Extraordinary experiences in tourism: introduction to the special edition

Abstract

his special edition of the Journal is created from a number of articles written for the Extraordinary Experiences conference held at Bournemouth University, 3–4 September 2007, organised under the leadership of Dr Alan Fyall of Bournemouth University, in association with Breda University of Applied Sciences. This gathering brought together 80 academics and practitioners from 18 countries to present their research into the management of the consumer experience in hospitality, leisure, sport, tourism, retail and events. Those whose work discussed aspects of the consumer experience in tourism contexts or its application to areas such as destination and attraction marketing, were invited to submit papers for this special edition. The papers that appear here have been selected after a process of blind peer review. The title Extraordinary Experiences was chosen because it held associations for both of the two distinct but complementary strands, managerial and behavioural in orientation, that can be found in the literature. Experiences can be extraordinary because they stand out against other competing tourism offers, or more profoundly, in the sense used by Abrahams (1981), because they hold a special meaning for the tourist, a rite of passage or a moment of personal development. The managerial perspective is most famously advanced by Pine and Gilmore’s The Experience Economy (1999), a text frequently mentioned in the conference. This argues that in mature markets where products are similar, services quality is taken for granted and the internet reduces fl ights and accommodation to commodities bought on price alone, the creation of unique, memorable experiences is the most effective strategy to gain a lasting competitive advantage. This, they claim, is done by putting on a show for your customers, by treating ‘work as theatre and every business a stage’. At the conference, Joe Goldblatt exemplifi ed this approach, explaining how, by ‘Playing the Five Senses’, we could better manage expectations, experiences and perceptions and by doing so, ensure that we get an ROE — return on event. Diane Nijs and Koert de Jager from Breda developed this into a strategic approach, termed ‘imagineering’, which seeks to create value and innovation based on an understanding of the consumer experience. This was well illustrated by a presentation from David Hoare, who outlined experience management in practice at Hall & Woodhouse,