Prelims

Half Title Page

The Handbook of Managing and Marketing Tourism Experiences

Title Page

The Handbook of Managing and Marketing Tourism Experiences

Edited by

Marios Sotiriadis

University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

Dogan Gursoy

Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2016

Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78635-290-3 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78635-289-7 (Online)

List of Contributors

Introduction

Tourists desire a series of services that allow multiple options and experience opportunities. For tourists, the product is the total experience, covering the entire amalgam of all aspects and components of the experience encounter, including attitudes and expectations. Tourists generally perceive and evaluate their visit as an experience, even though the various services are offered by different operators. In fact, their visit consists of a structured series of services and providers/producers, which operate separately. From the supply side, the tourism offering is definitely a series of experiences achieved through a combination of a diverse array of products and services (Middleton, Fyall, Morgan, & Ranchhod, 2009). Hence, offering these experiences requires the involvement, partnering, and collaboration of a series of businesses (Gursoy, Saayman, & Sotiriadis, 2015).

The tourism experience is, by definition, “what people experience as tourists” (Sharpley & Stone, 2011, p. 1). Tourism destinations and providers of tourism services do nothing else than providing experience opportunities to people during their trips. What exactly is an experience? Literature suggests many different meanings and interpretations. According to a straightforward description, an experience is “the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through a direct observation or participation” (Merriam-Webster, 1993). Apparently, the customer experience is derived from the pursuit of fantasies, feelings, and fun. Experience refers to customers’ wonderful memories associated with a place/location (destination); it is the core value of tourism consumption. In the broader social context, experience combines the actions of individual customers with the situations under which consumption will occur (Schmitt, 1999).

According to Sundbo and Darmer, “… experiences occur whenever a company intentionally uses services as the stage and goods as props to engage the individual” (2008, p. 11). Therefore, an experience occurs whenever companies intentionally construct it to engage customers. Every tourism company offers a customer experience. The more aware a business is of what type of experience is desired by consumers and by offering the type of experiences desired by consumers, the more likely they are to be successful.

Experience Economy: Anatomy of an Experience

Pine and Gilmore (1998) set out the vision for a new economic era, the experience economy, in which consumers are in search for extraordinary and memorable experiences. In the experience economy, during the last decades, the attention is shifted away from product or service delivery to the customer’s experience as the value-added element (Mossberg, 2007; Pine & Gilmore, 1998; Schmitt, 1999; Schmitt, 2003). In an attempt to better analyze and contextualize the concept, researchers proposed various approaches regarding what creates experiences (see, e.g., Boswijk, Thijssen, & Peelen, 2007; Mossberg, 2007). However, Pine and Gilmore (1999) are less concerned with specific elements of what creates an experience. They instead suggest four main dimensions/realms of experiences along two axes: the customer’s level of participation and the customer’s connection with the environment or surroundings. The same authors suggest that an experience begins as an event where a tourist experiences (activity) an attraction or business (resources) within a particular context or situation. This event generates a reaction and that reaction results in a memory upon which the tourist reflects and creates new meaning. Ultimately the tourist, through this meaning-making process, both increases his or her understanding of the world and of the self as well.

While there are many ways to define an experience, Pine and Gilmore (1999) suggest the following equation depicting the “anatomy of an experience.” Experience can be regarded as the entirety of the process consisting of the following formula (where the arrow means “causes”):

Tourism Experiences

Tourists travel for a variety of reasons: to escape, explore, understand, and participate. But at the core of the experience lies the providers of tourism services and the destination – the businesses and the place that deliver/provide something to the tourist to keep forever and share with others (Middleton et al., 2009; Morrison, 2013; Sharpley & Stone, 2011). Every tourist experiences a trip, holidays, or an attraction, but quality of their experiences depend on the activities and providers they select. Service is an essential component of delivery of most form of tourism activities. Services include but not limited to those functions that a tourist might or might not be able to perform for him or herself but in all cases choose someone else to perform it for them. Services take place at locations where the activity is offered (such as the travel, the accommodation, the food, the transportation, the communication, and the provision of souvenirs). Therefore, tourism activities require services provided by business; these set of services and activities form the tourism experiences. Further, it is generally accepted that tourism experiences have multidimensional facets. Walls, Okumus, Wang, and Kwun (2011) analyzed the theoretical underpinnings of customer experience by examining the definitions of experience and the contextual nature of customer experiences. Their study suggests that the perception of customer experience has numerous foundational origins that have complicated its growth as a viable and valued concept, and proposes a framework to better understand this construct in a tourism and hospitality context.

