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ABSTRACT
The notion of tourists as co-creators of value (experiences) has been explored in the context of co-creation with service providers and residents. However, co-creation of value among tourists and the role of social interaction remain relatively underexplored. Similarly, the few extant studies on negative value creation (co-destruction) have predominantly focused on tourist–host interaction. This study examines how tourists from China visiting Japan perceive the role of social interaction with other tourists in shaping tourism experiences. Analysis of 29 in-depth interviews shows that indirect interaction with other tourists has a stronger influence on the tourism experience than direct interaction does. Perceived roles of other tourists ranged from positive (co-creation) to negative (co-destruction). The types of co-created value (Reichenberger, Citation2017) were mainly practical and atmospheric, whereas co-destructed value was mainly atmospheric in nature. This study also extends, confirms and partly modifies Pearce’s (Citation2005a) typology of other tourists in an East-Asian context.
Acknowledgement
Xing Han acknowledges the Fuji Xerox Kobayashi Fund Research Grant Program for Foreign Doctoral Candidates in Japan, and Toshimi Otsuka Scholarship Foundation (Japan) for the financial assistance during this study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 In this paper, the terms “tourist experience” and “tourism experience” are used interchangeably.
2 In this paper, we use the terms “China” and “Chinese” to refer to mainland China.
3 We have numbered respondent quotations as R1, R2, … , where “R” means Respondent, followed by the identification number of each respondent in our database.