Memorable Experience Economy: Investigating Tourists’ Experience on Memories and Loyalty in Egypt’ Brand Resort Hotels

Abstract

The concept of “experience economy “ has evolved as an imperative field of study in tourism and hospitality within the marketing discipline. Purpose -The aims of the present study is to facilitate better understanding of the concept of “experience economy”, and to examine the influence of four dimensions (facets) of tourist service experience (4Es); - i.e. educational, esthetic, escapist, and entertainment experiences - on their memories and focuses on maximize their loyalty intentions, as consequence from the travel consumer perspective. The framework was tested by means of a survey of international touristsguests who had stayed at resort hotels for at least once, to examine their experience with three tourist spots (brand resorts hotels) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The data were collected from the period of January to April 2017.A self – administered modeling was used to analyze the survey ’responses. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed at three brand resorts hotels (three tourist spots) of Sharm El Shiekh, Egypt, out of which one hundred were returned, and two hundred international touristsguests responded-yielding a response rate of (66.6%). Findings- The result from the finding identified that all four dimensions (facts) of tourists (as customers) experience (4Es) influence their memories and loyalty. These facets are congruent with prior work in the tourism literature. Additionally, the findings of this study revealed the customer experience scale in the context of brand resorts hotels and improves the theoretical framework progress on the experience concept in tourism and hospitality, and present serious implications for brand resort hotel marketers.