What is an Experience, what is experiential tourism?

We can define Experience any leisure, pleasurable activity which involves our six senses. Yes, we are
talking about six senses, and you will learn which the missing one is:

Touch: the activities we perform (i.e. experience) shall be touchable, be done using our
hands and our skin. This will impress us and allow our creativity to impress what we are
handling. Or to make it simple and obvious: this is what we call hands on activities.
Sight: viewing things, activities, colors, light and darkness is
one of the most (if not the most indeed) learning experience. We
learn and impress our mind by looking at things. So Experience has to
be experienced by seeing our action and matters.
Taste: how can you leave out taste? What we eat is always
and Experience, and we hope that it is a good one, but tasting,
initely something
so
chewing, enjoying flavors through our mouth is definitely
we consider experiential and important.
We are talking about food. Who is denying that it is not an
experience?
Hearing: sounds and noises, harmonic or disharmonic ones,
d
characterize our journeys and make us feel we have experienced
ink
something relevant. Often, even silence is an experience (think
of visiting a paramount cathedral, or walking in the woods).

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 Sense of smell: in the good way or the negative one smell can definitely affect what you are
living and going through. Experience is also a matter we live with our . nose. Sometimes
smell goes up to our brain because it is so relevant, and a pleasurable smell will help us
experience positively what we are living.
And here is the sixth and unpredictable sense of our body: Memory. In order to become a
lasting and significant experience our actions shall be(come memorable) shall be imprinted
in our mind and heart, shall be engraved in our brain so as to be meaningful on a long term.
Otherwise, it will disappear from our screens and wont leave any sign. Memory is
something which summarizes the 5 senses above, but has to be guided and supported in
what we do so as to be developed in a meaningful way.

When activities we perform and live are involving all the above mentioned six senses, then we can
talk about Experience as a specific paradigm which in tourism shall become a product for travellers.
Memory or memories in general, have different features. They have to be created, and thats the
purpose of an original tourism product, they have to be re-activated. In the latter, an experience
will refresh memories which people have already in their background (psychologist would call it
subconscious) and due to a certain action they are reviewed and brought up to surface (thats why
we cry sometimes in front of a movie scene.). But memories are not just a brain or emotional
exercise; they are to be worn as a dress. Memories become part of ourselves, like our skin, and
pervade our entire entity.
What types of memories shall be activated so as to imprint our souls, emotions, brain and body?
There are different level which we can take into consideration.
History: there are specific aspects of human history which can be re-experienced and lived
again. A specific event (the signing of a treaty, a battle, a meeting between presidents) as
well as famous characters in history can be re-enacted through specific and organized
activity.
Community of people, local community, can convey strong memories and develop
emotions in visitors. Actually, relations and the warmth of people are always considered
memorable when we walk in small towns and are addressed by local with their smile and
inviting behavior.

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 Cultural heritage is another memorable matter to be experienced. Rather than the warmth
and welcoming attitude of people here we are considering the life of the local community.
This life is made, besides the ordinary activities (which by the ways can also be outstanding
and involve all six senses), by liturgies (religious and laic ones),
traditions, habits, by the cooking tradition (gastronomy), by the
way the people dress, by the local folklore also made of music,
dances, feasts, etc. Giving value to these specific cultural matters
enhances the creation f memories, and makes everyone experience
memorable time.
And last, but not least, the working activities of a community or of
its professionals can become memorable for visitors during their
tourism journey. The daily and creative activities of artisans,
craftsmen, cooks, players (music and theatre), singers, dancer, etc.
can be organized as an involving activities where tourists are on the
stage and play their role as protagonists, activating their six
senses all in once. These professionals, by opening their activities
to visitors, can create striking experiences involving tourist in their
activities.
Given what has been stated above and as a summary, we can say that experiential tourism means
being part of the community and its cultural heritage, means to take part to its life and join the
communitys daily activities, it means to live like a local.
Since experiential tourism works on memories and feelings, activating the six senses, it is necessary
that each Experience has a long lasting effect on tourists. Its should not just be a glimpse, but
should accompany the travellers for long time and allow them to refresh memories just by means of
thoughts, images, or other tools which can bring them easily back.
A couple of definitions might help to put all the elements together and have a summary
classification of what it represents:
Travel that engages travelers in a series of memorable events, that are revealed over time, are
inherently personal, involve the senses, and make a connection on an emotional, physical, spiritual
or intellectual level (Canadiam Tourism Commission).
Therefore, experiential tourism includes various forms of tourism such as outdoor activities, cultural
tourism, culinary tourism, ecotourism, educational travel, heritage tourism, experiential immerging
tourism, etc.
Another hint is once more given to us by the Canadian Tourism Commission: Tourism product is
what you buy, tourism experience is what you remember, thus, the principal aim in experiential
tourism is to create memories so as to share them with friends and family. Because memories are
important, but sharing them is even more imperative. We like to tell about our experiences, we like
to show pictures or videos of what we have done, we love talking about places we have visited or
extraordinary things which we have done. And, lets be honest, we love talking about it because we
love getting the reaction of our listeners! We shall admit, it is not just the experience we have lived

