The dimensions of rural tourism experience: impacts on arousal, memory, and satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Rural tourism is driven by the search for unique and memorable experiences in particular settings, but knowledge on visitors’ experiences in rural destinations is still scarce. This paper analyzes the rural tourism experience of Portuguese tourists who answered an online survey (N = 252). The paper aims at validating, in the rural tourism context, a previously proposed tourist experience scale, and analyzing the relationships between the experience, arousal, memory, and satisfaction. Results reveal that the rural tourism experience dimensions of education and esthetics positively predict rural tourists’ arousal, whereas escapism and esthetics determine memorability. Finally, implications for rural tourism marketing are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural tourism
• experience economy
• arousal
• memory
• satisfaction
• destination marketing

Acknowledgments

This paper was developed within the three-year research project (2010–2013) “The overall rural tourism experience and sustainable local community development”.

The authors would also like to acknowledge the relevant comments and suggestions of three anonymous reviewers, helping them to substantially improve this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [PTDC/CS-GEO/104894/2008] and co-financed by COMPETE, QREN, and FEDER.