An Application of Travel Blog Narratives to Explore Memorable Tourism Experiences

Abstract

This paper is based on a netnography investigation into the likely components of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) using travel blog narratives by travellers. One hundred travel blog narratives published by travellers in two reputable travel blogs were used for the study. The results revealed two major findings: (a) bloggers mostly report positive MTEs in their experiential narratives and (b) such positive MTEs are often associated with seven experiential themes: (1) local people, life and culture (2) personally significant experiences (3) shared experiences (4) perceived novelty (5) perceived serendipity (6) professional guides and tour operator services and (7) affective emotions associated with memorable experiences. The findings provide important theoretical and managerial implications.