Memorable Tourism Experiences: Strategies for the Successful Marketing of Destinations

Abstract

Memorable tourism experiences are becoming the dominant focus of tourism marketers due to increasing academic commendation about the proposition that MTEs could lead to deliver new and repeat business for tourism operators worldwide. The two main aims of this study were to explore what tourists are more likely to remember from their leisure travels, and also what impact memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) are likely to have on the decisions tourists make for their travel in future. Existing knowledge about MTEs is under-developed, fragmented and inconclusive, and there are methodological limitations to existing studies: there is a need for a more accurate, comprehensive and reliable investigation of this important experiential phenomenon. The study employed in this research is a mixed methods research methodology, which enabled an examination of MTEs in a comprehensive and reliable way from the perspective of leisure travellers.