destination sales revenue. Although the discussed four dimensions of tourist experiences significantly and positively affect tourist inspiration, DMOs need to combine their advantages to strategically position tourist experience of destinations. Based on such a positioning strategy, DMOs can plan related marketing activities to highlight specific tourist experiences in tourist destination to strengthen destination brand image. For example, the southern Sichuan Bamboo Sea is in Yibin City, Sichuan Province, China, and is a 4A-level natural scenic spot in China. To highlight the educational experience and aesthetic experience, the scenic spot has built the largest bamboo professional museum in China by combining the advantages of rich bamboo resources to show tourists the long history of Chinese bamboo culture and various bamboo crafts. Visiting the museum may inspire tourists to purchase bamboo craft products to increase scenic spot sales revenue. To highlight the escape and entertainment experiences, the scenic spot plans bamboo raft water experience activities. This inspires tourists to consume bamboo raft experience projects and, ultimately, to increase scenic spot sales revenue. Thus, tourist inspiration uncovered under the empirical lens of this study provides new strategic directions for DMOs.

For destinations characterized by education experience, DMOs need to consider the differences in tourist destination familiarity between revisiting and first-time tourists and adopt different marketing strategies for different types of tourists. For revisiting tourists, DMOs can use two marketing strategies to stop declining purchase motivation caused by the negative moderating effect of destination familiarity to maintain destination sales revenue. The first strategy is that using sales promotions and designing creative marketing campaigns may improve tourist purchase motivation and tourist inspiration, respectively. The second strategy is to increase tourist novelty experience during tourist visits to destinations to trigger tourist inspiration, which weakens the negative moderating effect of destination familiarity, with the help of continuous innovation in destination performances and events.

COVID-19 pandemic may negatively impact tourist willingness to visit familiar and unfamiliar tourist destinations, resulting in a huge impact on the global tourism industry due to the sharp drop in the number of tourists ( Rasoolimanesh et al., 2021 ). The COVID-19 pandemic will likely impact tourist consumption patterns worldwide, such as the growing popularity of free and independent travel, luxury trips, and health and wellness tourism ( Majeed and Ramkisson, 2020 ). The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced people to reconsider their travel decisions for familiar and unfamiliar tourist destinations to avoid the risk of catching the COVID-19 virus during travel. From the perspective of wellness tourism experience, He et al. (2021) examined the influence of tourist experience on tourist inspiration during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the conclusions drawn by He et al. (2021) are consistent with the findings of this study, providing support to the applicability of the findings of this study during the ongoing context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since our study was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, a comparison between the findings of our study and of He et al. (2021) open doors for DMOs for interesting takeouts of this study during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. However, tourist destinations need to reconsider their service designs and distribution channels to match tourists’ changing cognitive reactions and behavioral intention during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. Destinations can strengthen prevention and control measures at tourist attractions, such as controlling the density of tourists, increasing the requirement of negative nucleic acid tests, and frequent disinfection of the tourist attractions in densely populated areas, to reduce the perceived risk of catching the COVID-19 virus during tourist visit to tourist attractions. Improved prevention and control measures to combat the risk of catching the COVID-19 virus will increase tourist sense of security during visits to destination alongside enhancing tourist experience to trigger positive tourist inspiration.

Limitations and Future Research Directions

This study explores the relationship between the dimensions of tourist experience and tourist inspiration. However, there are some limitations of this study that open doors for future research on the topic under investigation. There are many antecedents to tourist inspiration ( Khoi et al., 2019 ; Winterich et al., 2019 ). However, the current study only explored four dimensions of tourist experience as antecedents to tourist inspiration. Future research can explore other factors that may influence tourist inspiration based on the traits of tourists and the characteristics of destinations for a profound understanding of tourist inspiration. Our study examined the moderating impact of destination familiarity on the relationship between tourist experience and tourist inspiration and found that destination familiarity has no moderating impact on the relationship between the proposed facets of tourist experience and tourist inspiration except for the relationship between education experience and inspired-by state of tourist inspiration. Future research can extend the scope of our work to investigate the impact of other moderators, such as national culture, on the relationship between tourist experience and tourist inspiration for additional insights.