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which is so exciting for us, but the envy we produce in those which are listening to us and would
have liked to be there as well. Envy, this is the feeling which finally we create in listeners, so our
memories have also an impact on others.

Key words of Experiential tourism

If we have to develop Experiential tourism and its products we can
identify a set of words which describe the characteristics.
Uniqueness: the experience shall be exclusive, inimitable,
distinctive. Tourists should feel that what they are doing is not
replicable elsewhere and therefore what they are experiencing
is exceptional.
Authenticity: the experience shall be genuine, hundred per cent real, truthful. Tourist
should not feel that what they are living is made up of somewhat fake, but it is fully realistic
and straight.
Immersion: it is not a matter of viewing, it is a matter of living. Therefore, the experience
shall fully immerge travellers in the activity thus being the main actors of the event and not
simply spectators.
inatio what tourists experiences should be contagious. Actually, the idea to share
Contamination:
and involve others in what we have lived is exactly the desire to
contaminate our environment with what is so meaningful to us. So
experiential tourism shall be viral in its effects and make travellers
wanting to infect others with their memories.
Inspiration: the experience is not just what you get, it should
be much more. The activity shall be motivating and inspiring, leading to
more creative thoughts and excitement. Every moment shall be like a
muse for travellers, bridging their feelings to new and even more
thrilling states of mind
Interaction: as said before, the sharing is one of the important elements of experience in
life, thus tourists should be put into the condition to offer inputs, to discuss, chat, and
exchange with others what has been lived. Experiential tourism acts also as a social vehicle
for people.
Learning: it is not just a mere pleasure, but delight should also be conveyed by the fact that
travellers learn and increase their knowledge. Experience shall always be an educational
event, so as to become deep wisdom.
The surprise and wow! factor: experience should always surprise travellers, not being
expected or overcoming the expectations of tourists. While living and event each of the
participants should feel like shouting wow at a certain moment, a surprised wow, an
excited wow, a overwhelmed wow:

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What are the conditions for successful experiential tourism?

Small groups.
If events and activities have to be experienced through
immersion, by all means they cannot be mass experiences.
Activities need to be offered to small groups (up to 8 people
accordingly) so as to allow each of the participants to have full
access, space and movement in doing. A small group allows
however leads the travellers to show them, to teach them, to
involve them, to fully activate them and thus making the
experience wholesome and memorable. Small groups facilitate
playing the role of a protagonist, of the main actor, while big
groups unavoidably transform each traveller in a viewer, a distant visitor.

Brief and midterm duration.

In order to have a strong and long lasting impact experiences have to have an adequate duration,
short and not too long. An experience can last the time of a specific activity (some hours), or an
entire day. Experiential tourism can also gather some few days, preferably focusing on a common
theme or local area, but should not be longer than 4-5 days. Otherwise it might become a journey
which cannot keep the wow effect for too long, thus soften (or weaken) the emotional involvement
of participants.
Guidance from locals.
If activities have to be significant for tourists and so become memorable, it is
necessary that they are led by experts and dwellers of that action. Who else,
other than locals, involved professionals (as sketched above), dwellers of the
co
community is entitled and to be privileged in becoming guide of it. This does
not mean that tour guides are not welcome, it is to say that the best guides
are the ones daily living the activity which is offered to travelers.

Use tools to create a long lasting memorable effect

Two elements can produce the lasting effect of memories. One related to the experience itself, the
other one connected to the sharing of this memory. With regard to the former, atmosphere, good
timing, strong interaction with travellers, pictures taken, videos can fix the ground for memories to
be developed and enhanced. The latter has the duty, once the memories have been created, to
share and spread them over time. For this purpose all the useful social media channels are to be
implemented especially those interacting with friends, sharing images and videos, collecting
feedbacks and comments of travellers.