Providing tourists with memorable experiences is important for success in a highly competitive tourism marketplace (Kim, 2014). In order to gain a competitive advantage, it is crucial for organizations and companies to offer and deliver experiences that are demanded and valued by the market. There are numerous issues and challenges to be addressed in managing tourism experiences by tourism destinations and businesses ranging from the experience design to the management of experience creation and delivery that meets the customer’s expectations (Lin & Liang, 2011). Literature has increasingly recognized the importance of managing the customer’s experience (see, e.g., Berry, Carbone, & Haeckel, 2002; Morgan, Lugosi, & Ritchie, 2010; Schmitt, 2003). The customer experience has emerged as the single most important aspect in achieving success for companies across all industries. A successful customer experience management requires a strategy that focuses on the operations and processes of a business around the needs of the individual customer (Schmitt, 2003).

Managing and Marketing Tourism Experiences

In order to provide valuable and memorable experiences, tourism businesses and destinations have to manage and market efficiently and effectively the provision of tourism services and delivering experiences. From a managerial standpoint, the landmark work by Pine and Gilmore (1998, 1999) has generated widespread interest into a new management paradigm which emphasizes the transition from service delivery to experience creation and co-creation.

The motivation to design and stage valuable experiences stem from the fact that an experience is subjectively felt by an individual who is engaged with an event on an emotional, physical, spiritual, and/or intellectual level. As already mentioned, Pine and Gilmore (1999) defined four realms/dimensions of experiences, namely entertainment, educational, esthetic, and escapist. These dimensions are the components of the experience economy framework explored in various contexts, as presented below. The same authors provided five key points for which they called experience-design principles: theme the experience, harmonize impressions with positive cues, eliminate negative cues, mix in memorabilia, and engage all five senses.

Within the marketing realm, Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) suggested an experiential view of consumption, arguing that satisfaction is one component of experiences in addition to the hedonic, symbolic, and aesthetic nature of experiential consumption. Otto and Richie (1995), based on this experiential view, examined satisfaction of tourism experiences and asserted that subjective, emotional, and highly personal responses to various aspects of the service encounter are likely to result in varying levels of overall satisfaction. Further, Jennings and Nickerson (2006) have provided an assessment of and insights into the satisfactory quality experiences; however, there is no current consensus as to the definition of what constitutes “quality.” Nevertheless, the most prevalent relationship is the connection of experience to service quality and to customer satisfaction (Ekinci, Riley, & Chen, 2001). This interrelationship and connection has been demonstrated by studies in various tourism contexts. It is believed that a valuable and memorable tourism experience will lead to customer satisfaction and post-consumption behavioral intentions (Oh, Fiore, & Jeoung, 2007).

Experience Economy Framework: Empirical Studies within Tourism Context and Settings

Literature suggests that the pertinent constructs of the experience economy model can be used to explain the experiential nature of tourism in various settings (see, for instance, Quadri-Felitti & Fiore, 2012). During the last decade, there has been an enthusiastic movement in the management and marketing literature toward the experience economy and its particular relevance to the tourism industry (Mehmetoglu & Engen, 2011; Titz, 2007). The experience economy framework briefly presented above has been empirically examined in various tourism contexts. Let us briefly present the main studies on applications of this framework in tourism contexts.

The first study was carried out by Oh et al. (2007) within the context of bed and breakfast accommodations. Authors proposed a measurement model that includes four realms of experience (i.e., entertainment, education, esthetics, and escapism) and four nomological consequences/antecedents (i.e., arousal, memory, overall quality, and satisfaction). The study performed by Hosany and Witham (2010) investigated the relationships among cruisers’ experiences, satisfaction, and intention to recommend. Mehmetoglu and Engen (2011) used the same framework to empirically examine the applicability of the four experiential dimensions within two different tourism contexts: an event and a built visitor attraction in Norway, both visited by domestic and inbound tourists. The study by Quadri-Felitti and Fiore (2013) evaluated the wine tourists’ experiences in the Lake Erie wine region (USA). This study used an adapted version of the scale of the experience economy’s dimensions to examine the impacts of four dimensions of experience economy on destination loyalty. Lastly, Correia Loureiro (2014) empirically explored the effect of the experience economy on place attachment and behavioral intentions through emotions and memory within the context of rural tourism, individuals experiencing rural holidays in the South of Portugal.

