Purpose This study aims to investigate the factors that drive the tourist customer experience around theming. Theming is considered vital to creating a memorable customer impression. Design/methodology/approach The cruise industry was chosen as the empirical setting. A total of 328 cruise travelers returned valid questionnaires during a cruise in March 2010. The questionnaire was developed based on a conceptual model of components (name, employee interaction, lighting, design and music) hypothesized to contribute to a themed cruise environment. Findings Name, employee interaction and lighting were found to be the most important drivers for the customer experience. Theming was less reliant on design and music. Research limitations/implications This research was limited to one narrow context. Further research on other ships, itineraries and cruise lines should clarify whether factors affecting theme perception are the same across the cruise industry. Practical implications Cruise industry decision makers should consider the naming of spaces, lighting and employee interaction when designing themed experiences. Originality/value Theming has received little attention in the research literature. This study is a unique contribution to our understanding of this particular field.

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Theming is used to differentiate places and how they are experienced and is thereby a growing phenomenon within tourism and society at large. Although there is an increasing body of research that examines themed environments, there is a lack of empirical studies that explore the concept of theming and its dimensions in a tourism context. This study aims to contribute to the exploration of the concept of theming and its dimensions. Based on this aim, a qualitative study was undertaken. Half-structured interviews with 10 strategically selected key informants in various theming related fields were conducted over the course of one year. The findings reveal 10 dimensions that were significant for theming: (i) authenticity, (ii) chronotope, (iii) cohesion, (iv) digital technology, (v) immersion, (vi) interaction/co-creation, (vii) multisensory, (viii) novelty, (ix) relatability, and (x) storytelling/narrative. The contributions of this study are both theoretical and practical for tourism.