Analysis of Quality Tourism Experiences in Cultural Tourism

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QUALITY TOURISM EXPERIENCE
ESSAY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 2
DEFINITION- QUALITY TOURISM EXPERIENCE...............................................................................3
CULTURAL TOURISM AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPORTANCE TO TOURISM......................5
ISSUES AROUND QUALITY TOURISM EXPERIENCES IN CULTURAL TOURISM.................................8
EXPERIENCE ENGAGED WITH BY VISITORS, CO-EXPERIENCES, CO-CREATION AND CREATE
MEMORIES FROM TOURISTS VISITS.............................................................................................10
RECOMMENDING WAYS TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES FOR QUALITY TOURISM
EXPERIENCES............................................................................................................................... 12
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 14
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Tourism has gained popularity in recent years as a maximum number of people aim to change
their mundane and spend some time visiting other destinations so as to get self-motivated and
self-inspired while they return to their routine chores. They expect to gather quality tourism
experience (Jennings, 2010). This essay critically evaluates the issues related to the quality
experiences in cultural tourism using relevant literature and certain case study examples. It also
identifies and evaluates the major factors in managing quality tourism experiences in cultural
tourism. At last, recommendations are provided in order to overcome any challenges for
developing quality tourism experiences in cultural tourism.
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DEFINITION- QUALITY TOURISM EXPERIENCE
One of the most widely used phrases in tourists as well as the text related to tourism is quality
tourism experiences. This term has diverse meanings and usages as these are recognized by
government agencies, industry or business, tourists, communities as well as in academics.
Seeing the academic perspective, a quality experience of tourism is linked with the interaction
between the hosts and guests (Tung and Ritchie, 2011). It is a well-used phrase in the tourism
industry and tourism dialogue that means it is repeatedly used by the destinations as well as
the organisation that is involved in tourism policy, research planning, marketing, management
and delivery. Quality tourism experiences were linked with one or more of the following:
 Differentiation and development of market (Jennings, 2010).
 The interaction between the host and guest on the basis of tourist as well as community
perspectives.
 Classification of tourism product type specifically perspective from the government
sector and tourism industry (Jennings, 2010).
 Perception of the integrated system and benefits from an economic perspective
(Jennings, 2010).
It has become essential to differentiate specific as well as composite tourism products by the
organization and tourism destinations to be successful in intense competitions. There are
complexity and complication in the process of perceiving, consuming and remembering the
experience during the tourists visit a particular destination since it involves a large number of
factors in providing experience (Tung and Ritchie, 2011). Among a large number of factors that
affects tourism experiences, there may be some factors that are not directly related to a
specific service acquisition.
The overall satisfaction of the tourists is determined by the holistic tourism experience which is
a combination of inherent factors as well as associated satisfaction concerning acquired as well
as consumed services (Cutler and Carmichael, 2010). Experience quality is more subjective in
nature than service quality. Experience quality represents a pleasure-seeking relational
component that tourist builds with the destinations while service quality is concerned with
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specific service transactions. There are various aspects that differentiate consumer satisfaction
and experience quality. It is essential for the consumer to first experiences the products or
services so as to determine the level of their satisfaction (Quinlan Cutler and Carmichael, 2010).
The product quality can be perceived without consuming or experiencing it. The present
perception includes quality while the basis of satisfaction is both present and past experience.
Quality tourism experience is defined as an approach which is increasingly being offered a key
to efforts of tourism providers in order to position itself more effectively in the market place
(Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2015). There is rarely any definition related to quality tourism
experiences through its frequent use in tourism literature. The quality tourism experiences are
provided primarily by the tourism service providers and tourism organizations.
A quality tourism experience is conceptualised as a set of activities in which people engage in
their individual terms such as pleasant as well as memorable places. It allows the tourists to
develop their own personal experiences in order to satisfy their wide range of personal
requirements ranging from pleasure to a search for meaning (Mathisen, 2012). The tourism
experience is unique and distinct to each tourist in the tourism industry, therefore, it is
mentioned as the marketplace of experiences.
It serves as the base for flourishing tourism activities and industry is the increased seeking out
quality experiences by the tourists and holidaymakers. Quality tourism experience is the key
term that decides the prosperity of the tourism industry (Weiler and Walker, 2014). A tourist
aims to get quality products and services during their tour or travelling so that it can generate
better experiences for the tourists and also ensure their satisfaction level. This helps in
providing repetitive tourism products and services.
Quality tourist experience positively impacts the tour organizations as it helps them improve
business opportunities and enhance business revenues and customers base (Kim et al., 2012).