What are the main conclusions that could be drawn from the above studies? Three are, in our view, the main conclusions, namely (i) the experience framework (Pine and Gilmore’s model) has been proved to be reliable and valid for measuring customers’ experience within various tourism contexts; (ii) the relative importance/influence of four dimensions in estimating the experiential outcomes tend to vary from one context to the other; the four dimensions were found to operate differently in each tourism setting. All studies found that the correlation between the experience dimensions and the outcomes (memory, arousal, and overall perceived quality and satisfaction) was strong. However, the four dimensions differ in terms of their relative importance in explaining the outcome variables; and (iii) findings contradict Pine and Gilmore’s assertion that simultaneous incorporation of the four dimensions is necessary.

The theoretical framework of experience economy, suggested by Pine and Gilmore challenged us to think about consumption experience in ways that resonated well with travel, tourism, and hospitality. However, they provided little in setting an agenda for the best practices or research beyond their basic concept. This is evidenced by the lack of development of the literature on the topic.

Additionally, the developments in the field of information and communication technology (ICTs) have revolutionized the business environment. The ICT revolution considerably influences consumer attitudes and behaviors and has a huge impact on tourists, tourism destinations, and providers of tourism services (Law, Buhalis, & Cobanoglu, 2014; Morrison, 2013). One of the main challenges in the digital environment and globalized travel and tourism markets is the rise of networking platforms or social media (SM) that allow tourists to interact and share their views and experiences with potentially unrestricted virtual communities (Sigala, Christou, & Gretzel, 2012; Xiang & Tussyadiah, 2014). SM platforms permit tourists to digitize and share online knowledge and experiences. All these technological developments offer benefits for both tourists and destinations, provide opportunities and raise challenges as well (Sigala et al., 2012). Indeed, SM have a considerable influence and impact, as part of tourism management and marketing strategy, on all aspects of the tourism industry. The reason for this is simultaneously simple and serious: they play a significant role in many aspects of tourism, especially in information search and decision-making behaviors, tourism promotion and in focusing on the best practices for interacting with consumers (Law et al., 2014; Sotiriadis & van Zyl, 2013; Xiang & Tussyadiah, 2014). Literature suggests that SM are increasingly relevant as part of tourism practices affecting destinations and businesses, as they are changing the ways in which information about travel and tourism experiences are disseminated (see, for instance, Munar & Jacobsen, 2014). The changes in tourists’ behavior have a critical impact on the approaches and tools that tourism destinations and businesses have to adopt and use in managing and marketing their services and offerings in the digital environment. As argued by Sigala et al. (2012), SM are challenging existing customer services, marketing activities, and promotional processes in the tourism field. Apparently, the Internet and Web 2.0 provide tourism businesses and destinations with tools and applications to design, create and co-create, manage, market, and evaluate experiences for tourist consumers. Two crucial points in this field are to have the appropriate approach and to make effective use (Sotiriadis & van Zyl, 2015).

From the above discussion, it is clear that planning, design, management, and marketing of experiences for tourism markets constitute a focal challenge for tourism destinations and providers in a highly competitive marketplace. All businesses and organizations involved in have to address challenges and issues of providing high-quality experiences to tourists. This volume aims at bridging the gap in contemporary literature by carefully examining management and marketing issues of tourism experiences. Within this context, this volume (i) adopts an approach of strategic and operational management and marketing, and (ii) takes a tourism business and destination perspective to consider and analyze the main issues and aspects related to the three stages/phases of offering experiences to tourists: before, during and after the experience encounter.

This volume aims to explore and analyze the main issues and challenges in the field of tourist experiences from a strategic management and marketing perspective, and suggest the appropriate approaches in planning, managing, and marketing experiences for tourists. The specific objectives are: (i) to analyze the main issues and challenges related to tourism experience management and marketing; (ii) to present and discuss adequate analytical frameworks and tools; (iii) to explore the adoption and implementation of approaches to managing and marketing experiences in various tourism contexts and industries; and (iv) to discuss and analyze case studies illustrating approaches adopted, methods implemented, and best practices in addressing related issues.

In order to consider and analyze the various issues and aspects and to achieve its aims and objectives, this volume is structured into four parts, as follows. Part I “Planning: Design and Creating Tourism Experiences” deals with the planning tourism experiences and aims at considering and analyzing main issues and aspects of designing and creating experiences in tourism and encompasses six chapters. The first chapter, “Experience-based service design,” by Özlem Güzel, presents a service design path built around various elements such as sensations, emotions, human relations, innovations, and values. It argues that experience-based service design contains different components, and that this service design should be established within three-steps, namely explore, design, and positioning. This process is illustrated using a case study on Singapore Airlines.