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Why shall we focus on experiential travel and experiential tourism?. Lets listen to another experts
point of view: Judy Karwacky, of Small Planet Consulting, is considering the following good reasons:
Diversify from Sun, Sand and Sea market: in other words, not
the usual stuff, but an original, unique way to experience tourism
activities and journeys.
Respond to market trends: experiential tourism is a new trend,
and few know how to work on it, therefore, advanced tour agencies,
tour operators focus on high quality experiential offers for their clients.
Differentiation from common ways of doing tourism on behalf
of tourists. Diversifying is a way to be unique and to challenge the
market, this holds true also for tourism.
Competitiveness towards mass tourism. Time of mass tourism is still up to date, however
new travellers, along with new generation of tourists aim at something different and
original. Experiential tourism is the answer to the need of diversification compared to the
big group travels and to mass mobility.
Attract more educated, more socially, culturally and environmentally conscious traveler.
Experiential tourism withdraws a market niche of clientele, travellers which are in general
more acculturated, demanding, but open to different aspects related to trips and travel. It
refers to a finer clientele, in many cases higher also in economic status, which challenges
and rewards operators.
Word of mouth and social media are the communication media of this type of travelling.
And it is the most effective one. So no official ads, but haring and commenting on the
internet channels and in personal relationships. This is how this type of tourism product are
spread and are sold.
Promotes low volume, high value tourism. Not many travellers, but valuable ones (in terms
of what just explained above and also moneywise). This type of product in tourism moves
less people, but these few (not that few as you might fear) are opinion makers in the field
and are worth to be engaged. When quality overcomes
quantity.
Sustainable development. Since local communities,
professionals, local guides are involved in this product, this
type of tourism is in line with sustainability: of the local
community, with the environment, with the economic
development. Experiential tourism is less invasive
compared to the destination where it happens, though
bringing value, resources, at a low environmental impact.
Economic, social, environmental, and cultural benefits. Thus, as anticipated above, several
aspects are going to benefit from the presence of this particular type of tourists and
travellers. They are respectful of the destination, eager to learn and share knowledge with

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the hosting community, give value to cultural aspects of the traditions and habits which
other type of travellers would not appreciate. All this, will enrich the destination, on several
levels.
Strengthens and build communities. This is the logical consequence of what has been just
described. Communities, i.e. tourist destination by benefitting on different levels are
empowered and strengthened. Experiential tourism has this indirect power to work on the
wellness of communities, despite it might seem to be the opposite.
More rewarding for travelers, but more work to be done. Tourists enjoy experiential
activities and are willing to pay for something genuine and unique. However, as you might
grasp, in order to create such products (i.e. experiential packages) a lot of elements have to
be put in order, organized, prepared, made available, trained. If it looks simple, do not
consider it is as such. Experiential tourism requires a big amount of expertise, plenty of time
for preparation and delivery, enough energy for the follow up which is similarly important.

Lets develop the concept a bit more trying to point out the different features of Experiential
tourism and the added value of it, as it has been experienced so far by communities and travellers
and as it is aimed by those organizing this type of tourism product. Judy Karwacki helps us once
more.
Experiential tourism reaches into the community so as to meet
local people and to participate in day to day community
life/activities. It focuses very much on special kind of involving
activities, and in particular hands-on and interactive activities
for travellers visiting the local destination. This special
involvement, the particular action, and the remote places
visited allow another feature of experiential tourism which we
could describe as having access to behind the scenes
tours/actions which are not available to mass tourism (i.e.
blending the wine bottles in a wine factory). As mentioned
learning and discovering plays a main role in this type of
product: participatory activities which involve interaction with
locals have to be viewed as a chance to learn from locals, and about their tradition and culture. This
learning fosters personal growth, acculturation, enrichment in knowledge, behavior, relationships,
thus becomes a wholesome experience for the traveller beyond the understandable leisure and
delight experience. This learning approach of travelling enables people to become a bit like citizens
of the world by immerging oneself into the life and culture of other citizens: for some days, of
hours, those who travel become like dwellers of the destination, personifying locals by doing and
acting as locals.

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The social part of this experiential tourism is enforced by the promotion of sharing with other
travelers, with relatives, with friends (and colleagues) what has been lived during the journey, what
has been done/acted while being present in the local destination.
Since we mentioned sustainability lets give a more precise look at what it means, or better said
on how experiential tourism is sustainable and makes destination sustainable. We can summarise
the good elements as follow:
Gives value to cultural community resources, gives value to people and their know how.
Promotes off-season tourism, particularly in regions where tourism is well developed, but
highly seasonal.

