Understanding tourists’ transformative experience: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Tourism has the potential to trigger lifelong changes through a transformative experience. However, existing tourists' transformative experience (TE) research has been criticized for lacking the embodied dimensions of transformative experiences leading to fragmented and contradictory views on what and where these experiences take place in the tourism context. Considering these criticisms coupled with the important role of transformative experience, this study systematically examines tourists' transformative experience literature to address the current knowledge gap. Adopting a quantitative systematic literature review approach, this paper aims to outline the research trends of tourists' transformative experiences and provide insights for future research. The findings suggest that more research concerning transformative experiences in tourism has been dedicated to volunteer tourism discourses as the context of volunteering offers a 'once in a lifetime' experience. The findings also point to a dearth of appropriate and comprehensive theoretical frameworks in the tourism context. The current study found that while transformative experiences are reflected in four dimensions of behavioral, psychological, social, and spiritual experiences; socio-psychological transformation experiences dominate. A research framework with future research questions unpacking possible theoretical and methodological directions is further proposed.