Description
This paper aims to discuss a framework in which the behavioural tourism and leisure
literature is organised. It seeks to demonstrate the practical use of Gnoth’s Tourism Experience Model
(TEM), and provide future directions in holiday tourism research.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
A phenomenological view of the behavioural tourism research literature
J uergen Gnoth Xavier Matteucci
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J uergen Gnoth Xavier Matteucci , (2014),"A phenomenological view of the behavioural tourism research literature", International J ournal of
Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 8 Iss 1 pp. 3 - 21
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Important ?ndings in tourism research
A phenomenological view of the
behavioural tourism research literature
Juergen Gnoth and Xavier Matteucci
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to discuss a framework in which the behavioural tourism and leisure
literature is organised. It seeks to demonstrate the practical use of Gnoth’s Tourism Experience Model
(TEM), and provide future directions in holiday tourism research.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a phenomenological approach to tourists’
experiencing as a critical and productive tool for tourism development. The literature reviewed is
structured through the four modes of experiencing outlined in the TEM: experience as pure pleasure, as
re-discovery, as existentially authentic exploration, and as knowledge seeking.
Findings – The TEM provides a model for all potential experiencing, that is, it models the boundaries of
what experiencing could be throughout the tourist journey. The discussion of the literature also shows
that, in many occasions, different experiential stages, states and modes of feeling await far more
detailed research.
Originality/value – The paper highlights not a particular mode or phase within an experience but better
captures the latency of experiencing. The paper argues that the model helps to better distinguish the
processes of experiencing and challenges research to identify phases and developments, strategies
and heuristics that take the tourist’s potential ‘‘travel career’’ or self-developmental trajectories into
consideration.
Keywords Phenomenology, Becoming, Being, Modes of experiencing, Tourist experience
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
This paper discusses a way of organising the behavioural tourism and leisure literature
based on a phenomenological analysis of holiday tourism’s processes and core outcome,
experiencing and experiences. The proposed structure creates new opportunities for the
literature to consolidate its context and for researchers and managers alike to improve
outcomes for the tourist and destinations. Guided by leisure and recreation research (Kelly,
1983; Neulinger, 1981) holiday tourism has the chance of becoming a distinct ?eld of study
that promotes the bene?ts of subjective experiencing and self-development as holidays are
turning into a universal need for globalising economies. Tourism thereby becomes an
attractive tool for achieving desired holiday outcomes due to the extraordinary conditions
combining with holidays.
Here we detail a viewon experiencing according to Gnoth’s (n.d.) TourismExperience Model
(TEM) (unpublished ms) that provides a complementary view to sociological approaches
and provides future directions in holiday tourism research. This paper poses the question,
how does the behavioural research literature understand and structure tourists’
experiences? Given a full and all-embracing de?nition of experiencing as provided by the
DOI 10.1108/IJCTHR-01-2014-0005 VOL. 8 NO. 1 2014, pp. 3-21, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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PAGE 3
Juergen Gnoth is a
Professor at the
Department of Marketing,
University of Otago,
Dunedin, New Zealand.
Xavier Matteucci is a
Research Associate in
Tourism and Service
Management, MODUL
University Vienna, Vienna,
Austria.
Received 9 January 2014
Revised 20 January 2014
Accepted 20 January 2014
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TEM, how do various streams of the literature treat experiencing, which aspects are covered
and what are insights provided regarding behavioural outcomes regarding tourists’
well-being?
During holidays, working people can regain their equilibrium (Parsons, 1951), re-focus, and
restore their full being-in-the-world (Heidegger, 1962), by promoting their own
self-development through leisure activities. Holiday tourism is therefore an extraordinary
situation as it is marked by life away from home and work, and sustained by discretionary
income. Many critics argue that holiday tourism lacks suf?cient uniqueness to necessitate a
separate discipline or subject of study. Such arguments must be taken seriously since the
powerful paradigms of chaos and complexity theory (Gunderson and Holling, 2002)
emphasise the interrelationship of the world’s phenomena rather than re?ecting distinctly
co-existing realities as promoted by Cartesian thinking. Yet we here argue for the distinct
usefulness of holiday tourism for working people’s well-being and personal growth. While
tourism symbols are indeed embedded in people’s every-day lives, for most of us holiday
tourism is distinct as it affords the availability of a substantial amount of free time to oneself
during which one can relax to experience the world as one pleases.
