Tourist Experience

Contemporary Perspectives

Richard Sharpley, Philip Stone, Richard Sharpley, Philip R. Stone

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781135146696
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Comportement du consommateur

To consume tourism is to consume experiences. An understanding of the ways in which tourists experience the places and people they visit is therefore fundamental to the study of the consumption of tourism. Consequently, it is not surprising that attention has long been paid in the tourism literature to particular perspectives on the tourist experience, including demand factors, tourist motivation, typologies of tourists and issues related to authenticity, commodification, image and perception. However, as tourism has continued to expand in both scale and scope, and as tourists' needs and expectations have become more diverse and complex in response to transformations in the dynamic socio-cultural world of tourism, so too have tourist experiences.

Tourist Experience provides a focused analysis into tourist experiences that reflect their ever-increasing diversity and complexity, and their significance and meaning to tourists themselves. Written by leading international scholars, it offers new insights into emergent behaviours, motivations and sought meanings on the part of tourists based on five contemporary themes determined by current research activity in tourism experience: dark tourism experiences, experiencing poor places, sport tourism experiences, writing the tourist experience and researching tourist experiences: methodological approaches.

The book critically explores these experiences from multidisciplinary perspectives and includes case studies from a wide range of geographical regions. By analyzing these contemporary tourist experiences, the book will provide further understanding of the consumption of tourism.

1
Ways of conceptualising the tourist experience: a review of literature¹

Chris Ryan

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to offer a review of past literature and concepts of how tourists experience the holiday destinations they visit. However, in offering such a review, one needs to be mindful of the context within which the reviewer operates as this determines a number of key evaluations. First, it is to be assumed that the reviewer has a familiarity with the literature being reviewed but, in addition, any evaluation of such literature itself reflects the writer’s own experiences as a researcher, and the context within which such research has been undertaken. Geographical context is thus important as, in part, it determines the nature of the destinations being examined and the cultural frameworks that dominate in those locations. Traditionally, the academic literature in tourist behaviour has been dominated by the North Atlantic English speaking world, which is also the home of many international business concerns. But in the twenty-first century other voices are coming much more frequently to the fore. The number of Chinese universities offering tourism is measured in the hundreds, and it might not be an exaggeration that the number of Chinese academics in our field may have alone doubled the number of academics teaching and undertaking research in tourism, even before one considers colleagues working in other Asian countries.

In many cases, an exposure to totally different ways of seeing the world would sensitise any researcher interested in human experiences to the role of culture and lead to a recognition that there are other ways of seeing the world apart from the North Atlantic post-positivistic empiricist tradition of research that, partly owing to the advent of computing power, began to frequent the academic tourism literature from the early 1990s. Taken together the work of Oceanic and Asian colleagues highlights the role of culture, language and interpretation when it comes to the question of tourism – why tourists travel, the experiences they seek, the way people of different cultures view the world, the role of difference and familiarity in travel, and the importance of acts of interpretation. To give but one example, and it is simplified, in the research conducted by Cathy Hsu, Liping Cai and Kevin Wong (2007) into the travel motives of Chinese senior citizens in Mainland China, a series of emergent themes became evident. For many of their sample, the taking of holidays, especially any that might involve overseas travel, was an action of social irresponsibility. Such holidays were acts of frivolity not to be considered. The only possible exceptions might be holidays to visit extended family members, or perhaps holidays paid for by children who saw this as a means of discharging filial duties, again especially if it permitted visits to extended families. When one considers the changes that a 60-year-old person has experienced in China, that when they were 20 their adolescent views would have been shaped by the final decades of Maoist China, then such attitudes become more understandable. The desire to see extended family reflects a Confucian view of relationships and their importance. But of course generational differences in urban Chinese life mean different sets of expectations are emerging as a consumerist culture arises among the young.

In current research into visitor patterns at Mt Qiyun, one of the holy mountains of Taoism in China, many of the initial assumptions drawn on existing western research of visitor motives that led to initial items for a questionnaire had to be dropped as the nuances of meaning of mountain, place, temple, worship, burning incense and sunrise became clear (Ryan and Gu 2010). These factors, combined with the desire of village people for not only income enhancement but for contact with people from further afield, has given rise to a more nuanced and complex research pattern than that originally envisaged.

