Theoretical development of the tourist experience: a future perspective

ABSTRACT

The tourist experience is a widely explored phenomenon in tourism research because of its importance to the design and provision of quality products and services and the enhancement of destination branding. Various theories and theoretical frameworks have been applied to understand tourist experiences, including the constructivist, experiential, and emotional perspectives. However, recent systematic literature reviews of the theoretical underpinnings of tourist experience research is lacking. This study aims to address this gap by conducting a contemporary systematic literature review of the progress of theoretical developments in tourist experience research. This review explores the evolution of theoretical frameworks applied in previous studies and summarizes them into four main stages: descriptive, experiential, transformative, and scope-expanding. This study is significant in identifying different dominant theories over time. It enhances our understanding of the theoretical foundations of tourist experience research and provides insights into possible theories that could guide future research. This study concludes by examining the practical implications for destination managers and policymakers in dealing with the changing patterns of tourist consumption of experiences, one of the most important issues for tourism destination marketing and development. This involves adapting strategies to meet the growing demand for personalized, authentic, and interactive experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism
• Tourist experience
• systematic literature review
• theory
• experience economy

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Macao Institute for Tourism Studies for the grants of editing service.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zhaoyu Chen

Zhaoyu Chen, Ph.D., is a Lecturer at the Macao Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao, China. She received her PhD in School of Hotel and Tourism Management from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China. Her research interests include cultural tourism, heritage conservation, event studies and destination marketing.