Exploring Memorable Tourism Experiences: Antecedents and Behavioural Outcomes

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory research which examines the antecedents and behavioural outcomes of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) from Australian travellers' perspectives. 35 in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of frequent Australian travellers. Inductive content analysis of the transcripts revealed 9 antecedents of MTEs of which eight represent the cognitive domain-perceived meaningfulness of the experience, perceived opportunities to encounter authentic local experiences, perceived significance of the experience, perceived novelty of the experience, perceived opportunities for social interactions, perceived serendipity and surprises encountered during the experience, perceived local hospitality and perceived professionalism of local guides-and the last theme represent the affective domain i.e. various emotions such happiness and excitement associated with MTEs. Analysis also revealed that novelty seeking travellers do not intend to re-visit the same destination despite they have had a memorable experience but they tend to recommend MTEs to others. These findings provide important managerial implications for destination marketing organizations (DMOs).

The Experience of Novelty and the Novelty of Experience

“…Strong emotions resulting from a novel experience result in vivid memories, created through the secretion of chemicals including dopamine (Moyle et al, 2019). Recent studies on psychological antecedents of MTEs acknowledge novelty as one of the main dimensions underlying experience memorability (Chandralal and Valenzuela, 2013;Kim, 2014).…”

“…Previous studies of MTEs have focused on concepts such as motivation (Gnoth and Matteucci, 2014;Prayag et al, 2017;Yoo et al, 2018;Passafaro, 2019), expectations and satisfaction (Tynan and McKechnie, 2009;Kim, 2018), well-being and quality of life (Uysal et al, 2012), as well as emotions and memories (Chandralal and Valenzuela, 2015;Moyle et al, 2019). Psychological antecedents of MTEs include hedonism, involvement, knowledge, refreshment, meaningfulness, and novelty (Chandralal and Valenzuela, 2013;Kim, 2014). Recent studies indicate the importance of novelty in elicitation of emotions and a connection to memorability (Ma et al, 2017;Mitas and Bastiaansen, 2018).…”

Tourist Clusters in a Developing Country in South America: The Case of Manabì Province, Ecuador

“…Research on tourism has usually been concerned with discovering the necessary destination attributes to achieve unforgettable tourist experiences. We must also determine the elements that may cause concern and unrest in the visitor [37][38][39][44][45][46][47] in order to limit these concerns and enhance both tourist satisfaction with the destination and its positive image. In line with the previous literature, we propose to examine the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 6 (H6).…”

The Contribution of Geological Features to Visitor Experiences: Comparison Between Two Geotourism Attractions in South Africa

“…The aim of any tourist attraction should be to deliver an experience that leaves a positive memory (Chandralal & Valenzuela, 2013;Vittersø et al, 2000). Enhanced experiences involve tourists emotionally, physically, spiritually and intellectually (Prebensen et al, 2014), and comprise both tangible and intangible aspects.…”