Experience – an old-new paradigm of tourism

What is it about?

Purpose. Implementing the general theory of experience economy in the domain of tourism and attempting to answer the question whether the philosophy of tourism industry should be modified, placing the tourist’s experience in the focus of attention. Method. Desk research – studies of foreign and Polish literature. Findings. Travel has always involved strong emotions. They were treated as a “side effect” of travelling rather than an important aim of tourism enterprise activity. The development of experience economy increased the demand for unique experiences and emotions, also in tourism. Feelings, excitement, mental satisfaction with a stay at a given place are becoming more important than the standard of tourism services. This statement leads to perceiving the tourist’s experience as the foundation of the comprehensive tourist brand strategy, the aim and sense of a company’s marketing activity. Adopting a new paradigm of tourism would require devising totally new methods and tools to professionally shape tourism products, strongly saturated with emotions. In order to turn an ordinary product to an extraordinary experience (Lasalle, Britton 2003), it is necessary to reorient thinking: tourist services package → tourist experience package. Research and conclusion limitations. The paper is based on the global conception of experience economy as well as many foreign and Polish publications. It can be assumed that the presented conclusions are true for all modern tourism markets. Practical implications. Apart from providing a theoretical foundation, the article also shows the benefits of focusing on unrepeatable tourist experiences and implementing experience marketing into the economic practice by tourism firms. Originality. The problems of experience economy are relatively new, both globally and in Poland. Although experience itself is not a new concept in tourism, the approach to it has changed – it has been placed in the focus of the tourism sector’s attention, recommending concentration on consciously shaping tourism products which provide unique experiences. Type of paper. An article presenting theoretical conceptions.

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