The tourist experience

The knowledge which the students of Tourist Guiding Program have acquired on the archaeology and art history of Anatolia through the formal education process focuses basically Classical Antiquity including Hellenistic and Roman period, Eastern Roman Empire widely known as the Byzantine Empire, and Turkish and Islamic Art which centers on Anatolian Seljuks, Principalities and the Ottoman Empire. Apart from this wide range of topics, the students also learn the prehistory of Anatolia stretching from the Paleolithic period to the Middle Bronze Age, and Iron Age states after the Late Bronze Age (the collapse of the Hittite Empire) at the lesson given under different names such as ‘Prehistory of Anatolia’, ‘Anatolian Archaeology’, and ‘Anatolian Civilizations’ depending on the duration and the curriculum of the program. Besides, it is aimed with the lesson of Vocational English to give the students the knowledge that they will need in their business life and the vocabulary they will use at the tours. Lack of any books for tour guiding through readings provided strong initial prodding to prepare this book. This book was prepared to live up to such expectation by combining the professional knowledge with the language knowledge.

"Earlier provisional title was "Archaeology, Tourism, Museum...."

"This chapter is divided into two distinct sections that are positioned in a point-counterpoint structure of dialogue. These two position statements invoke the etymological meanings of the word essay, to attempt, put to the test, trial, to act out, to explore, travel, and travail. The first is an historical analysis written in the third person by an anthropologist whose expertise includes the ethnography of archaeology and the anthropology of tourism. The second is a counterpoint commentary written in the first person by an anthropologist whose specializations include Pre-Columbian and historical archaeology. Both of us have significant research experience in same area of the Maya world in Yucatán, México. From these two differing vantage points, we chart our perspectives on the relationship between archaeology and tourism in terms of the problems of exploration, protection, and exploitation.
In the first section, Castañeda takes an historical approach to the emergence of archaeology in the institutional context of the modern museum. He essays an analytical and theoretical manifesto about the deep, intimate interconnections between tourism and archaeology as revealed through an understanding of the museum. In his historical analysis of the role of archaeological representation in the museum, he identifies the sociological creation of universal heritage. He theorizes a notion of the universal citizen-heir as the implied benefactor of this universal heritage. In the second section, Mathews elaborates a commentary on this historical analysis of archaeology, tourism, heritage and the museum. Specifically, she counter-argues and assesses Castañeda theoretical and analytical claims through the use of archaeology and tourism at sites that are not postcard worthy. Together these two “attempts” grapple with the historical and contemporary interconnections between archaeology and tourism. Together we put to the test our typical assumptions about the ethics of archaeologists, tourists, and tourism promoters in the contemporary contexts in which we are now beginning to ask how and why archaeology and tourism are interwoven phenomena in today’s world.""

The inbetweenness refers to boundaries that, instead of separating, serve as a means for interaction and confluence. In tourism such cases can be observed on many levels, whereby there exists a 'gray' area between the coverage of various scientific disciplines: it is about the general ambiance, the normal daily life and cultural heritage of a place, which exists at a destination anyway with or without the presence of tourists. For many, what cannot be made tangible economically, is located outside the boundaries of the economy and is therefore denied. However in areas of tourism where disciplines such as economy, sociology, anthropology or social-psychology meet a rich encounter takes place that embraces a broad array of sources and clues for experiences. This means that the promotion of a tourism destination based on a multi-disciplinary approach that communicates values on socio-cultural or anthropological levels can parallel traditional marketing strategies, opening even ...

The shifting nature of backpacking and its increasing heterogeneity hinder attempts at deeper understandings required to keep pace with this dynamic phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to understand what is distinctive about the backpacker experience via a review of the backpacker literature and outline an agenda for future research. The unique contribution of the review is the insight into the backpacker experience, characterised by the pursuit of existential authenticity and freedom and manifested through social interactions within the backpacker culture. The review provided a meta-perspective of backpacking in which the search for experiences enabling existential authenticity and freedom remain consistent despite significant demographic, social, cultural and behavioural variation among backpackers. This relationship with experiences distinguishes backpacking from other forms of tourism. The paper highlights backpacker understandings of freedom to mean being free of temporal, spatial and social limitations imposed by their home societies. Backpackers experienced existential authenticity as involvement in the pursuit of self-development and self-identity. Heidegger’s “spielraum” (“playspace”) was applied to explain the ability of backpackers to experience this authenticity and to engage with the “other” including other backpackers in a safe manner.

