Identifying the relative importance of culture in Indigenous tourism experiences: netnographic evidence from Australia

ABSTRACT

Previous studies exploring demand for Indigenous tourism have addressed a variety of aspects including market segmentation and clustering, as well as motivations, interest and visitor satisfaction with Indigenous tourism experiences. Less researched is the importance visitors place on the cultural elements of an Indigenous tourism experience. A qualitative netnographic approach was adopted to explore international visitors’ post-consumption narratives of their Indigenous tourism experiences in Australia. Four thousand six hundred and eighty-four TripAdvisor reviews of 38 Indigenous tourism products and experiences in Australia were analysed. The analysis showed that visitors placed most importance on the servicescape, that is, the physical elements and ambient environment of the experience, ahead of the cultural elements of the experience. Although culture or the Indigenous content per se was not the most important factor identified post-experience, visitors did focus on the service-oriented nature and professionalism of the guide. The findings of this study expand the existing literature on Indigenous tourism and recommendations for Indigenous tourism businesses are made regarding the importance of the servicescape to the Indigenous tourism experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous tourism
• Indigenous culture
• netnography
• servicescape

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ms. Afiya Holder has previously worked for the Division of Tourism, Tobago in tourism and event marketing, product development and travel trade training. She has also worked with the UNWTO Affiliate Members Programme in Spain. Currently, Ms Holder is a Teaching and Research Assistant at the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland specialising in tourism development, marketing and sustainability.

Dr Lisa Ruhanen (PhD, GCEd, BBusHons) is an Associate Professor and Leader of Tourism Postgraduate Coursework degrees at the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland. Her research interests include sustainable tourism destination policy and planning, climate change and Indigenous tourism. She has been involved in over 30 academic and consultancy research projects in Australia and overseas.

ORCID

Afiya Holder http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2880-8063