Subjective perceptions relate to lived experiences (Husserl, 1970). In tourism services for
example, these have been found to alter ‘‘objective’’ functionalities of experience and
product attributes in order to meet tourists’ own needs (Uriely, 2005). In other words,
resources encountered and offered at resorts become means to tourists’ own ends – which
only then turn into the tourist’s destinations. Furthermore, the neo-liberal commodi?cation of
resources in a globalising world is likely to create further undesirable impacts as discussed
in the critical tourism literature (Ateljevic et al., 2007; Rojek, 2009). Yet the critical analysis of
how tourists cope, why and how tourists alter ‘‘products’’ to gather original or authentic
experiences is often forgotten in this ?nger-pointing exercise. No doubt, when seeking the
truth about experiences and experiencing we need to take into account what forces hold
sway (Tribe, 2006). We also need to know what reasons might drive epistemological
endeavours (Hall, 2004) yet, essentially, unless the notion of subjective experiencing is not
proved conclusively it remains fragmented and calls for holiday tourism as a distinct ?eld of
study fail to convince. The present paper therefore takes a phenomenological approach to
tourists’ experiencing as a critical and productive tool for tourism development. It forms the
basis in the organisation of the tourism research literature because only the inclusion of
tourists’ subjectivity alongside societal and ‘objective’ views (Parsons, 1951) can create an
epistemological space in which all of their contributions can be clearly identi?ed. Hence, this
discussion paper outlines Gnoth’s Tourism Experience Model (unpublished ms) and details
how tourist experiencing can be structured. Subsequently, prominent examples of
approaches to tourism and leisure experiences and their location according to the
experience model are discussed.
Experiencing
The tourism literature is rich in detailing views on experiences as outcomes, with major foci
on observable behaviour, but also on motivations and satisfaction. In contrast, the TEM ?rst
seeks to understand the process of experiencing itself as the precursor to experiences. This
is important when considering, on one hand, the tourist’s role, right and desire for ful?lling
experiences and, on the other the unique nature of destinations that are to be bridged. At
closer inspection, however, the ‘‘understanding’’ of experiences is often submerged in
unwieldy supply models couched in behaviouristic stimulus-response theories (e.g. Crouch
and Ritchie, 1999) and oblivious to the subjectivity of experiencing. To assist those and
others, the TEM de?nes tourists’ experiencing as ‘‘the con?ux of, what is sensually
perceived, how it is processed, and how it is retained in the resulting experience’’ whereby
the experience implicates the self in its being, change and growth. By describing the
interrelated processes by which human beings acquire, change and adapt knowledge and
skills as a function of their emotional being-in-the-world, we can begin to understand how
tourists structure and perceive their destination.
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Critically, the TEM details the tourist’s mind at the systems level and accords its own role
during tourists’ activities as it details how the individual views his/her activities. The physical
activity is of importance only in how it challenges the mind into becoming active. The
systems level makes it possible to include all activities as isomorphous and differentiate all
tourists’ experiencing according to some fundamental qualities. Subsequently, these then
help determine tourists’ type of orientation, in other words, tourists’ constantly evolving,
subjectively felt relationships with their destination while experiencing.
These fundamental qualities relate to how the mind receives its own activity, that is, how the
mind becomes aware of its own awareness. Different approaches to conceiving of
awareness exist. The mind may be seen to become aware of its senses in ‘‘real time’’. It may
further become aware as it critically re?ects but here we already begin to rely on previous
experience, thus looking backwards in time to understand what is immediately ‘‘in front of
us’’. Formally, it may also be viewed as a perceptual process that selects, organises and
interprets.