The purpose of this study is to examine the emerging flashpacker sub-culture in relation to the backpacker culture. Cultural Consensus Analysis is employed to examine the potential cultural divergence between flashpackers and non-flashpackers. A mixed-mode dual-frame sampling procedure was employed for data collection, as surveys were administered through Facebook backpacker-groups and in hostels in Cairns, Australia. The results indicate that flashpacker and non-flashpacker groups have a shared cultural understanding of backpacking. In addition to the conceptual clarity of the emerging flashpacker, this study also provides some interesting insights into contemporary backpacker culture and the continuing convergence of physical travel with information and communication technologies.

With ever changing business world, achieving higher level of work performance through managing employee’s work-life balance is still challenging and remains as an issue in literature as well as practically in organizations. Unlike in most of other industries, the situation of the hospitality industry is more critical and the work life balance issue has become an inherent characteristic of the industry. According to Deery (as cited in Monathy, 2014), work-life balance is heavily impact on employee’s performance and since the work-life balance issue is an inherent characteristic of hotel industry, their work performances are mostly at lower levels. Therefore, the study focuses on the work-life balance of the hotel industry employees and its impact on employee performance. The study is based on three main dimension of the work life balance i.e.  Job Content, Personal Factors and Family factors. The study was carried out at the John keels (Cinnamon) Hotel chain in Sri Lanka using 187 executive level employees. Data were collected through a standard and validated questionnaire survey and face to face discussions with family members of the selected employees. Data which collected through questionnaire survey were analyzed by using multiple linear regressions and content analysis was employed to summarize the data which collected through discussion. The result revealed that there is high positive relationship between all three dimensions and employee performance.  The factors related job content, personal and family are positively contributed for the employee performance. The hotel industry can further improve the employee performance through creating a conductive work environment which allows the employee to have a work-life balance. Confirming the previous findings the current study reveals that the work-life balance positive impacts on work performance. This study will contribute to hotel industry to improve the work- life balance of the employees in order to improve the employee work performance.

A importância dos cinco sentidos humanos – visão, audição, olfato, paladar e tato – no marketing de experiências turísticas positivas, únicas e memoráveis tem vindo a ser enfatizada no âmbito da investigação em turismo. Particularmente, a riqueza multissensorial e a vulnerabilidade dos recursos endógenos existentes nas áreas rurais, com características divergentes do ambiente urbano e potenciadoras de atividades ligadas à natureza e aos ativos rurais, justificam um marketing da experiência turística adequado ao desenvolvimento sustentável das áreas rurais. Considerando o contributo do marketing sensorial para o design de um ambiente potenciador de experiências turísticas desejáveis e para a segmentação de turistas, o presente trabalho pretende refletir sobre o papel dos cinco sentidos no marketing de experiências turísticas que reforcem o desenvolvimento sustentável dos destinos rurais.

Destinations are more likely to be successful if they recognize the experiential qualities of their offerings. However, with some exceptions, research into the emotional content of the destination experience remains largely underexplored. This current research addresses this lacuna and empirically investigates the dimensions of tourists’ emotional experiences toward hedonic holiday destinations. Adopting a rigorous scale development procedure, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identify three salient dimensions to represent the Destination Emotion Scale, namely, joy, love, and positive surprise. In addition, tourists’ emotional experiences are related to satisfaction, which in turn has a significant influence on behavioral intentions. Findings offer important implications for destination marketers in relation to branding and emotional experience management.

Tourist guidebooks provide an important source of information on places. Different guidebooks are written for different types of visitors to better meet their individual travel needs. This is demonstrated through a content analysis of four guidebooks written for Singapore in the early 1980s. Two of the guidebooks represent variations on mainstream, mass travel interests. The third source presents the long-term expatriates perception,
while the fourth source presents the alternative or youth tourist view of Singapore. Urban tourism is shown to be multifaceted, allowing for a diversity of travel motivations, experiences, and behavior.

Keywords: travel literature, urban tourism, content analysis, environmental perception, Singapore.

