Exploring memorable cultural tourism experiences

ABSTRACT

Cultural tourism is a significant element of tourism for many destinations; nevertheless, relatively little is known about the contributing factors that form the overall cultural travel experience. This study sought to contribute to this extant knowledge gap by enhancing our understanding of the nature of cultural tourism experiences and the process by which they are formed. Through in-depth face-to-face interviews with 29 tourists in the cultural sites of Paris, a theoretical model of memorable cultural tourism experiences (MCTEs) was developed and six key factors affecting cultural tourist experiences in a destination have emerged using a grounded theory approach: prior perceived significance of the experience, authenticity, engagement, cultural exchange, culinary attraction and quality of service. The findings of this study contribute to ongoing efforts in tourism scholarship to understand the essence of memorable tourism experiences (MTE) in general and more particularly within the context of cultural tourists' experiences. The theoretical and practical contributions of the study results are discussed and several avenues for future research are also proposed.

KEYWORDS:

• Memorable experiences
• tourism experience
• cultural tourism
• destination management
• grounded theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Siamak Seyfi is a PhD. candidate in the Department of Geography within the EIREST (Interdisciplinary Research Group for Tourism Studies) at the University of Pantheon-Sorbonne, France. Using primarily qualitative and mixed methods his research interests are sustainable tourism, cultural tourism, political ecology, power and the environment. Email address: [email protected].

C. Michael Hall is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; Docent, Department of Geography, University of Oulu, Finland; and a Visiting Professor in the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden. He has published widely on sustainability, regional development, tourism, food and wine, and global environmental change. Email address: [email protected].

S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events of Taylor’s University. His research interest areas contain sustainable tourism, heritage tourism, community participation, residents’ perceptions toward tourism development, and advanced quantitative analysis approaches. He has published widely in leading tourism and hospitality journals. Mostafa serves as an editorial board member of several tourism and hospitality journals. Email address: [email protected]; [email protected].

ORCID

Siamak Seyfi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2427-7958

C. Michael Hall http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7734-4587

S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7138-0280