Highlighting the purposive partitioning and reductive processes involved in perceiving,
experiencing in tourism may therefore be understood as a less fettered approach of viewing
the world (Inglis, 2000). For example, free choice and free time permit the mind to be
unfocused and more receptive to otherwise neglected stimuli. The ‘‘how’’ thus relates to
‘‘how the mind discerns’’ (socially or existentially) and the ‘‘what’’ relates to ‘‘what is its own
activity’’ while discerning? In other words, does mind rely on known activities or is it
acquiring new ones?
The tourist as a psychic system
According to Luhmann (1995), social and psychic systems need to accomplish two basic
functions: to reproduce themselves (to keep existing), and to learn (to keep adapting to
exist). These processes of reproduction and learning determine ‘‘what’’ constitutes the
mind’s activity, namely repetition of what it already knows and exploration of what it does not
know. Any system consists of elements that form a structure, and of boundaries that delimit
the structure, whereby the distinctiveness of the boundary is represented by the system’s
structural uniqueness. The system, say a language or an entire culture, thus becomes
discernible in the environment by the way it forms its structures.
To remain alive, the system learns to organise and work its elements by constantly
‘‘reinventing’’ itself, that is, by repeating learned actions for their known outcomes. By
practicing activities found to be successful in achieving solutions, the system consolidates
itself. Any systemic activities, such as the use of language in prose or poetry, or the
individual’s (cultural) habits around eating, sleeping or recreating occur self-referentially,
i.e. with reference to him/herself and in such ways that the system forms and maintains an
identity of itself. In this sense, the identity is the system’s own boundary by which it
distinguishes itself from others. This capacity and ability of forming and reforming its self are
part of the psychic system’s capital to operate in its environment. Like social systems
(Luhmann, 1995; Bourdieu, 1986) the individual as a psychic system acquires behaviours
and turns them into rituals and habits to accomplish his/her self-reproduction ef?ciently and
effectively.
Repetition and practice are thus a fundamental function for the system to maintain and
consolidate itself over time. As time and space are constantly changing, systems also need
to adjust. The incremental and self-referential learning that takes place in every-day
circumstances is called autopoiesis (Heidegger, 1962; Luhmann, 1995). It relates to a
certain ?exibility that all organic systems possess and is often suf?cient for the system to
survive when in relatively balanced and non-turbulent environments (Gunderson and
Holling, 2002). Little conscious activity needs to be applied in such autopoietic adjustments
including those that occur in people’s every-day-life. Most behaviour and learning
associated with such system maintenance is self-re?ective, that is, all serves to consolidate
the system. Thresholds and tolerance levels exist to warn the system if differences become
noticeable (Weber, 1964).
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Learning also occurs when exploring and seeking to understand how other identi?ed
systems in the environment function; it results in appreciating other systems in their own
rights. By turning its focus onto others, and the less self-re?ective the learning system
becomes, the more exploratory it will be. It is characteristic of exploratory learning that its
object is unknown, has not been practiced, or not been considered before so as to
comprehend its Gestalt by which it is oftentimes attracted. Hence, the more exploratory a
tourist’s behaviour becomes the more is he/she able to discover the uniqueness of a toured
object and as its own context is being revealed.
As a consequence, if a system kept repeating its activities without learning (change), it
would consolidate itself. However, if that was all it ever did it would reach stasis and,
eventually self-destruction. For example, the Japanese ‘‘karochi’’ refers to death through
overwork where workers missed to maintain their own bodily system and identity.
Conversely, if the system’s activity became exploratory to the extent that it was totally
unfamiliar and unprepared for its object of activity, it would likely self-destruct as well, as it
would eventually fail to function in an unknown (hostile) environment. Hence, tourists usually
seek to ?nd their own, manageable amount of novelty and familiarity in terms of tourism
decision-making parameters. In these processes, tourists would not only evaluate such
physical travel parameters of transport, the route, or accommodation and thereby framing
the scope of their travels (Woodside and MacDonald, 1993) but they would appraise these
too from their physiological and value constellations of desired processes and goals
(Becken and Gnoth, 2004). Experiencing is not only contingent on what the destination
provides but also on how the mind perceives the activity it is engaged in and as it interacts
with its environment.