So, how do such observations shape research and understanding of the ‘Tourist Experience’? At one level, it seems very simple. People wish to relax, learn, see new places, or see places made familiar to them by television and the Internet. It is obviously important to many people, as each year so many, but not all, spend significant sums of money on their holidays. Based on these apparently simple wishes has grown an industry of airlines, coach and bus companies, hotels, rental cars, attractions, resorts, theme parks and much else to form what some would have us believe is the world’s largest industry, or to adopt Neil Leiper’s (2008) terminology, an interconnected pattern of different industries. These desires are socially condoned and paradoxes emerge whereupon the reward for work is a period of non-work to be served by those working. Based on this observation, it can be argued that holidays can be important, cathartic and represent socially condoned patterns of alternative lifestyles. The parallels with the work of Bakhtin (1984, 1986) and concepts of the carnivalesque may be present when considering holiday taking behaviours. Yet the example of Chinese senior citizens has a lesson for us. If people were to view their holiday taking behaviour as involving antisocial actions, then the holiday and travel-related industries as we know them would be forced to change. Are concerns over airline carbon emissions and perceived linkages between carbon emissions and climate change sufficient to create a culture change where, like our Chinese senior citizens, travel will simply be seen as no longer socially acceptable? Social attitudes do not change overnight, but can and do change over a matter of a few decades. The general non-acceptance of smoking in a public place is today very different to what it was in the 1960s. Social consumption patterns can and do change. Or is it, as John Ap (1990, 1992) suggests, a question of social exchange theory of a basic sort, where stakeholders will engage in or accept an activity if the perceived utility is greater than the perceived cost? If it is, and he is right, then the nature of the tourist experience becomes a key to the future of the tourism industry.

Drawing on the prevailing literature of the nature of tourism experience, there are several concepts upon which to draw. These include the following:

Confirmation-disconfirmation theory of the ServQual type – a comparison between expectations and evaluations (e.g. Parasuraman et al. 1994).

Importance-evaluation approaches – the reasoned behaviour, multi-attribute approach. Yet these theories may not necessarily lead to high coefficients of determination when in quantitative models that postulate a given behaviour as the determined variable – perhaps because of the role of intervening or moderating variables that impinge upon the conative aspects of such models (e.g. Oh 2001). Such a comment, however, assumes that the researcher has incorporated such moderating variables into the proposed theory (for example, time constraints imposed by the simple fact of school holidays for families with young children), and a failure to introduce such variables may lead to potentially misleading high coefficients between frequency of given behaviours and suggested determinants. On the other hand, the researcher may argue that such models are not descriptions of reality, but abstractions that seek to permit predictions while being parsimonious. But, as researchers, are such caveats always made explicit in our literature?

Involvement theory – the degree to which the visitor becomes involved and the extent to which this involvement is enduring or situational. Holidays thus become extensions of life interests and not escapes from life. In the literature, examples may be found of serious recreation takers using holiday periods as major periods of meaning for their lives – meanings that are to them more important than the daily occupations in which they spend most of their year. One such example are some of the Civil War Re-enactors in the USA (see Ryan (2007a), on battlefield tourism, but also see Havitz and Dimanche (1990) on concepts of involvement in leisure).

The destination image – how it attracts, holds and establishes the criteria against which a visitor can evaluate their experience. While some of the concepts are derived from marketing theory, the subject links with all of the above perspectives. Destinations may be seen as packages of opportunity to fulfil perceived wants – and thus are not simply physical spaces but are also places of constructed meaning (e.g. Beerli and Martin 2004; Ryan and Gu 2008). Hence, as noted above, such meanings may be, at least in part, culturally determined as the visitor interacts with the place as experienced, the place as described by the tourist destination marketing organisations and, possibly, the place as a place of everyday residence.

Theories of liminality – the tourist is perceived as a person engaged in transitions from the ordinary to the extraordinary, and then back again to the ordinary – the stages marked by different formalities, ceremonies, and roles (Turner 1969, 1974, 1982). This theoretical construct has been used in explaining certain fantasies associated with tourism – for example, when analysing sex tourism (Ryan 2001) and backpacking (Cohen 1982a, 1982b).