Turystyka XXI wieku staje się coraz bardziej skomplikowanym, złożonym i trudnym do jednoznacznej oceny zjawiskiem. Najważniejszymi obszarami kontrowersji są: zachowania turystów, miejsca wypoczynku, formy turystyki, produkty turystyczne i skutki, jakie turystyka wywołuje. Pojawiające się wątpliwości mogą mieć przy tym charakter: prawny, etyczno-moralny, kulturowy, estetyczny, zdrowotny, ekonomiczny, ekologiczny. W artykule omówiono najnowsze kontrowersyjne formy turystyki, m.in. turystykę aborcyjną, seksualną, narkotykową, ekstremalną, paranormalną, slumsów, katastrof, halal, tanatoturystykę, urban exploration. Nieustanne poszukiwanie nowych, oryginalnych, często zaskakujących i szokujących, wakacyjnych przygód jest typowe dla turystów w postmodernistycznym świecie. W tym sensie dzisiejsza turystyka jest doskonałą emanacją gospodarki doświadczeń (ang. experience economy).
Tourism in the 21st Century is becoming more and more complicated, complex and difficult to clearly assess phenomenon. The most important areas of controversy are: the behavior of tourists, a place of rest, forms of tourism, tourist products and the effects caused by tourism. The emerging doubts may have legal, ethical and moral, cultural, aesthetic, health, economic, as well as ecological nature. The article discusses the most recent controversial types of tourism, including abortion tourism, sex tourism, drug tourism, extreme tourism, paranormal tourism, slum tourism, disaster tourism, halal tourism, thanatourism, and urban exploration. The constantly searching for new, original, often surprising and shocking, holiday adventures is typical for tourists in the postmodern world. In this sense, the contemporary tourism is the perfect emanation of experience economy.

Destination managers must consider whether to continue to consolidate their experiences and markets or innovate by developing new experiences and targeting new markets when planning their tourism destination development. Although these approaches are not mutually exclusive, adopting a strategic approach to identifying which experiences will be iconic visitor drawcards featured in the destination’s brand image and marketing, and which markets to focus their marketing efforts on, is important to destination competitiveness. Most destination managers adopt a consolidation strategy because this is often the most efficient, safest and least controversial approach. The alternative is to innovate through developing new experiences and attracting new visitor markets to expand the destination’s appeal. This paper studies this destination development challenge in a popular, yet mature tourism destination, the Gold Coast, Australia. Four experience development strategy options are proposed and organised into a Destination Innovation Matrix. These options are then tested via an online survey (N=1,759), followed by four focus group interviews. This matrix provides a new framework to assist managers to prioritise innovation opportunities for a destination.

Smart Destinations (SDs) have gained momentum in tourism research, but despite the growing body of literature devoted to the topic, some critical dimensions continue to be under-researched. Real fulfilment of two of the main objectives of SDs, namely enhancing tourists’ experiences and improving destinations management, remains largely unknown. By taking as a relevant case the destination of Benidorm, its smart destination strategy and solutions, this paper investigates whether and how these smart destination efforts are actually transforming destination management, marketing processes and tourists’ experiences. Through a sequence of qualitative methods including (i) documentary and other secondary data analysis, (ii) in-depth interviews with DMO representatives and key informants and (iii) in-depth interviews with tourists visiting the destination, rich data was obtained, systematically analysed and triangulated. The findings pose critical lessons for destinations in their transition towards smartness, especially for policy-makers, and shed light on the effects of smart solutions on tourist experiences.

The topic of creativity and culture in relation to urban value creation and global competitiveness becomes all the more relevant when it allows us to understand the development or the enhancement of cultural and creative industries clusters alongside with the subsequent new geographies shaping cities. In an enclosed area such as a city, the cultural and creative potential is closely related to the scale of innovation and knowledge, let alone to the kind of tourism or cultural occasions that the city provides. This article identifies three specific cultural and creative sectors that are concentrated and coexist in the city of Milan. This article suggests that these sectors may mutually enhance their paths of value creation whilst positively impacting on a unique city's tourist image. In this way, Milan will have the opportunity to become a distinctive global capital of culture and creativity.

Inspired by world heritage sites all around the world, Sarawak is developing its showcase to the world. Borneo being the fourth largest island in the world, Sarawak is perceived as a provincial state and tourism is still seen as a growth area. This has implications for all its attractions and museums.
How can small museums without the large tourist crowd have the potential to contribute towards the growth of its society, towards innovation and sustainability? And how can communities participate in museums to signify the identity of the people?