Chapter 2, entitled “Experience-Centric Approach and Innovation,” is authored by Anita Zátori. It discusses the experience-centric strategy from the perspective of innovation management, its contribution to designing and managing valuable tourism experiences, especially in context of guided tours. It highlights the role of experience design and market intelligence in experience-centric service processes. The next chapter, “Crucial Role and Contribution of Human Resources in the Context of Tourism Experiences: Need for Experiential Intelligence and Skills,” by Marios Sotiriadis and Stelios Varvaressos, discusses the issue of human resources within the context of tourism experiences. Specifically, it analyses and highlights the importance of a strategic approach to human resources management and suggests suitable tools and strategies. Micro-cases and examples are used to illustrate efficient human resources management tools and practices.

Chapter 4 entitled “Tourism Destination: Design of Experiences,” by Eyup Karayilan and Gurel Cetin, proposes a conceptual model for designing tourism experiences at destination level and analyses the implications for main stakeholders (DMOs, host community, and tourism industry) in creating experiences for tourists. A case study highlights the determining role of destination features and that of stakeholders in involving tourists in experience production. Chapter 5, “Social media and the co-creation of tourism experiences,” authored by Marianna Sigala, investigates the role and the impact of social media in influencing and shaping tourism experiences. This chapter adopts a Service Dominant Logic and co-creation approach and concepts for examining how the social media can influence interactions and participation that represent two major sources of tourism experiences. Author provides several arguments showing how social media enabled interactions and participation can facilitate, foster, and expand the experience co-creation process by altering: when, how, why, what, by whom, and how tourism experiences are co-created.

The last chapter of this part “Experiential tourism: Creating and marketing tourism attraction experiences,” by Rachel Dodds and Lee Jolliffe, explores the current trend toward both creative and experiential tourism in cities in terms of development and marketing of local attractions. Creative tourism in cities is profiled through a literature review and further investigated by means of a case study at a local attraction in Toronto, Canada. The choice of a site was one of a creative city and the repurposing of a formerly industrial site for visitation. The study of Evergreens Brickworks demonstrates the use of marketing techniques to identify markets and match visitors with experiences.

Part II is devoted to management issues. It is entitled “Managing: Organizing and Delivering Tourism Experiences” and aims at approaching and analyzing issues of managing tourism experiences within various contexts, industries, and settings. The part features nine chapters, as follows. Chapter 7 “Cultural and Experiential Tourism,” by Hilary du Cros, examines how sensitivity to event design and the creative process for an arts event also can have an impact on its ongoing management and tourism experience, by applying a new assessment tool, sustainable creative advantage (SCA), to gauge its performance. A case study approach is used to assess SCA for the Sculpture by Sea, Bondi, Sydney 2015, in order to discuss how its management enables satisfying arts leisure experiences. It is believed that the event could still be considered a fresh and inspiring experience for tourists. However, crowding on weekends can affect the experience for all participants. Tactile tours are a unique feature of the event and could be promoted more to tourists.

The next chapter “Dragon Boat Intangible Cultural Heritage: Management Challenges of a Community and Élite Sport Event as a Tourism Experience,” authored by Fleur Fallon, presents three trends emerging from a review of the literature, namely: concern with balancing authenticity and profit-chasing; the phenomenal fast growth of the sport and the challenge to develop and maintain international control and governance; and seeking evidence of health and wellbeing benefits of Dragon Boat racing for breast cancer survivors. The study traces the growth of Dragon Boat racing from humble beginnings in 1976 as part of a local tourism strategy by the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) to position Hong Kong as more distinctive than a destination for shopping or with British colonial history appeal. The event is now a recognized world sport requiring a global strategy of co-operative alliances and is close to becoming an official sport in the Olympic Games. Author contends that emergent strategy and symbolic authenticity of intangible cultural heritage are key concerns for integrating special events as a central tourism experience.