Since this study explored the inspired-to state of tourist inspiration with a focus on purchase motivation, the proposed theoretical framework of the study can be extended to reflect how tourist inspiration affects tourist revisit intention, tourist wellbeing, and tourist intention to recommend a destination ( Filep and Laing, 2019 ). Future research may also focus on other perspectives to examine tourist inspiration at different stages of travel. For example, how can tourist inspiration influence tourist intention to visit/revisit specific tourist destinations during the pre-travel planning phase? Since a growing number of tourists collect destination information online when making travel plans ( Majeed and Ramkissoon, 2022 ), it will be worth exploring how DMOs can inspire tourists through online information and fuel tourist travel intention for a specific tourist destination.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the Local Ethics Committee of Shenzhen. All the study participants provided written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of Shenzhen University.

Author Contributions

JX: conceptualization, conduct of the survey, data gathering, data analysis, revisions, development, and proofreading of the manuscript. ZZ: conceptualization and survey design. SM: revisions, development, and proofreading of the manuscript. RC: data analysis. NZ: survey design. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Yufan Jian for her constructive comments to improve the quality of this study.

1 https://www.wjx.cn

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 72172093 and 71832015) and the Science and Technology Research Project of Henan Province, China (Grant No. 222102320001).

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.895136/full#supplementary-material

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Surge in Adventure Tourism: Four Big Trends in 2024

Jesse Chase-Lubitz , Skift

April 17th, 2024 at 12:00 PM EDT

New data shows that experiences are the leading factor when choosing a destination.

Jesse Chase-Lubitz

The latest consumer spending data from GetYourGuide reveals a surge in demand for unique travel experiences and activities that align with personal passions.

The report analyzes booking data from millions of travelers and highlights a significant shift in travel priorities. Here are the key takeaways:

Experiences Rule

Travelers are prioritizing experiences over traditional sightseeing. Nearly all travelers (90%) plan to spend the same or more on activities in 2024, and experiences are now the leading factor when choosing a destination (reported by 98% of travelers). 

Passion Drives Destinations

The hottest travel destinations are no longer just about iconic landmarks. Cities like Fajardo, Puerto Rico (up 419% in bookings by American travelers) and Hoi An, Vietnam (up 284% globally) are experiencing a boom, likely due to their unique cultural offerings and adventure opportunities.

Globally Inspired

Travelers are venturing beyond the usual suspects. This year’s top trending tours include the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, kayaking through El Yunque Rainforest in Puerto Rico, and even a hot air balloon ride over Interlaken, Switzerland.

The Rise of the Explorer  

GetYourGuide identifies a new breed of traveler – the “Explorer” – who spends more on experiences, takes longer trips, and travels more frequently. These high-value vacationers are fueling the experience economy.

Get Skift Research

Skift Research products provide deep analysis, data, and expert research on the companies and trends that are shaping the future of travel.

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: getyourguide , tourism , Travel Experiences , Travel Trends

Photo credit: GetYourGuide Walking Tour in London. Source: GetYourGuide

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Global tourism is on the up and up this year

• Asia & Oceania

Tuesday, 16 Apr 2024

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Asia stocks bounce as soaring dollar pauses, bangkok ranks second-best city for expats in asia, singapore is top with penang and kl close behind.

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Next month, Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria will play host to the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE24). It is said to be the biggest tourism event to be held in the country since the pandemic ended.

For those of us in the industry, the ATE24 – held from May 19 to 23 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre – is also one of the largest business-to-business or B2B events in the world. It is hoped that the event will bring lots of benefits to Australia’s inbound tourism market, as well as act as a platform for the country to show off its tourism products to the world.

This will be the 44th edition of the ATE, organised by both Tourism Australia and Visit Victoria.

Many governments have been trying to hold similar events in their own countries but so far, none have been successful. The ATE24 is expected to bring more than 1,500 tour operators from across Australia – along with 700 outbound operators from over 30 countries that organise tours to Australia – under one roof throughout the five-day event, including 18 from Malaysia.

These Aussie players will get to meet their global counterparts face-to-face, and introduce new innovative tourism and ecotourism products, including fun destinations, good food experiences and great souvenirs from Down Under, to potential buyers.