Role play approaches – that is, the roles that tourists can adopt, and the degree to which these roles are motivated by a sense of role play. Urry (2002) has popularised the notion of the ludic playing tourists, who knowingly play ‘a tourist role’ because they perceive themselves as travellers and not tourists, but for the moment the tourist role bestows advantages. There is also the work of Yiannakis and Gibson (1992) and Gibson and Yiannakis (2002) where they show that a range of roles are open to tourists that reflect preferences on the dimensions of familiarity vs unfamiliarity, the structured vs the unstructured organisation and the desire for stimulating or tranquil environments. The concept of roles arguably underlies many of the market-oriented segmentation exercises found in the tourism academic literature, and while researchers have described these roles (e.g. Pearce 1982), what often remains unstated is the ease with which holidaymakers switch roles. Consequently a tourist may be today a ‘hedonist’, tomorrow an ‘adventure tourist’ and the day after, or the holiday after – a sun seeker! What do these roles possess in common? They are all the same tourist – or are they?

The Theory of the Gaze – the tourist’s desire for the visually impressive (framed by the tourist’s camera) means that the tourist industry shapes and directs the participant’s gaze, that the gaze is framed within parameters that make sense to the gazer while others act roles as ‘gazees’ – or alternatively selective truths are presented that may not be truths as understood by people local to the visited place. Many citation studies have shown John Urry’s (2002) concept to be much referred to – but authors like Hollinshead (1998a, 1998b, 1999) question whether researchers delve deeply enough. In this sense, Mike Hall’s (1994) work on power relationships in tourism requires closer attention – for as Urry (1990a, 2002) himself notes, the gazes are specifically framed. Which raises the question – for whom and for what purpose? In different works, Ryan (e.g. Ryan and Aicken 2005; Ryan and Wang 2010) has suggested that questions of the authenticity of the gaze are misdirected, and the key issues are those of who authorises the gaze and to what purpose. This is particularly an issue when places are ‘signed’ as being of cultural and heritage interest and, in countries like China, specific voices and silences together form the articulations provided for the tourist that serve the interests of government as much as the preferences of the tourist.

The search for the back stage and authenticity – MacCannell (1999) argued that visitors do search for authenticity and want to penetrate the tourist veil – a view put forward to counter the earlier views of Boorstin (1964) who wrote of a death of travel and the emergence of a pastiche of experiences made ready for the hedonistic mind. As already commented, the question of authenticity has exercised the minds of many in our field, and there is a long history that includes the early work of Dann (1977), Valene Smith (1989), Cohen (1988a) and indeed Boorstin (1964) himself. These considerations link with the next category.

The theories of consumerism and the concept of the tourist as a collector of experiences. Many tourist experiences are constructed by profit-motivated organisations. However, if one accepts the arguments of Baudrillard (1975, 1981, 1983) in this regard, what of the issue of authenticity? Wang (1999, 2000) argues that while place may be constructed, there remains an existential authenticity – that is, while there may be little historic or cultural integrity to a place, tourists can still genuinely enjoy social interaction, have fun, reinforce social bonds including those of family, or indeed perhaps have a moment of catharsis. The studies of well-being undertaken by E. Diener (1992), E. Diener and M. Diener (1995) and E. Diener and C. Diener (1996) do not argue that a sense of well-being requires culturally authentic places. Again, to draw upon personal experience, my son and I had an authentic experience of fun when conducting our ‘research’ in the ‘artificial’ theme parks of Florida as to which was the best roller coaster ride. (For the record it was concluded that the Duelling Dragons was overrated and the Kragon undervalued!) While this may be seen as flippant, the point is that holidays provide opportunities for family bonding that arguably have social benefits that go beyond the economic measures of the benefits generated by tourism, and that these benefits occur in other than the culturally approved ‘authentic places’. Satisfactory experiences arise from meeting not only needs, but also wants and fantasies, and the provision of such satisfaction is something that the tourism, recreation and leisure industries can do well.