It is believed that collaboration between tourism operations makes a significant contribution in providing special guest experiences and that a collaborative platform wisely designed creates a series of business benefits. Chapter 9, entitled “Collaborating to Provide Attractive Hotel Guests’ Experiences,” by Marios Sotiriadis and Christos Sarmaniotis, analyses the contribution of collaboration between businesses in providing valuable experiences in hotel settings. A case study from Italy is used to illustrate how hotel operations are collaborating to provide tourism experience opportunities. This collaboration offers a way of enriching and deepening guests’ experiences, based on endogenous resources, and meeting the tourists’ requirements.

Chris A. Vassiliadis and Anestis Fotiadis are the authors of next chapter “Managing Sport Tourism Experiences: Blueprinting Service Encounters.” This chapter presents and analyses how the methodology of service blueprinting may contribute to managing and offering high quality experiences to sport tourists. It uses a combination of theoretical tools to develop a finalized services blueprint map for sport events. It is argued that observation, diaries, service blueprints, comment management, and FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) are a range of corporate research approaches and management tools that can offer new insights into the theory and praxis of service management applications and can improve the sport tourism experiences.

The authenticity of tourism experiences and the commodification of tourism offering are two issues that attracted the interest of academic research. Chapter 11, entitled “Authenticity, Commodification, and McDonaldization of Tourism Experiences in the Context of Cultural Tourism” authored by Medet Yolal, discusses these dimensions of tourism experiences using a case study of a well-established destination (Cappadocia, Turkey). Author contends that destinations rely not only on authenticity of their attractiveness but also strive to attract tourists by tailoring experiences that will meet high-order needs of the tourists. However, these destinations are under threat by commodification and McDonaldization due to excessive use of the resources as a result of mass tourism.

The emergence of the creative and experiential tourism in general is only the visible part of the paradigm shift that is affecting the tourism industry, involving new challenges and opportunities. A contribution from a practitioner is provided in Chapter 12 “Managing Experiences within the Field of Creative Tourism: Best Practices and Guidelines.” Caroline Couret shares her practical experience in creative tourism management and proposes some guidelines for DMOs interested in designing activities and plans in this field. Most of the analyses, examples, and observations are based on management of the Creative Tourism Network^® and the approaches adopted by its members in managing their creative tourism offerings over the world. This chapter concludes with a series of applicable guidelines and suggestions for managers to cater to this niche market.

The growth of the ecotourism industry led to an increased emphasis on sustainable practices and called for greener practices to be incorporated in managing ecotourism destinations and operations. Chapter 13, entitled “Greening as Part of Ecotourism to Contribute to Tourists’ Experiences: A Destination Planning Approach,” by E. Botha and W. H. Engelbrecht, provides a brief overview of the green principles associated with developing ecotourism destinations. Green ecotourism destination planning is explained within the context of the tourism experiences to highlight aspects necessary for sustainable ecotourism destination development. Waterwheel, located in the Limpopo province of South Africa, is faced with this green development challenge and serves as a case study of planning and managing ecotourism experiences.

Anna Farmaki is the author of next chapter “Managing Rural Tourist Experiences: Lessons from Cyprus.” This chapter assesses the management of the rural tourist experiences in Cyprus by implementing an exploratory research approach. It examines rural tourists’ experiences in relation to travel motives and activities performed in rural areas in Cyprus, and explores overall satisfaction with the rural tourist experience with regard to several physical, social, and symbolic attributes derived from the literature review. Author elicits recommendations that can improve the tourist experience in rural areas. A refined segmentation strategy is proposed as well as the development of synergistic, innovative linkages among rural tourism stakeholders and across segments in the industry, with thematic clusters representing a favorable and suitable strategy.

Chapter 15 “Service Innovations and Experience Creation in Spas, Wellness and Medical Tourism,” by Melanie Kay Smith, Sonia Ferrari, and László Puczkó, analyses the relationship between service innovation and experience creation within the context of spas, wellness, and medical tourism. This study provides an overview of service innovation theory and models, and then applies them to the spa, wellness, and medical tourism industries. Authors present a case study on Pärnu hospital in Estonia, where innovative practices are being implemented to improve the patients’ experience. The main contribution of the empirical study is to identify the most important elements in the experiences of spa and wellness guests and tourists. Some aspects of innovation (such as design and technology) are not seen as important elements as expected; however, evidence-based treatments, medical services, and natural and local resources are valuable components.