As for me, I have been sending two to four Apple Vacations colleagues from different departments to the event each year, including those from the product development and marketing promotion departments. This allows them to meet up with fellow travel operators and gain first-hand information on Australia’s latest tourism trends and resources.

Having been in the tourism sector for a little over three decades, I realise that Tourism Australia (TA) has always played the unofficial role of “ambassador of friendship” in the industry.

Every year, the agency would set aside a massive budget to bring foreign travel operators as well as media practitioners to Australia, so that they can meet up with tourist product suppliers from the country’s six states and two territories. This not only forges meaningful business ties but also allows foreigners to have a taste of the great Australian hospitality.

I seriously feel that TA has spent its money very wisely and productively.

I myself took two travel groups to Australia in 2022 for more profound and intimate travel experiences in different parts of the country, from which I have come to notice that Australian travel operators are indeed hugely passionate about the marvellous natural environment the country offers. The red and white wines from the vast expanses of vineyards dotting the Australian countryside are aptly complemented by delicious local cuisines, and boosted by cups of stimulating after-dinner coffees.

I admit that I have a special affinity for the Australian flat white ... and have you had an Australian brunch yet? When we were there, we searched high and low for some of the best brunches around, creatively prepared by chefs using fresh local ingredients.

I always tell people that the Australian way of living – somewhat hassle-free and easy-going – is something that travellers should really experience, and enjoy. Through the annual ATE, overseas travel operators will get to experience for themselves this famous Australian way of travelling.

The country has more than enough nature, culture and breathtaking sights that can be enjoyed the “Australian” way, too. However, to truly understand this way of life, travel operators must first discover, feel and appreciate Australia’s unique cultural charms before they can pass it on to travellers from their respective countries.

This has been ATE’s unchanging objective in nearly five decades: sharing the many marvels the country has to offer with everyone else.

Currently, I am planning a 30-day themed Australian tour for autumn 2025 (which is in May), where we will be stepping on the “belly button of the Earth” gazing at the galaxies above, witnessing the thrills of Vivid Sydney and taking on the BridgeClimb challenge, and lastly, savouring the good food and fabulous wines of South Australia.

Australia aside, many other countries around the world are fighting hard today to seize a slice of the tourist economy cake. Even Saudi Arabia, previously shut away from the world, started opening up its borders and welcoming foreign visitors in late 2019.

This was soon followed by the disbursement of generous budgets to woo global travellers via large-scale marketing campaigns.

As if that’s not enough, the desert kingdom is also investing heavily to enhance its tourism infrastructure, constructing brand new airports and hotels, as well as a “futuristic city” called The Line, doing all it can to attract tourists.

Besides Mecca, almost every major Saudi destination is teeming with tourists who are free to roam everywhere. The kingdom has made a significant breakthrough in opening up its tourism sector, and is set to win big as an emerging international destination this year.

Countries across the planet are also lifting their visa restrictions, upping international flight frequencies, and hosting travel fairs and exhibitions. Everyone is vying for the lucrative tourist money to jumpstart the recovery of their tourist sector, raking in foreign exchange earnings and creating job opportunities at the same time.

In fact, the tourism industry has never received so much attention before. Governments are brushing aside all forms of restrictions, initiating unprecedented collaborations and doing all they can to throw their doors wide open to international travellers, which is something quite unseen before.

It appears that the market is overflowing with a vast range of exhilarating tourist products that are bound to put a big smile on every traveller’s face. Soon, tourist promotion authorities worldwide will find themselves intensely pitted against one another to attract tourists.

Even China is fully liberalising its visa requirements for foreign visitors, and this is poised to see many more tourists from the West as well as the rest of Asia flocking to its shores.

Australia’s TA keeps introducing exciting new seasonal tourism activities such as the annual Vivid Sydney event. There is also Yokoso Japan, Korea’s K-pop craze, Macao’s magical spell, Hong Kong’s irresistible dynamism, Dubai’s “Time To Say Dubai” and many more.

Every country is putting in immense sums of money to promote themselves to the world, trying to get travellers to come over and to shop, eat and party till you drop.

The good news is, people are actually travelling, and in every season, too.

Anyway, the tremendous effort to boost tourism is a positive development as it helps promote mutual visits of people from different countries while fortifying cultural and social exchanges. This is the harmonious integration we yearn to see from people living in our Global Village.