Although in previous decades gastronomy was not considered as an element that could attract tourists, nowadays it is being identified as a 'peak touristic' experience. It acts as a 'pull' factor and can create 'loyal' visitors, thus gastronomy has been used as a core marketing element in different destinations. Gastronomy tourism offers opportunities for communities to integrate tourism and local food systems in order to promote economic development and respond to the specific needs of visitors. It can also be viewed as a source of sustainable tourism which supports local producers and boosts local economies. The 'Greek Breakfast' project is an initiative of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, which focuses on the Greek culinary tradition and aims to promote the wealth and authenticity of local agricultural products and gastronomy by uniting hoteliers and local producers. This article aims to investigate the contribution of the use of local agricultural products in tourism as a way to strengthen the tourism sector, enrich tourist experience and promote both the local producers and the cultural tradition of a place. The results of the primary research into the effectiveness of the 'Greek Breakfast' in hotels reveal: a) the strong relationship between agricultural and tourism sector, b) the multiple influences of the use of local products on strengthening (cultural and economic) of local communities, and c) local gastronomy's contribution to the enrichment of tourist experience.

Researchers have made increasing use of the suffix ‘-scape’ to express the multiple contexts and perspectives that characterize the tourism field. Examples include the terms soundscapes, destinationscapes, landscapes and technoscapes. The present paper explores the application of one such expression – experiencescape – as a potential medium for analyzing various tourism-related experience contexts. The researchers address the persistent adoption of singular investigative perspectives, despite the availability of experimental tracking data that enables more scientific approaches to understanding how experiences are produced, packaged, consumed and staged within environments. To date, there has been no comprehensive review of studies on the evolution and applications of experiencescapes, despite their critical role in forming tourism experiences. This study addresses the gap by discussing the emergence, nature, development and potential of experiencescapes and presents implications for future research. It is found that the experiencescape concept can function both analytically and operationally. It helps to understand, investigate and interpret diverse tourism experiences and provides a basis for developing new or improved experiences.

It is hard to imagine tourism without the creative use of seductive as well as restrictive imaginaries about peoples and places. This article presents a conceptual framework for the study of tourism imaginaries and their diffusion. Where do such imaginaries originate, how and why are they circulated across the globe, and what kind of impact do they have on people’s lives? I discuss the multiple links between tourism and imagination, illustrating the overlapping but conflicting ways in which imaginings and fantasies drive tourists and tourism service providers alike. By applying this conceptual approach to international tourism in developing countries, I illustrate how the critical analysis of imaginaries offers a powerful deconstruction device of ideological, political, and sociocultural stereotypes and cliche´s.

Sensory aspects of destinations have recently been in focus as an important dimension in the process of facilitating positive tourist experiences. The countryside embraces local resources rich in multi-sensory stimuli that could be utilized in the planning and marketing of appealing tourist experiences addressed to segments of tourists, while fitting sustainable local development. This study follows a holistic approach to the five external human senses, aiming to capture meaningful sensory-informed themes adequate for segmenting rural tourists. A self-administered survey in four languages was collected from 181 tourists in Southwest Portugal. A multiple correspondence analysis suggests four sensory-informed themes, tentatively named generic beach-related experience, nature-based experience, balanced experience, and rural experience. The proposed themes correspond to a four-solution cluster of tourists presenting different profiles. The largest segment (73 tourists) corresponds to the rural experience, regarding which tourists mainly refer to the taste of local food and the smell of fresh air.

Taking place in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada for one week every August, Burning Man is a unique event, with a distinct event-culture. Over the course of thirty years, it has evolved from a
summer solstice festival, first held on San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986, into the world’s largest temporary city. With Immediacy, Radical Inclusion, and Civic Responsibility among its diverse Ten Principles, Black Rock City is a uniquely contested context for the performance of dance music. While the chapter recognizes that the event is not a music festival, EDM or otherwise, navigating the history of this dramatic field of contestation, it examines how the
composite art form of dance music has established its place in the event’s attention economy. At the same time, the chapter demonstrates how policy initiatives seek to distinguish Burning Man from other events, notably EDM festivals. From the outlaw “rave camps” of the early 1990s to the Techno Ghetto, and from the Large-Scale Sound Art Zone to Mutant Vehicles mobilizing in an escalating charms war, the chapter explores solutions, policies and compromises integral to the evolution of electronic dance music culture in Black Rock City. Based on the author’s experience
at four events and analysis of extensive online discussions, with a focus throughout on event-tribe the Space Cowboys, the chapter demonstrates how Burning Man’s unique principles have had a shaping influence on electronic dance music culture at the event.