Gives lesser-known, smaller, or emerging destinations the opportunity to promote

themselves to a broader range of tourists.
Encourages longer-lasting employment in the tourism industry by making it possible to
extend jobs beyond the peak season.
Improving the quality of tourism jobs and activities.
Promoting wellbeing of local community.
Making tourism accessible to all, socializing tourism.

Lets become a bit operative: how do you set up an experiential product? Some hints to be
developed.
1. Brainstorm experiences ideas by answering these following questions:
x

What are the unique opportunities our place can offer, and put at disposal?

Why are we diverse? What makes us what we are?

What can be lived here and is not doable elsewhere?

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Who are the one keeping this treasure, who are the experts, who are those carrying the
knowledge of our community?

Can we offer tourists hands on experiences? Which one?

What surprise effect, unexpected touch can be characterize our experience?

2. Mapping the territory in search of already existing experiences which can become tourism
products. Check among:
x

Local traditions

Folklore

Art & Craft

Events

x
Local products and their production (food,
goods, material, natural products)
x
Anything else which can enable hands on
activities for travellers and at the same time closely
represents your local community in its culture and deeds.
3. Set up actions for individuals, couples, and small groups. Become creative and transform the
above selected potential experiences into feasible activities to be performed by travellers. Do
this by:
x Creating and defining experiential activities
x Creating itineraries which gather more than one activity in one or more consequential
days.
This shall allow personal emotions to be developed, the enjoyment of
details and fixate images, smells, colors, faces, events, etc., the sharing of
the activities, the interaction with fellow travelers. The final aim, as stated
more than once is to develop memories. Lasting ones.
4. Engage tour guides, destination managers, or local people who have the
following characteristics which will make the experience fully valuable:
x Locals, people dwelling within the destination, who love their territory
(with all what it represents)
x People which are well known by the community and are trusted by
others
x People who know the known and unknown of their community, thus
have the ability to select experiences to be promoted, even among
the secret paths of the neighborhood.

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x
x

Who have capacities in designing tourism tours (but do not forget that you can always
train them about this!).
Who have capacities in managing the journey with travelers (once they reach the
place)(and this can be also someone who can be trained).

Ones the product is created you need to communicate it, to make it reach your customers
(travellers) so that they know about it, will be seduced by its beauty and, finally, buy the experience,
thus coming to your place. Here some hints about how to tell the story of your experiences:
x

Let the locals tell the story! Let also visitors tell the story! Friends shall tell to friends

How do you tell the story?

By wording:
x Focus on feelings and not on places. Narrate what you experienced, not what you have
seen. Tell what you have done and how you felt about it.
x Give messages on the personal benefits for travelers. Convey the learning experience
which the trip and journey have given to you.
x Make it personal. Dont worry to be a writer or a journalist, you are the main character
of this travelling story, so go for it.
x Make readers feel as if they are already there, this is the best way to involve them even
before their journey has started.
x Convey smells, colors, sounds, atmosphere, and tastes.

By Pictures/photos
x
x
x
x

Post images which recollect feelings of fun,

pleasure, delight, surprise,
Capture special moments of the journey, this is what
makes them unique in front of others
Not fake, reality is rich enough to express, so be
spontaneous in taking your snapshots
People, faces, details of their bodies are what most
impresses your audit, these can be the images of
your feeling and memories to be kept for long.

By videos
x Small videos which then can be uploaded on your
site, on a YouTube channel, on social media in general
x Contents generated by users and travelers, those who have experienced the tourism
product
x Amateur videos. Amateurs often. do it better, not professionally speaking, but
because of the live approach which sticks behind their video making
x Professional videos. They have appeal and are structured so as to capture audits.
Financial resources have to be taken into consideration.
Via Internet:
x Your Website: hosting all the above mentioned contents and tools
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x
x
x

Do not forget to updated it and renew new it every now and then
Put contents expressed also by travelers (forum/comments)
Blogs and articles are the sign that you are competent on the topic you are selling.
Make sure you have one and it shall be of high quality.

Via Social tools and media:

We can suggest the most used and efficient in the tourism filed, but go for whatever is
manageable to you:
x Facebook
x Twitter
x Youtube
x Flirck/Instagram
x Trip advisors/E-booking/specific experiential tourism sites

Sources
http://www.smallplanet.travel/
http://www.novascotia.ca/tch/tourism/experience-toolkit.aspx
www.tripintouch.com
http://en.destinationcanada.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Resources/sec_exptoolkit_lores_final.pdf

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