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.

Leesan, the globe-trotting traveller who has visited 137 countries and seven continents, enjoys sharing his travel stories and insights. He has also authored five books.

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Tags / Keywords: Melbourne , Vistoria , Visit Victoria , Australian Tourism Exchange , ATE , Leesan , Tourism Australia , China , Saudi Arabia , Mecca , Dubai , Tourism

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Travel industry must do better for tourist destination communities – harry.

The Duke of Sussex has urged the travel industry to “do better” by communities acting as custodians of tourist destinations.

Harry’s comments came in a online address to the annual general meeting of his Travalyst organisation, which aims to encourage the tourism sector to become more sustainable and make eco-choices simpler for travellers.

During an online video call with a number of delegates, the duke said: “Travel and tourism relies on destinations, held together by communities, without which we have nowhere to travel to.

“Communities are the beating heart of travel and we must do better by the people who are the custodians of the places we visit.

“We’ve heard from some fantastic organisations like Invisible Cities, who train people affected by homelessness to be tour guides in their own city, and Global Himalayan Expedition, whose programmes have helped electrify over 200 Himalayan villages, impacting over 60,000 lives for the better.

“More and more people are wanting to make informed travel choices so that the benefit of travel is felt by all. Travalyst and its partners bring a combined market value of nearly three trillion dollars and are working hard to provide that resource at a systems level.”

Non-profit organisation Travalyst was founded by the duke in 2019 and has formed a coalition of leading brands including Booking.com, Skyscanner, Tripadvisor, Trip.com, Visa, Google and Expedia Group.

The two-day meeting, which began on Tuesday, was held in southern France and brought together some of the biggest brands in travel and technology, as well as industry experts, to discuss sustainable and regenerative tourism.

Travalyst’s latest development came in February when it launched an initiative to review whether tourism certification bodies, that focus on sustainability, meet a set of criteria in order to be displayed on Travalyst’s partner platforms.

Sally Davey, Travalyst’s chief executive officer, said: “I think having Prince Harry involved in these sorts of discussions is vital. It demonstrates how critical it is to have community voices at the heart of everything that we’re doing.

“We were there to listen, as was Prince Harry, to hear those voices to learn and to understand how we can do better by those people and those places.”

Design Science in Tourism pp 55–68 Cite as

Authenticity for Tourism Design and Experience

• Jillian M. Rickly 5 &
• Scott McCabe 5  
• First Online: 05 October 2016

3199 Accesses

20 Citations

Part of the book series: Tourism on the Verge ((TV))

Traditionally, the role of design in tourism research has been oriented towards planning and designing spaces for tourism and recreational uses. In the context of the experience economy this process focuses on experience design so that spaces become stages in which experiences are enacted, performed and valued. As a result the subjective and affective aspects of the experience have become somewhat neglected. Interestingly, while the debates surrounding the concept of authenticity in tourism studies are concerned with similar aspects of tourism experience, few in the design literature have engaged with the idea of authentic experience of place and culture. Because authenticity is a relational concept that functions to interlace notions of originality, genuineness, symbolism, encounter and experience it holds great value for tourism design and planning. As such, we propose a few questions to spark conversation: What is the role of authenticity in experience of place in the context of design thinking? Can we truly design spaces for authentic engagement? Is it ever possible to experience places authentically that have been designed? With the tremendous value placed on designing spaces for entertainment purposes, what value is placed on the ‘real’ or un-designed spaces of tourism? This chapter questions conceptions of experience design in the context of theories of authenticity and touristic experience, thereby aiming to bring a much contested concept into greater consideration in the more grounded debates of tourism planning.

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Rickly, J.M., McCabe, S. (2017). Authenticity for Tourism Design and Experience. In: Fesenmaier, D., Xiang, Z. (eds) Design Science in Tourism. Tourism on the Verge. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42773-7_5

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What Is VR Tourism and What Are Its Benefits?

V irtual Reality (VR) allows users to experience simulated environments as if they're in the real world. With VR, you could experience far-off destinations' sights, sounds, and sensations without ever getting on a plane.

VR tourism has been gaining popularity in recent years, offering tourists an immersive and accessible way to explore the world. But is it worth doing?

