Routledge Handbook of the Tourist Experience

Routledge Handbook of the Tourist Experience offers a comprehensive synthesis of contemporary research on the tourist experience. It draws together multidisciplinary perspectives from leading tourism scholars to explore emergent tourist behaviours and motivations.
This handbook provides up-to-date, critical discussions of established and emergent themes and issues related to the tourist experience from a primarily socio-cultural perspective. It opens with a detailed introduction which lays down the framework used to examine the dynamic parameters of the tourist experience. Organised into five thematic sections, chapters seek to build and enhance knowledge and understanding of the significance and meaning of diverse elements of the tourist experience. Section 1 conceptualises and understands the tourist experience through an exploration of conventional themes such as tourism as authentic and spiritual experience, as well as emerging themes such as tourism as an embodied experience. Section 2 investigates the new, developing tourist demands and motivations, and a growing interest in the travel career. Section 3 considers the significance, motives, practices and experiences of different types of tourists and their roles such as the tourist as photographer. Section 4 discusses the relevance of 'place' to the tourist experience by exploring the relationship between tourism and place. The last section, Section 5, scrutinises the role of the tourist in creating their experiences through themes such as 'transformations in the tourist role' from passive receiver of experiences to co-creator of experiences, and 'external mediators in creating tourist experiences'.
This handbook is the first to fill a notable gap in the tourism literature and collate within a single volume critical insights into the diverse elements of the tourist experience today. It will be of key interest to academics and students across the fields of tourism, hospitality management, geography, marketing and consumer behaviour.

Richard Sharpley is Professor of Tourism and Development at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. His research interests lie within two broad areas - tourism and sustainable development and the tourist experience - and he has researched and published widely in both.

Section 1: Dimensions of the Contemporary Tourist Experience 1. Tourism, the Tourist Experience and Postmodernity: Theory, Application and Research 2. Experiencing Tourism: Experiencing Happiness? 3. The Emotional Dimension of the Tourist Experience 4. Building the Orchestra Model of Tourist Experience, Integration, and Examples 5. The Inter-Relationship Between Tourist Satisfaction and Tourist Experiences: How Does One Contribute to the Other? 6. Evolving Authenticity into the Magical Realm of Fantasy-Based Third-Order Simulacra 7. Tourist Experiences: Liminal, Liminoid or Just Doing Something Different? 8. Finding Flow in the Travel Experience 9. Tourist Experiences as Attention Products 10. Tourist Experience: A Semiotic Perspective 11. Performing Beyond the View: Embodiment and Tourist Experiences 12. Tourism: A Spiritual Experience? Section 2: Tourist Demand and Motivation 13. The Ulysses Factor Revisited: Consolidating the Travel Career Pattern Approach to Tourist Motivation 14. The Experienced Tourist - Proposing a New Tourist Typology 15. Tourist Motivation: A Critical Overview Section 3: Tourist Roles and Experiences 16. Traveller, Tourist and the 'Lost Art of Travelling': The Debate Continues 17. Mass Tourism and Personal Experiences 18. Backpacker Tourist Experiences: Temporal, Spatial and Cultural Perspectives 19. Volunteer Tourism: 'It's No Use Going Back to Yesterday, Because I Was a Different Person Then' 20. Feelin' Groovy: Exploring Slow(ness) in Tourism Experience 21. Ecotourist Experience: Myth or reality? 22. Is It Just the Music? Understanding the Atmosphere in Festivalgoers' Experience at British Rock Music Festivals 23. The Film-Induced Tourism Experience 24. Remembrancing, Remembrance Gangs, and Co-opted Encounters: Loading and Reloading Dark Tourism Experiences 25. Frontier Tourism: Transcendence Through Trial 26. Creating Wellness Tourism Experiences 27. Seeking the Unusual But Sustainable: Scuba Diving Experience 28. Religious Tourism: A Spiritual or Touristic Experience? 29. The Contemporary Cruise Tourist Experience 30. Key Components of Sport Tourist Experiences 31. Photography and the Tourist Experience: From Cameras to Smartphones 32. Accessible Tourist Experiences Section 4: The Tourist Experience and Place 33. Marketing a Sense of Place to Tourists: A Critical Perspective 34. The Importance of Built Heritage in the English Seaside Experience 35. Island Tourist Experiences 36. Delivering Appealing and Competitive Rural Wine Tourism Experiences 37. Wilderness Tourism: Nature-Based Tourist Experiences in Wild Places Section 5: Creating and Mediating the Tourist Experience 38. Designing the Tourist Experience: A Marketing Perspective 39. Tourist Experience: A Marketing Perspective 40. Value Co-Creation in Tourism Eco-Systems: Operant and Operand Resources 41. Place-Based Education, Cemetery Visitation and the Tourist Experience 42. Service Experiences and Innovation in the Hospitality Industry 43. Tour Guides as Mediators of Commemoration, Education and Holiday Making: The Anthropology of the Dark Tourism Experience in Berlin 44. Experience Design in the Smart Tourism Destination