The mind’s activity: what does it utilise to be aware with?
The tourist’s un/sub/conscious mind discerns his/her own activity in more or less one of two
ways. It either repeats previously learned behaviour for its known outcomes or it begins to
experiment by exploring its environment with new behaviour not previously used, or old
behaviour in new situations. We will return to this ‘‘repetition-exploration’’ dichotomy further
below, for ?rst, it is critical to note that there are two different ways in which the mind learns its
own knowing about its own activity. Consciousness itself has no memory (Luhmann, 1995).
Awareness therefore refers to being aware of something. While tourists may be aware of an
object or of what their senses are sensing it is not until that awareness has been processed
that it leads to the experience of the object as its outcome.
Howdo tourists learn to experience? First, we develop humanistically or as a body-and-mind
unity that seeks holistic convergence with our environment through the use of our body and
senses. The senses (Gibson, 1966) allowus to become aware through feeling. Enculturation,
social practice and performance then teach us to interpret these and other emotional
experiences. Furthermore, the processes around socialisation teach us norms and
expectations so that emotional experiences become part of how we adapt to our
socio-cultural environments. Adopting these processes makes us ‘‘conform’’ or ‘‘?t in’’ and
often helps us succeed in society.
But that is not where it ends as we are also learning to become aware of our ‘‘selves’’ as
individuals, particularly when our ‘‘real self’’ differs fromour ‘‘ideal self’’ usually at times when
we face a challenge, including when we struggle or feel inclined to resist to conform to
conventions or structures. Husserl’s phenomenology and Heidegger’s existentialism (1962)
have produced a wealth of insights into what it means to be an individual and to experience
the world in an existentially authentic manner. Accordingly, experiencing existentially here
means that we become aware of ourselves spontaneously, moment-by-moment, and in
search of the convergence of our emotions with the situations we ?nd ourselves in (Guignon,
1984). The trajectory of this search is ultimately directed towards what we have learned and
feel as being ‘‘good’’. The ideal of this ‘‘goodness’’ is a vision of a Gestalt that relates to our
fundamental beliefs for which we strive once we rid ourselves of egoism and materialism.
Hence, in contrast to existentially authentic experiencing, role-authentic experiencing is
retrospective, as its norms and standards have been learned in the past. It is contrasting and
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comparative, and focussing on differences. ‘‘Difference’’ is the fundamental criterion in the
epistemology of sociology (see, e.g. Parsons, 1951). The perception of ‘‘differences’’ is to
contrast and one of opposites (disharmony). As a cognitive tool in every-day-life its tendency
is confrontational, whereas humanistic perception seeks convergence as aimed for in an
existential mindset. The tourist’s mind thus becomes aware of its destination in more or less
either of the two outlined modalities: the mind either applies the perceptual norms, standards
and expectations of a person whose perception seeks the authenticity of and alignment with
roles, or his/her mind is humanistically oriented and seeks spontaneous convergence of
emotions and situation that re?ects the individual’s existence at each given moment.
Being and becoming: experiencing as a function of consciousness and activity
When combining the two fundamental functions in experiencing described by the TEM,
consciousness and activity, there unfold distinct ways by which we may view the process.
Rather than distinct categories they suggest orthogonally positioned dimensions with distinct
qualities, which we later will compare to selected evidence in the tourism research literature.
We may then see how literature accounts for the emergent qualities of experiencing as the
mind receives its own activities and how that affects the experiencing self.
Considering experiencing as a process then, the ?rst issue we therefore need to consider is
‘‘existence’’ between being and becoming. It relates to the discussion of whether holiday
tourism actually creates a different form of being than encountered in the work-a-day world
and, even more importantly, whether indeed it affects tourists’ experiencing, their self, and
how that would bequeath a special role to holiday-tourism.