Let's explore the world of VR tourism, what it is, and whether it's a worthwhile experience for avid travelers.

How VR Is Revolutionizing the Tourism Industry

VR devices are commonly associated with gaming, but they have a range of other applications. One of them is in the travel industry, which now allows people to explore the world virtually from their living rooms. It offers travelers an immersive and interactive experience of traveling to any part of the world.

Travelers around the world are taking a keen interest in virtual tourism. According to an estimate by Market Data Forecast , the Global Virtual Tourism Market is expected to reach approximately $847.95 billion by 2028. Meanwhile, the market's valuation for the year 2022 was around $385.75 billion.

VR technology creates a virtual environment that simulates actual tourist spots worldwide. You can experience them through VR headsets or glasses and enjoy these far-off destinations virtually. But it is only one instance of the use of VR in the tourism sector—there are many other uses of this tech in the industry.

For instance, VR can help tourists virtually explore a place before planning a trip. It would allow them to get familiar with the location's culture, know which things they should try, give them a better sense of what to expect, and increase their confidence in their choice. It can also be handy for marketing in the tourism sector and help travel guides attract more visitors.

Furthermore, VR technology offers an immersive experience for travelers unable to travel due to physical disabilities, health issues, or financial constraints. It can also help preserve natural and cultural heritage sites by reducing the number of physical visitors.

Moving forward, let's now focus on the different benefits of VR in tourism.

Create Virtual Travel Experiences

One of the main benefits of VR in tourism is the possibility of virtual travel experiences. You can experience a range of tourist spots, including religious sites, historic sites, and even places that still need to be fully developed for tourists. A range of VR technologies like VR headsets and glasses, 360-degree cameras, special video editing tools, and others allow you to enjoy these attractive sites without being in person.

Virtual traveling can eliminate many limitations for travelers, like budget constraints, physical limitations, or time constraints. You only need to invest in VR technologies, and you can avail immersive travel experiences of any destination worldwide.

With VR travel, you can get teleported anywhere you like and enjoy VR city tours with your friends and loved ones. And because you're not going through the trouble of transit, you don't need group planning apps that help make planning trips with friends and family easier.

However, virtual travel experiences are still uncommon as many people yearn for the authenticity of actual travel. The idea of virtual tourism, where you don't even have to pack your bags, can be puzzling to some. But if you want to try virtual travel, you should check out these free virtual travel experiences .

Use VR for Self-Guided Tours

VR technology and augmented reality (AR) devices can work as your personal tour guide. Although VR and AR are different technologies , they can work together to improve your tour. This especially benefits those who prefer solo travel or desire more privacy. VR tourism apps provide self-guided tours, allowing travelers to explore at their own pace.

VR travel apps for exploring , like the City Guide Tour , can provide you with information about destinations through object recognition features. For instance, if you are traveling in an unknown city, it might pinpoint tourist spots like museums, parks, and galleries and offer on-screen information related to them.

Additionally, translation apps let you talk to anyone, even in places where communication is a challenge. You can download languages to your phone, translating conversations in real time, even without a data connection. Therefore, you can communicate easily at markets, airports, or hotels.

Book Your Destination Using VR

The travel industry is getting even more exciting with the introduction of VR booking systems that provide users with an immersive environment for planning trips. These systems help you to plan your vacation in a better way. You can select your destination, hotel rooms, or plane seats through these AR and VR booking interfaces and even make payments.

Although yet to be widely used by travel agencies, several companies have introduced these services. Amadeus' VR travel search and booking experience is one excellent example that allows travelers to plan their entire trip virtually.

VRBookings.com is another example that offers vacation rental software to travel companies. This emerging trend could revolutionize the VR tourism industry by making the booking system more user-friendly and efficient.

Travelers could save time and money by using VR for booking and payment. At the same time, travel companies could reduce overhead costs and provide more personalized services to their customers. As this technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative applications of AR and VR in the travel industry.

Take a Virtual Tour Before Booking Your Hotel

VR is not limited to the tourism industry but also offers unique features for the hospitality industry. You can take virtual hotel tours before deciding on whether to book. This lets you know what a hotel offers, its environment, recreational activities, and the overall experience. It lets you book a hotel according to your preferences and enjoy a personalized experience.

