Aspects of a Psychology of the Tourist Experience

Abstract

Although the literature on experience as such, as well as various concepts pertaining to specific experiences (such as for example landscape experiences or tourist experiences is quite large, this article maintains that some of these conceptions are too ambiguous. Therefore this paper presents a threefold idea of the phenomenon of the tourist experience. Based on a review of tourism literature and general psychological literature it is argued that experiences are influenced by expectancies and events and that they remain or are constructed in the individuals' memory, forming the basis for new preferences and expectancies. Such a cognitive approach to the concept of experience highlights the distinction between the tourist event and its precursors and effects. At the same time this approach highlights the importance of the experiencing subject in constructing a meaningful concept of tourist experiences.