Hence quality tourist experience is not clearly defined by researchers and scholars however it is
a crucial approach that determines the efforts of the tourism providers in which the products
and services are perceived, consumed and experienced by the travellers in order to define their
level of satisfaction.
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CULTURAL TOURISM AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPORTANCE TO
TOURISM
One of the subsets of tourism is cultural tourism which is concerned with the engagement level
of the traveller with a particular country or culture of the region. Cultural tourism is defined by
the International Council for cultural and historical monument that the cultural, as well as
cognitive tourism related to culture, is a form of tourism that emphases on the cultural
environment that includes the cultural as well as chronological sights of destination, arts, crafts,
cultural-historical clues, heritage and lifestyle of the local populations, tradition and customs of
local population (Chen and Chen, 2010). It also may include a visit or participate in cultural
activities as well as events, exhibitions, museums, galleries, concerts and so on.
World Tourism Organization defined cultural tourism as those trips with the main or related
goals to visit the destinations as well as events that have cultural plus historical value thereby
considered as the fragment of cultural heritage of a community (Boniface, 2013). Here the
concept of the cultural heritage is that it includes tangible as well as intangible, movable also
immovable heritage. The characteristics of cultural tourism are language, dress, food, music,
local sports, architecture, art and religion (Richards, 2011).
Specific tourist products characterise cultural tourism and are defined as the package of
material goods as well as services that are offered to the tourists that are culturally motivated.
The tourist destinations in cultural tourism can be either manmade or natural until it holds
cultural meaning (Neuhofer et al., 2012). It is an instrument for economic development for the
country in order to attract a large number of visitors other than community-host and achieve
economic growth. Cultural tourism includes travel focused on to experience cultural
environments that include the visuals and performing arts, landscapes, local lifestyles,
traditions, values events and other methods of creative as well as intercultural exchange
processes (Kim et al., 2012).
Although there is no dramatic growth in cultural tourism, yet it has remained one of the major
segments of the global tourism, according to the UNWTO in 2018, about 40 per cent of all the
international travellers are cultural tourists or 530 million cultural tourists in 2017. The UK, the
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US, Japan, Germany, Brazil, France and Australia are the top sources for cultural tourism. The
tourists in culture tourism are segmented into tow dedicated groups such as motivates cultural
tourists and incidental cultural tourists (Brent Ritchie et al., 2011). The people aged above 55
years and have time and money is considered as grey market and the largest demographic
segments. This segment increases in its size due to the increasing age of the population in
western countries.
There are various reasons that define the importance of cultural tourism. It helps the country to
establish and reinforces its identity. It has positive as well as social impact. It helps in building
an image; it supports the culture and renews the tourism. Cultural tourism and supporting
businesses creates incomes that cause economic and social impact (Mathisen, 2012). It
provides a large number of employment opportunities in the areas due to increased
participation and appreciation for local culture by the guests.
It acts as positive catalysts for regional development by engaging local people of a particular
region. Cultural tourism is an essential part of tourism as it helps in preserving as well as
enhancing the pride and spirit of national and local. Cultural tourism plays an important role in
developing a positive image of the country at the international level Buhalis and Amaranggana,
2015). Cultural tourism is much better in increasing the experience of the people as it makes
their trips interesting and memorable by including heritage activities in order to learn
something.
Cultural tourism is also important as it engages the local communities and organizations and
develops sustainable economies. Cultural tourism allows tourism businesses to improve
economic income and include local communities to helps them improve their standards of
living and also provide employment opportunities (Mathisen, 2012).
Cultural tourism can take many forms and also meet the motivation and expectations of a
number of tourists, also the cultural resources of particular communication make them feel
their locale unique as well as special. Cultural tourism although has grown in recent years
(Mathisen, 2012). The aim of cultural tourism is to increase the knowledge and understanding
of the people belonging to other religion and also meet the objectives and requirements of a
number of tourists.
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Cultural tourism can largely be defined as the movement of individuals away from their normal
residences to various cultural attractions in order to gather or gain new information and also
experiences satisfaction in their cultural needs (Tung and Ritchie, 2011). Culture and tourism
are the critical combinations which cannot only be used for attracting visitors and investment in
particular areas but also create a distinctive image and generate income for the destination in
order to support and manage the cultural products and assets.
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ISSUES AROUND QUALITY TOURISM EXPERIENCES IN CULTURAL
TOURISM
There are different meanings of quality and also it is used in a variety of contexts within the
literature of tourism. Some of the examples are quality is linked with the quality assurance,
quality auditing as well as control, service quality, quality perceptions at different level such as
individual, business and community and also in relation to the product as well as market
differentiation. Quality experiences in tourism can be linked with the key focuses on the quality
of the product, quality as well as satisfaction along with quality as well as environmental issues
(Nilnoppakun and Ampavat, 2015).