Theories of mindlessness – Phil Pearce (1988) has written of how habitual so many of our actions can be, and there are many aspects of the holiday experience that are notable for their ordinariness. The times we check in for a flight or into a hotel, the lazing by the swimming pool, the turning on of a TV in a hotel room – considering all the times we have done this, how many times do these activities succeed in being memorable? Consequently, within the hospitality management literature the concept of the critical incident (Bitner et al. 1990) has attracted attention as has the search for the ‘golden moment’. Therefore, many hotel chains deliberately seek means to better create the memorable experience – whether it be in more environmentally designed rooms, more comfortable beds, better blackouts or staff empowerment and carefully designed client loyalty programmes. Similar policies are being pursued by airlines as each tries to differentiate its service. Disney formalises the ‘golden moment’ by seemingly scheduling ‘unscheduled’ appearances by Mickey Mouse and his friends, so that encounters with the characters are the more ‘treasured’ for their very unexpectedness.

An alternative concept to mindlessness is suggested by the theory of the career ladder based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Again, Phil Pearce has initiated development of these ideas, initially in his books The Social Psychology of Tourist Behaviour (1982) and The Ulysses Factor (1988) and then subsequently, in the face of criticism, in amended versions in his work, Tourist Behaviour (2005).

A little-explored aspect of the holiday experience is the role of how we experience time on holiday. When writing the second edition of The Tourist Experience, Ryan (2002a) noted a comment made by John Urry in a review of the first edition of that book, and devoted a whole chapter to the subject drawing on the work of writers such as Featherstone and Lash (1999), Lash and Urry (1994) and Rojek (1993). There exist some studies that purport to show that as we grow older, so our experience of time changes – that as we age time seems to pass more quickly. Is this culturally or biologically determined? Certainly, in western business-oriented cultures people seek to manage time – and herein there exists an interesting aspect of the holiday. While the holiday is itself a constrained period of time marked by Turner’s rituals of entry into and departure from the ‘ordinary’, one of the extraordinary aspects of the holiday is that time becomes more elastic. Arguably, it is this very elasticity of holiday time – these periods of socially condoned procrastination – that then contributes to the extraordinary experience of the holiday.

Another aspect of the holiday is the role of significant others on holiday and theories of intimacy. As Trauer and Ryan (2005) note, while the spatial and architectural aspects of a site or destination may remain unchanged, the experience of being there can differ significantly dependent upon with whom you share the place. Experiences of places change as one moves through life stages, and the place of one’s youth can become a new place when being a parent with one’s own children. It can also be observed that the previously visited place becomes a ‘new’ place because of the acquisition of past knowledge. A sense of exploration is possibly replaced by a search for the familiar and the hope of replicating past satisfactory experiences. Truly, if only from this aspect, destinations are multiple products, ready to be experienced in different ways.

Theories of flow and arousal – the latter pre-date the former going back to, at least, the work of Yerkes and Dodson in 1908 who found that levels of arousal could initially evoke better levels of performance, but that too high a level of arousal created feelings of anxiety that frustrated abilities to perform well. Modification of this approach indicates different sets of reactions, initially perhaps characterised by anger, but then declining to frustration and then apathy if the participant feels unable to manage a situation. Those who may have experienced flight delays by package holiday companies, being deserted by newly bankrupted airlines or frustrated by air traffic control delays or strikes may recognise this aspect of holiday experiences, and that they are better avoided. The work of M. Csikszentimihalyi (1975) and M. Csikszentimihalyi and I. S. Csikszentimihalyi (1988) has been used to explain the levels of satisfaction derived by adventure holidaymakers in countries such as Canada (Priest and Bunting 1993) and New Zealand (Ryan 1997b). These theories are based on a construct that flow (and satisfactory experiences) exist when the participant’s abilities are equal to the level of challenge that exists within a given situation. If the task is too challenging, then the individual suffers frustration and possibly anger, but if the reverse is true, then the situation ...

Table of contents

• Routledge Advances in Tourism
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Contributors
• Introduction: thinking about the tourist experience
• 1 Ways of conceptualising the tourist experience: a review of literature1
• Section 1
• Section 2 Experiencing poor places
• Section 3 Sport tourism experiences
• Section 4 Writing the tourist experience
• Section 5 Researching tourist experiences: methodological approaches
• Bibliography
• Index