Airbnb, the largest networked hospitality platform, originated in “social travel” and is still associated with the “Sharing economy” and with altruism. But since 2008, it has evolved from sharing spare rooms and “living like a local” into a very successful business. Now that Airbnb beats the major hotel chains in accommodation offered and in valuation, we can argue many did not realize the extent and the power of the disruptive business model of “networked hospitality”. Building upon a previous scenario study about the potential future growth of Airbnb (Oskam & Boswijk, 2016), this paper will analyse the phenomenon in Amsterdam using data collected from the company’s website. It will propose a research agenda identifying further knowledge gaps. The study seeks to contribute to the understanding of networked hospitality businesses to inspire strategies for the hospitality industry and regulatory policies that foster innovation and reduce harmful side-effects.

The proliferation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with particular emphasis on internet have been rapidly adapted to tourism, where new opportunities for design and marketing strategies for destinations are being explored in both physical and virtual environments. Furthermore, the process of designing strong brands and facilitating positive and memorable experiences are central activities concerning destinations aiming to become more competitive. Accordingly, Destinations Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are now exploring ICT and new forms of human interactions with a view to offer new opportunities for visitors to engage in the process of co-creating enhanced destination experiences in a technology-based environment. Considering that ICT both contribute to the process of designing innovative destination experiences and support enhanced individuals’ experiences before, during and after the trip, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of ICT in the marketing and brand design of destination experiences.

This paper aims to contribute to the conceptualization of the sensory dimension of tourist experiences by discussing its theoretical underpinnings. A multidisciplinary approach to the human senses shows their importance to the individual’s experience and perception of the surrounding world, recommending the appropriateness of a holistic analysis of sensescapes in tourism. A review of empirical studies conducted under the experiential paradigm of tourism on the five human senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch) evidences the use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, which depends on research purposes, but also the practical implications of findings and data analysis to destination marketing and management. The paper discusses the role of the senses in designing tourist experiences, and identifies important topics regarding the study of the sensory dimension of tourist experiences, considering future research opportunities.

This paper presents a framework that articulates the complete tourist experience with reference to a traditional Macau local event-A-Ma Festival. The Stimulus Organism Response (S-OR) framework is deployed to depict the festival experience as a continuous and multi-stage process. The festivalscape concept provides an elaboration of the festival construct by considering how attendees form enduring attitudes. The authors use the concept as a medium for conveying key festival messages and values from the attendee perspective. They identified a high incidence of spontaneous involvement in the festival. Festival attendance provided respondents with a considerable enhancement of the destination experience.

Customer experience is emerging as a relatively new concept and is regarded as an important determinant for the success of hospitality organizations. However, factors affecting customer experiences and the influence of experiences on consumer behaviour are still unclear. Through a quantitative field research, this paper attempts to determine and exhibit the impacts of customer experiences on customer loyalty and recommendation behaviours in hospitality organizations. To reach this objective, a sample of 350 adult respondents staying in five-star hotels in Istanbul were requested to rate the items related to physical environment and social interactions that are found to be relevant to hotel stay experiences. The results indicate that there is a strong relationship between desired customer behaviours and perceived dimensions of customer experiences.

Tourist behavior is always guided by the pre-visit decision making. This decision is based on the image that they have heard of the destination. The image tourists have of a destination is largely subjective, which may be further distorted or restored of the destination image with perceived risk associated with the visiting of the destination. Destination image is defined as an individual‘s mental representation of knowledge (beliefs), feelings and overall perception of a particular destination. Making visitors feel secure and safe before and during a vacation can be critical for international competitiveness of a destination, since visitors, in their travel plans, often consider multiple alternatives. Perceptions of risk and feelings of safety during travel have a strong influence on the avoidance of particular regions. So, this study aims to examine the relation between Nepal‘s destination image, its perceived risk among the tourists and their behavioral intention to revisit or re...

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a key resource that has transformed travel and tourist experiences. Due to the increasing ubiquity and mobility of ICTs, they have become integral in creating connected experiences that interlink travel with everyday life. While recent studies have investigated value co-creation and the enhancement of experiences through ICTs, there is less knowledge about potential value co-destruction when ICTs come into place. This paper provides a first exploratory study to examine technology resource integration by looking at the dichotomous relationship of value co-creation and value co-destruction in connected tourist experiences. By adopting a qualitative in-depth methodology, this study has identified six dimensions, which highlight how value can be created and destroyed through connectedness. The paper contributes to service-dominant logic, resource integration and value creation discourses in a tourism and technology context, for which several theoretical and practical limitations are discussed.