On the other hand, tourism experience is defined as using the recreation experience model
presenting four phases of travel experiences that are planning, travel to, return travel and
recollection (Jennings, 2010). Also, the typology of tourist experiences was identified and
defined were the experiential mode, the diversionary mode, the experimental mode, the
recreational mode, and the Existential mode.
Other efforts were made to define the component or modes of the leisure as well as tourism
experiences including the identification of 5 major subjective intrinsic satisfaction components
in tourism are perceived freedom, arousal, involvement, mastery as well as spontaneity. One of
the major issues is to identify is to correctly understand the core of quality tourism experiences
(Boniface, 2013). It is essential to understand that the tourism destination is influenced by
tourism demand and is impacted by the tourist experiences.
The purpose of visits to a particular cultural destination determines the level of experience
gained by the tourist as the purpose can be casual, just sightseeing and to experience the
significance of particular locations in terms of religion, traditions, culture and learning (Brent
Ritchie et al., 2011). Cultural tourism draws the attention of the travellers and tourist due to the
lifestyle, norms, traditions, culture and heritage of the local region or community.
The quality tourism experiences are dynamic and volatile as it is subjective which is difficult to
measure. One of the basic characteristics of the tourism experiences is that the social and
cultural background results in raising the experiences (Kim et al., 2012). A single tourism
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product can be diversely interpreted by the individuals of different background, so it makes it
difficult for all the travellers or tourists to be interested with or excited by a single tourism
product.
The experience is multi-layered and complex. For example, there will be a difference in the level
of experiences gained by the people although they may be doing the same activity at the same
place. The rise of the experience depends on the activities, physical environment and also social
meaning entrenched in the activities (Mathisen, 2012). There are certain techniques to increase
customer enjoyment within cultural tourism that is by initiating any event, exhibition and
activities so as to attract the tourist and enjoy the same. Also, suggestions and feedback from
the tourists are considered so as to increase their engagement and enjoyment level.
Experiences are existential as it is personified in and is personally felt by the people.
Experiences can only be experienced by individuals. Hence it is not necessary for people to have
the same memorable and exciting experience while enjoying the activities by themselves in the
same situation.
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EXPERIENCE ENGAGED WITH BY VISITORS, CO-EXPERIENCES, CO-
CREATION AND CREATE MEMORIES FROM TOURISTS VISITS
Moments and activities offered for the visitor in order to actively engage and thus create
meaningful museum experiences. The mission of cultural tourism is to share knowledge and
also preserve the cultural heritage (Prebensen et al., 2013). For example, the perspective of the
visitors can be touched, inspired as well as changed by communicating the compelling message
at a cultural destination. There is the various method used by the cultural and heritage
locations in order to attract and engage tourists.
The cultural and heritage tourism comes up with the idea to preserve and share knowledge,
history and traditions and so on to educate the tourists. The engagement of the visitors
depends on the level of services and goods offered by the cultural destinations in order to
engage the individual customers and create a memorable event and thus result in memorable
experience (Andrades and Dimanche, 2014). Instead of just offering the functional features and
benefits, progression must be made towards engaging consumers on an emotional level so as
to enter the experience economy for greater competitive advantage.
Signs, labels, guide, exhibitions, leaflets, handbook, events and multimedia, touchscreen, social
media, books and publications, workshops. Information stands and mobile technologies help in
enhancing the engagement level of the tourists in particular cultural destination and have
become an important part of tourist experience (Lin et al., 2017). Memorable tourism
experience is positively and meaningfully impacted by cultural contact that positively and
significantly influenced by visitor engagement. The intention of the tourists for revisiting the
cultural destination and also for recommending the destination to others is positively impacted
by the memorable experience in tourism.
Increased competition in the tourism industry leads cultural organizations to focus on customer
experience and interactive relationships. The customers have gained power and control due to
change in the relationship between the customers and companies (Mathis et al., 2016). The
organization develops a business strategy on the basis of past experiences and interactive
relationships of the consumers. The tourist organizations consider the tourists and engage
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them in creating the product and tourism experience in order to meet their personalised
demands and obtain competitive advantages (Campos et al., 2018). Tourists and travellers are
considered as the designers of innovations as tourism organization focuses on co-created value.
The occurrence of tourism experience depends on meeting the production and consumption of
tourism.
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