VR hotel room previews allow hotels to be more transparent about their services and attract more visitors, promoting their services worldwide. Many hotels, like Atlantis Dubai, highlight their lavish features through 360-degree video virtual tours. This innovative approach helps hotels stand out and ensures customers make informed decisions before booking, leading to a more enjoyable and memorable stay.

A Look Ahead at the Tourism Sector and VR

The global virtual tourism market is rapidly expanding thanks to the inventive use of virtual and augmented reality technology. Although VR tourism trips may feel strange to some, Virtual Reality can surely enhance your travel experiences.

VR tech can revolutionize the tourism industry by transforming how travelers plan and experience their trips. In the future, it could be used for destination marketing, creating personalized travel experiences, and enhancing in-destination experiences through immersive tours and interactive exhibits.

This technology can also help tourism boards attract more visitors and encourage them to stay longer. Travel companies, too, can create customized travel itineraries and offer travelers more engaging and memorable experiences. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative applications of VR in the tourism industry.

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Home » News & Media » President Embarks on Observation Tour to Revitalize Tourism Industry in Scenic Nuwara Eliya

President Embarks on Observation Tour to Revitalize Tourism Industry in Scenic Nuwara Eliya

• Emphasis on Developing “Pekoe Trail” to Enhance Tourist Experience in Central Highlands.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe visited the Court Lodge Estate, owned by the Udupusellawa Plantation Company in Nuwara Eliya this morning (16) to explore opportunities for the revival of the tourism industry around the picturesque hills of Nuwara Eliya. Notably, the President embarked on this journey by traversing the Pekoe Trail.

The “Pekoe Trail” spans 300+ km through the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, regarded as one of Asia’s best-kept secret routes. Originating from the renowned city of Kandy, it extends south towards the Hatton and Horton Plains National Park, then east through Haputale and Ella, before meandering around the charming town of Nuwara Eliya. Originally constructed during the British colonial period to transport tea from vast plantations to factories, the trail holds historical significance.

During his walk along the Pekoe Trail covering a distance of 3.2 km, the President engaged in friendly conversation with the workers employed at the Court Lodge estate. Welcoming the President warmly, the people expressed their heartfelt wishes for a joyous Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

The Court Lodge estate, overseen by Browns Plantations, spans 264 hectares and employs a total of 349 workers. During his visit, President Ranil Wickremesinghe personally inspected the fundamental requirements of the plantation workers, addressing issues related to education, healthcare and housing. He particularly focused on the prospects of the children within the plantation workers community, especially those set to complete their schooling after the G.C.E. Advanced level examination.

The factory at Court Lodge is known for producing “Light Bright” tea.

During his tour, President Ranil Wickremesinghe also emphasized the importance of providing Pekoe Trail tourists with the opportunity to savour a freshly brewed cup of tea. Furthermore, he explored avenues to bolster the tourism industry associated with Sri Lanka’s central highlands by leveraging the Pekoe Trail.

Mr. Miguel Cunat, the visionary behind the Pekoe Trail expedition, who has extensively explored the central mountains of Sri Lanka over the years, expressed his belief that Sri Lanka can be mapped internationally as one of the premier hiking destinations globally.

Pekoe Trail offers tourists a unique opportunity to explore a variety of terrains, delve into the region’s storied history, engage with its vibrant culture and savour authentic local cuisine and beverages. Comprising 22 stages, the Pekoe Trail can be tailored to suit one-day or multi-day excursions, catering to a range of preferences. Plans are underway to further develop the trail, enhancing it with necessary facilities to ensure a seamless and enjoyable experience for visitors.

The European Union (EU) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have extended their support to the Pekoe Trail project, aligning with Sri Lanka’s national tourism strategies. The initiative encompasses various aspects, including sustainable environmental development, to foster the growth of tourism in the country.

The goal of the Pekoe Trail project is to draw in a new wave of tourism, including adventure seekers, to Sri Lanka while simultaneously improving the livelihoods of rural communities. Mr. Miguel Cunat conveyed his appreciation to President Ranil Wickremesinghe for the support provided in initiating the Pekoe Trail and commended the President’s vision to revitalize the country’s economy by transforming the tourism industry.

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