The metropolitan area of Cluj-Napoca is the focal point of tourism in North Transylvania. This exploratory study examines the profile, motivation, visiting behaviours, and perceptions of tourists visiting the most important metropolitan area in the region, with its historical, core city, which holds the title of European Youth Capital in 2015 and aspires for European Capital of Culture in 2021. Based on surveys carried out in the spring and summer of 2014, the findings indicate that three types of tourism dominate the metropolitan Cluj-Napoca: cultural tourism, business tourism and VFR tourism. While the periphery is more attractive for mountain tourism and week-end recreation, the core emerges with a great diversity of events. Tourists were overall satisfied with their time spent on the destination. Furthermore, out of a number of tourist attractions only the ones located in Cluj-Napoca were familiar or even visited by most of the tourists, the rest were as if inexistent. Thus, findings indicate great distribution inequalities. The implications of the results on metropolitan development processes and strategies are also discussed.

Attractions are vital sub-elements in all whole tourism systems, and yet their study suffers from lack of theoretical depth and empirical foundation. This paper presents an empirical exploration of the attraction system model, based on a survey of over 6,000 tourists to cultural attractions. The results provide strong support both for the general structure of the model and for the idea that tourists are “pushed” towards attractions by their motivations. Visitation is shown to be strongly related to motivation, attraction markers, use of different media, and touristic characteristics. Potential areas of development for the model are suggested, including more consideration of the relationship between agency and structure.Systèmes d’attractions touristiques: une étude de comportement culturel. Les attractions sont des sous-éléments essentiels dans tout système de tourisme à part entière, et pourtant les études à ce sujet manquent de profondeur théorique et de fondation empirique. Cet article présente une exploration empirique du modèle du système d’attractions basée sur un sondage de 6.000 touristes à des attractions culturelles. Les résultats appuient fortement la structure générale du modèle et l’idée que les touristes sont «poussés» vers les attractions par leurs motivations. Le nombre de visiteurs est fortement lié à la motivation, aux indications d’attractions, à l’usage des différents médias et aux caractéristiques touristiques. On suggère des possibilités de développement pour le modèle, y compris plus de considération de la relation entre agence et structure.

Celem artykułu jest szczegółowa charakterystyka istoty, składników, roli i znaczenia doświadczenia we współczesnej gastronomii i turystyce kulinarnej. W pracy zaprezentowano m.in.: piramidę potrzeb konsumenta (turysty kulinarnego), która wskazuje na ciągłe różnicowanie i wzrost znaczenia potrzeb wyższego rzędu (społecznych, szacunku i uznania, samorealizacji). Następnie scharakteryzowano uniwersalne i indywidualne wymiary produktu gastronomicznego. Ich analiza dowiodła, że w szerokim rozumieniu jest to produkt bardzo skomplikowany, wieloaspektowy, zawierający liczne elementy materialne, jak i niematerialne. Kluczowa okazuje się przy tym relacja pomiędzy produktem oczekiwanym a psychologicznym. O ostatecznej satysfakcji klienta decyduje przekroczenie jego oczekiwań, zaskoczenie, wzbudzenie żywych emocji, wywołanie zachwytu (tzw. efekt „wow!”). W odrębnym rozdziale zaprezentowano szerokie możliwości i sposoby kreowania wyjątkowego, ponadprzeciętnego doświadczenia w gastronomii i turystyce kulinarnej. Na atrakcyjność „podróży w poszukiwaniu nowych smaków” składają się trzy nierozłączne komponenty: żywność, poznanie i doświadczenie. Zaprezentowane w artykule rozważania prowadzą do zasadniczej konkluzji: turystyka kulinarna jest doskonałą emanacją współczesnej gospodarki doświadczeń.

The purpose of this article is a detailed description of the essence, components, role and meaning of experience in contemporary gastronomy and culinary tourism. The paper presents i.a.: a hierarchy of the consumer’s (culinary tourist’s) needs, which points to a continuous diversification and an increasing significance of higher order needs (social, respect and esteem, self-actualization needs). Next, the author describes the universal and individual dimensions of the gastronomical product. The analysis proves that, in a broad sense, it is a highly complex, multifaceted product, containing many material and immaterial elements. The key relation here is the one between the expected and the psychological product. The customer feels ultimate satisfaction when his/her expectations are exceeded, if he/she experiences a feeling of astonishment, strong emotions and a feeling of amazement (the “wow!” effect). A separate chapter presents the wide range of possibilities and ways of efficient creation of experience in gastronomy and culinary tourism. The attractiveness of “a journey in search of new tastes” consists in three inseparable components: food, cognition and experience. The deliberations presented in the article lead to a fundamental conclusion: culinary tourism is a perfect emanation of the contemporary economy of experiences.