The next part, Part III “Marketing: Communicating and promoting Tourism experiences,” deals with marketing issues and approaches, and aims at considering and analyzing the functions and tools of communicating and promoting tourism experiences within various contexts and/or industries. This part includes six chapters as follows. Chapter 16, entitled “The Role of Online Social Media on the Experience and Communication of Gay Events in a Tourist Destination: A Case Study of a Small-Scale Film Festival in Nice,” by S. Christofle, C. Papetti, and M. Ferry, analyses the role of social media in experience sharing and communication of a gay film festival in one of the most popular world tourist destinations. This study implemented an exploratory research (qualitative study and netnographic analysis) for a single gay film festival (ZeFestival) to acquire insights on the adoption and uses of social media by both organizers (as communication tools) and festival goers (for experience sharing). The chapter is completed by formulating some recommendations for the adequate uses of these Web 2.0 tools at various stages – before, during, and after – of the event.

Chapter 17 “Marketing Experiences for Visitor Attractions: The Contribution of Theming,” by E. Botha looks at similarities between the experience economy and Disneyization, with specific focus on theming as a means of enhancing tourism experience. Sophisticated tourists have brought with them the need to better understand their behavior and place more emphasis on experiences. The Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa, is presented as a case study that uses interpretation as a tool for theming. Several issues and guidelines related to theming are presented to highlight aspects which visitor attraction managers and marketers need to consider when seeking to use theming to improve or create a visitor experience. Author contends that the theme should be planned meticulously as it refers to several aspects not only in the experience itself but also in the experience cycle. It is therefore a quite complex tool to use that should not be taken lightly in order to benefit fully from the possible advantages.

The following chapter, “Marketing Culinary Tourism Experiences,” authored by Lee Jolliffe, identifies issues in the development and marketing of culinary tourism experiences with the goal of determining the value of collaborative forms of product development and marketing. Author performs a literature review examining approaches to marketing of culinary experiences and identifies a gap in the study of collaborative approaches such as networking, partnering, and alliances. A case study investigates these themes. Through the analysis of an in-depth case study of an experiential culinary tourism event in a small city in Eastern Canada (a Restaurant Week), it is determined that informal collaboration in the form of partnership is essential to building and marketing collaborative culinary tourism offerings and experiences. This investigation has value for practitioners implementing collaborative forms in this field.

A different perspective and discipline approach to the thematic of tourism experiences is presented in Chapter 19 “Managing and Marketing Tourism Experiences: Extending the Travel Risk Perception Literature to Address Affective Risk Perceptions,” by Ashley Schroeder, Lori Pennington-Gray, Maximiliano Korstanje, and Geoffrey Skoll. This chapter critically discusses the current risk perception literature in the tourism field and offers a solution through a more conceptual and operational definition of risk perceptions. Specifically, the inclusion of affective risk perceptions is added to the literature via the risk-as-feelings hypothesis. Authors contend that extension of the current literature enhances research moving forward. Hence, this chapter proposes a theoretical and conceptual model as a framework to address risk perception studies in tourism and travel. This model frames an operationalization of risk perception variables by providing clear measurement scales to be tested.

Many destinations are implementing sport tourism offerings to enhance their attractiveness and potential to satisfy tourists’ desires for new experiences. This has led to a highly competitive sport tourism market and as a result destinations implement various marketing techniques and promotional tools. Chapter 20 “Promotion Tools Used in the Marketing of Sport Tourism Experiences in a Mature Tourism Destination,” by Crystal C. Lewis and Cristina H. Jönsson, reports on a research conducted to acquire a better understanding of promotional tools to effectively and efficiently market sport tourism experiences. Findings indicated that promotional tools implemented in Barbados come along with problems of poor and insufficient sporting facilities. Furthermore, low collaboration between tourism providers and sporting entities hamper the success of Barbados as a sport tourism destination. It is argued that, while promotional tools are essential in attracting tourists, other elements must also be taken into consider to ensure that sport tourists will have adequate offerings and positive experiences. Ultimately this would lead to a successful sport tourism destination.

The last chapter regarding marketing of tourism experiences is entitled “The Role of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Marketing Tourism Experiences,” constitutes a contribution by Kyung-Hyan Yoo and Ulrike Gretzel. This chapter discusses the role of ICTs and the emerging trends and issues in marketing tourism experiences. Previous conceptual frameworks are reviewed and key issues and trends are identified as central for ICT-based tourism marketing. Authors suggest a conceptual model that outlines a technology-empowered marketing approach for co-created tourism experiences and identified key trends in marketing tourism experiences. Furthermore, case studies are presented to illustrate how the marketing issues could be translated into practical tourism marketing strategies, highlighting the integrated and strategic role of various tools ICTs. The chapter is completed with practical implications for ICT-based marketing of tourism experiences.

