Exploring the Determinants of Memorable Tourism Experiences

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary findings of the qualitative phase of a PhD research project which explores the determinants of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs). Data analysis involved 100 reported tourism experiences at two travel blogs and 35 in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of frequent Australian travellers. Thematic inductive content analysis was employed to identify common patterns of MTEs and MAXQDA10 qualitative data handling software was used to facilitate the data analysis. Findings revealed 10 themes of positive MTEs namely meaningfulness, affective feelings, novelty and difference, authentic local experiences, perceived significance, local hospitality, collective mentality, professionalism of local guides, perceived flexibility and the serendipitous nature of experiences. Negative experiences were seldom reported and tend to have less impact on future travel decisions. Analysis also revealed that novelty seeking travellers do not intend to re-visit the same destination despite having had memorable experiences. Further findings revealed three groups of participants based on their willingness to generate word of mouth recommendations: reluctant recommenders, reactive recommenders and enthusiastic recommenders; with MTEs having more impact on the enthusiastic recommenders. These findings provide important implications for destination efforts.