“Sensing” the destination: Development of the destination sensescape index

Multisensory prosumption: how cooking classes shape perceptions of destinations

“…In this study, we found smell and taste play dominating roles that shape participants’ experiences and primarily direct their perceptions of unfamiliar destinations, extending scant literature on tastescape and smellscape (Buzova et al , 2021). The sensations of smell and taste in this context have gone beyond the simple “passive” multisensory consumption of a gastronomic experience, to being embedded in the prosuming process of a cooking class.…”

“…The cooking class brought together all sensual stimuli with bodily sensations and affects, particularly through smell and taste. Smell plays a significant part in constructing destination perceptions (Dann and Jacobsen, 2003; Buzova et al , 2021).…”

“…Everett (2008) argued that food-related tourism provides an insightful lens to examine the multisensory landscape, and thus, sensescape can be defined as “the multisensorial space which is distinguished, understood and valued by humans” (Qiu et al , 2021, p. 2). In relation to a destination sensescape, tourists seek to engage all senses and their related “-scapes”, “visualscape” (sense of sight), “smellscape” (sense of smell), “tastescape” (sense of taste), “soundscape” (sense of hearing) and “hapticscape” (sense of touch) to fully perceive the environment (Bunkše, 2012; Buzova et al , 2021; Everett, 2008). A visualscape (Dann and Jacobsen, 2003), closely related to Urry’s (1990) “tourist gaze” with a focus on the visual experiences of a destination, implies a passive tourist.…”

“…A soundscape alludes to tourists’ experiencing auditory stimuli, which can be grouped into urban, rural, wilderness and underwater (Brown et al , 2011). A tastescape results from the gustation process, and a place is perceived through the gustatory sensory channel (Buzova et al , 2021; Everett, 2008). A smellscape embodies the olfactory sense and refers to both the smell of the environment and more recently has been extended to “the smell environment perceived and understood by a person (through olfactory sensation, influenced by ones’ memories and past experiences) in a place (specific to its context)” (Xiao et al , 2018, p. 106).…”

“…This is the main focus of this study. When introduced in the pre-trip stage, a cooking class may not only bring out the knowledge of the ingredients and cooking methods but also a taste of embodied, multisensory experience of the destination sensescape (Agapito et al , 2013; Buzova et al , 2021) and lead to a perception change of a destination. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the multisensory experiences of participating in a cooking class and how they shape perceptions of destinations in the pre-trip stage.…”