Last part (Part IV) “Monitoring and Evaluating Tourism Experiences” considers issues related to the stage of post experience encounter. It aims to present and analyze approaches and tools to monitor and evaluate the performance of tourism destinations and businesses in the field of tourism experiences. This part features four chapters as follows. Chapter 22 “Memorable Tourism Experiences: Conceptual Foundations and Managerial Implications for Program Design, Delivery and Performance Measurement,” by Jong-Hyeong Kim, sought to overcome the current theoretical lack of understanding of the concept of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) and to provide a conceptual framework for guiding destination managers who seek to design and deliver memorable experiences appropriate to their particular destination. This study investigated tourism experiential factors that enable and facilitate MTEs. The literature review and the content analysis and synthesis identified seven conceptual and theoretical components of MTEs, namely hedonism, refreshment, novelty, local culture, meaningfulness, knowledge, and adverse feelings. It then demonstrates the managerial importance of these theoretical components to the design of applicable destination programs and discusses the implications for destination managers of this understanding for designing, delivering, and evaluating programs.

Magdalena Petronella (Nellie) Swart is the author of next chapter, entitled “Proposing an Experiential Value Model within the Context of Business Tourism Experiences.” This chapter argues that experiential value, satisfaction, and post consumption behavior may play an important role in acquiring information and knowledge creation on how business tourism organizations can use a structured model and to enhance service experiences. Author then suggests a theoretical framework for the development of a multi-item Business Tourist Experience Value Model, based on the Behavioral Intentions Model of Fishbein and Ajzen (1975). This model consists of an integration and re-assessment of different elements from a range of empirical studies. It is estimated that this theoretical model offers new practices into the measurement of experiential value, satisfaction, and post consumption behavior in a business tourism context. In other terms, business tourism managers can use these dimensions as guidelines on how to create valuable experiences for customers and achieve better performance.

Chapter 24 “Consumer Travel Online Reviews and Recommendations: Suggesting Strategies to Address Challenges Faced within the Digital Context,” by Marios Sotiriadis and Ciná van Zyl, performs a synthesis of the academic research regarding the changes of tourist consumer behavior brought about by social media, and suggests a set of strategies for tourism businesses to address resulting challenges. Extensive literature reviews have been performed on the motivating factors and the effects of online reviews. This chapter focuses on the impact of online reviews on tourism businesses and outlines a series of adequate strategies formulated for business practitioners. Authors contend that this study provides practical recommendations/suggestions for tourism businesses in addressing the challenges and opportunities raised within the digital context.

The last chapter, entitled “Assessing Tourism Experiences: The Case of Heritage Attractions,” by Gaunette Sinclair-Maragh, reports on an empirical investigation regarding tourism experiences in heritage attractions in Jamaica. It analyses the five principles of experience economy within the context of heritage attractions. This study aims to find out whether heritage attractions are using the principles of experience economy to provide a fulfilling experience to visitors. The principles of the experience economy are having consistent theme, using positive cues, eliminating negative cues, offering memorabilia, and engaging the five senses. This study provides insights on the implementation of experience economy principles in managing heritage attractions. Consequently, the same approach contributes to evaluate the performance of experience’s outcomes.

The volume is completed by providing management and marketing implications and recommendations for tourism business and destinations to enable them to successfully create, manage, and market tourism experiences, as well as to effectively evaluate their performance in this field. Overall, this book provides conceptual and practical evidence for the critical importance of adopting and implementing management and marketing approaches and tools to address the challenges and seize the opportunities in the field of tourism experiences.

We would like to thank our colleagues and the researchers in the field of tourism and hospitality who have contributed to the Handbook of Managing and Marketing Tourism Experiences; you have given us reasons to initiate a project like this one. You are a true inspiration and source of this Handbook’s birth, hoping that you would find the source useful. We as editors extent our sincere thanks to the Emerald Publishing and their highly skilled staff members for making this project a reality.

We hope that this book will generate a significant interest and discussion on design, delivery, and monitoring of tourism experience and provide a foundation for a much greater research contribution from both scholars and business practitioners. We strongly believe that this volume will be very useful for academics, researchers, and undergraduate and postgraduate tourism students. It will also be of interest to practitioners and entrepreneurs.

We hope you will enjoy reading this book.

Marios Sotiriadis

Dogan Gursoy

Editors