Experiential marketing as a tool to enhance Tourists’ pre-travel online destination experiences? A web-based experiment

Abstract

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are increasingly using experiential marketing on their websites to generate positive pre-travel online destination experiences (ODEs). However, little is known about the ODE construct and the effects of applying experiential marketing on destination websites on ODEs. A scale was developed and applied in a web-based experiment to measure ODEs and to enhance the understanding of the dimensionality of this construct. The travel inspiration phase was simulated and the ODEs of three experimental groups exposed to different websites of the destination Reunion Island were compared. The experiment was conducted with a representative sample of German internet users. Findings indicate that when surfing on a destination website in the inspiration phase, the users’ ODE is holistic and cannot be differentiated into theoretically relevant dimensions (e.g. sensory or affective). Moreover, the application of experiential marketing had a statistically significant, small effect on ODEs when adjusted for aspects of personal relevance. Yet, ODE differences between high and medium levels of experiential marketing were negligible. Accordingly, DMOs should realize that experiential marketing enhances ODEs, but beyond a certain level, additional complex multi-media elements do not necessarily further increase the experiential effect. For the important assessment of experiential user reactions, the developed ODE scale provides a first approach. • A new scale to measure pre-travel online destination experiences (ODEs). • ODEs are less differentiated than product brand experiences. • ODEs of websites with different levels of experiential marketing were compared. • Significant yet small effects of experiential marketing on ODEs were found. • Many individual influencing factors make it difficult for DMOs to influence ODEs.