PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the dimensional structure of visitor experience in a sacred place based on the framing process.Design/methodology/approachMix-method research was conducted in Turkey–Virgin Mary House which featured a sacred and popular tourist destination. Qualitative research, including interviews and expert panels, was used to create a set of knowledge for further analysis. Quantitative research, including two field studies comprising 842 participants, was used to validate the framing of visitor experiences in a sacred place providing reliability and construct validity.FindingsThe six dimensions were found within three framing axes of religious, environmental and organizational: inner experience; religious experience; physical environment; history; tour organization and service experience.Originality/valueCurrent studies on visitor experience in a sacred place have mainly focused on emotions, motivations or physical dimensions. By synthesising the framing process and theoretical approaches, this study contributes to the literature by analysing the unique characteristics of visitors' experiences in sacred places, regardless of their religious identities.

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This study focuses on how virtual reality applications might evoke nostalgic sensations in travellers during cultural heritage tourism. While extensive research on the tourism experience has revealed different extrinsic and intrinsic dynamics that affect the tourist experience, this research aims to explore what feeling of back in time VR users experience in an archaeological destination. The gap in visitor experience employing VR research still persists, despite the rising adoption rate of immersive technology, such as virtual reality. In this study, a qualitative method has been applied to analyse online reviews of VR users who visited the Olympia Archaeological Site in Greece and used the ‘Back in Time Olympia’ VR application. The findings drawn from the results show that nostalgia, presence, engagement by learning, and service experience are essential determinants of tourist VR experiences in such cultural heritage destinations.

Since the 1940s scuba diving tourism has become popular all over the world, however, this demand also has brought human-driven negative impacts on underwater surroundings. Reducing adverse effects on the marine environment and maximising the unique scuba diving experience depends on long-term socio-economic benefits and protecting natural and alternative marine resources. Over the last decade, system-based approaches have been developed by researchers to examine the interaction of scuba diving activities. However, a better understanding of principles of sustainability and practices and having a broad knowledge about how these are based on normative aspects can provide advantages for stakeholders in the system to reduce negative impacts. Therefore, this thesis aims to redesign the scuba diving tourism system thorough defining the normative aspects based on principles of sustainability. Investigating the research question “to what extent do the normative aspects of the scuba diving tourism system address principles of sustainability”, this study uses an interpretive paradigm as the phenomenological qualitative research method. As a destination that has developed a distinctive but significant scuba diving tourism sector, the main research took place in the Mediterranean archipelago of Malta using face to face interviews with stakeholders and in-situ observation via active participation. As a result, a new systems approach as `Sustainable Scuba Diving Tourism System` (S-SDTS) is proposed which is redesigned based on normative aspects founded on principles of sustainability.

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