A Framework for Tourism Experience Creation: The Mediating Role of the SME

This project aims to develop a framework which will explicate the nature and dimensions of tourist experience, and to empirically investigate the role of the tourism SME as a mediator between the tourist and tourist experience.  Customer experience in general, is a complex construct, and difficult to define as it is characterised by the emotional and affective state of the customer (Zehrer, 2009).  While it has attracted considerable attention in the literature (Atilgan et al. 2003; Aho, 2001, Gnoth et al. 2009), it is widely acknowledged that the field of experience creation and design lacks a substantial theoretical basis (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2000; Pullman and Gross, 2003; Stuart and Tax, 2004). This is particularly problematic in the tourism arena where the role of the customer (tourist) experience is central, as acknowledged in two key national tourism industry strategy documents:  the Tourism Policy Review Group 2003 (TPRG) which defines tourism as: “the complete experience of the tourist from time of departure from home to the time of return” (2003: 36), and the Tourism Product Development Strategy 2007-2013 (TPDS). As the provision of an attractive value proposition for tourism enterprises is dependent on the tourist experience (Zehrer, 2009), the lack of insight into the nature of this experience limits the enterprises’ ability to develop an effective experience management strategy. There has been some recent significant work on the nature of customer experience within the retail context, in particular an important integrative study by Verhoef et al. (2009). The authors take an holistic perspective to customer experience, acknowledging that it must encompass not only the factors such as service interface and price which are under the control of the organisation, but also the uncontrollables such as influence of other consumers. In addition, Verhoef et al. (2009) highlight the temporal nature of customer experience involving pre-purchase, consumption and after sales experience. Their model of customer service creation identifies the determinants and moderators of customer experience. This project will extend this work within a tourism perspective, and will also make a contribution in introducing a mediating dimension to the model, which reflects the critical role of the tourism services provider as a broker or mediator of the tourism experience, effectively making sense of and/or providing access to the experience (Jennings and Weiler, 2005). Existing work in the area of experiential tourism services has dealt primarily with the characteristics of experiences (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2004; Gupta & Vajic, 2000; Carbone & Haeckel, 1994), or on the enhancers and inhibitors to experience delivery (Anderson et al., 2008) or on the benefits of experience delivery (Voss, 2004; Pullman & Gross, 2003) but with scant attention to how tourism providers can actually create and articulate a tourism experience, in particular, engaging with the reality of the tourist experience as perceived by the user (Gupta and Vajic, 2000).  In order to move this research agenda forward, it is essential to model the mediating role of tourism SME as the interaction between the host and tourist is a critical element of the tourist experience (Buhalis, 2000). This will also facilitate the development of effective experience management strategies (Verhoef et al., 2009) at tourism SME level, and also extend Verhoef et al.’s model of consumer experience by acknowledging the role of mediators in the creation of experience.

Thus, it is the objective of this research study to contribute to a greater understanding of the nature of customer experience within an Irish tourism context. The key research question is: What is the process of tourism experience creation and mediation within the small firm context?