If the tourist’s mind views its own activity as known, repeatedly practised and, with the
assurance of past successes, predictable in its outcome, the mind focuses on ‘‘being’’, that is,
on the consolidation or recreation of known feelings and outcomes. In terms of the search for
novelty versus familiarity, such behaviour tends towards familiarity-seeking while novelty is
consumed for its role to gratify variety-seeking. If the tourist’s mind (consciousness) then also
applies predominantly socially acquired norms and expectations to this repeatedly practised
behaviour (e.g. lying by the pool side, drinking cocktails) the experience consolidates the
tourist as a person, in systems terms. In this mode, the tourist experiences known feelings and
outcomes and is able to predict what moderately novel environments may produce, and varies
their intensity to a measured degree through choice and decisions. ‘‘Being’’ here is
exempli?ed through activities such as visiting a botanical garden or even a theme park where
even novelty rides etc. merely accentuate known feelings that then can be indulged in.
Holding (repetitive) activity constant, as it were, but changing to an existentially authentic
perceiving mind, experiencing tends to become more a re-discovery of past selves and if
the mind re?ects critically, of the true self. This follows because the activity is known and
repetitive but the mind is seeking to close a gap between the real and the ideal self. Above,
the tourist consolidates his/her socially conceived being when applying socially acquired
norms and standards to experiencing by using known activities. Here, the tourist begins to
rediscover himor herself as he/she seeks to apply some formof effort in order to re-establish
known skills and capabilities.
Both of these modes of experiencing promote the feeling of ‘‘being’’ as they remain within
the realms of what is known. The destination is thereby perceived self-re?ectively and
evaluated by way of its utilitarian value to achieve a predetermined outcome. In contrast, if
the activity the mind engages in becomes exploratory, that is new to the person or the
individual, it involves learning because the mind’s focus is less and less self-re?ective but
other-oriented. Hence, novelty seeking moves beyond self-grati?cation when becoming
exploratory and – when the mind is seeking. If, for example, the mind applies socially
acquired norms and patterns to new environments by exploring how it operates (e.g. the
destination as a culture) or howan artefact has been constructed (a painting or architecture),
the experience builds on known patterns of behaviour (schema and scripts).
The hobby-historian or anthropologist applying prescribed patterns thus builds on existing
knowledge to extend it further. If such exploratory behaviour becomes spontaneously
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playful, experimental and seeking existential, emotional convergence rather than
conformance or contrast with prescribed norms and expectations, activity becomes
creative and holistic as moments are experienced as Gestalts rather than differentially
experienced details, even if not comprehended (e.g. appreciating the authenticity of Dali’s
own museum, or of a graceful dance even if the meaning of ?nger-postures of Balinese
dancers escapes the tourist). The search for knowledge using socialised scripts is here
contrasted with a holistic comprehension of a Gestalt.
Creative learning through exploration is also typi?ed by the powerful feelings of insight after
contemplation, achievement or happiness after reaching a destination such as a mountain
peak, thought beyond reach. It is considered holistic rather than built via socially transmitted
schema or scripts, as it describes a feeling of spontaneous, overwhelming immersion such
as in peak experiences (Maslow, 1968). The experience of insight as a physical and
existential experience may also come about through intensely exploratory application of
learnt schema. According to the TEM’s premises, the difference to built learning mentioned
above, however, is its strongly experimental application that surprises the tourist to the
extent that the insight becomes a physically felt phenomenon. Whereas the exploratory
forays of a museum visitor may create new knowledge through learning strings of facts
enhancing a tourist’s socially de?ned self-esteem, the electrifying realisation of the Gestalt
expressed in an insight carries experiencing into the existentially authentic realmof a feeling
of being in becoming.
To further illustrate the state of becoming, we refer to Deleuzian’s theorizing on the self. Gilles
Deleuze (1968) refuses the idea of the self as a static, ?nite being; rather in Deleuzian
philosophy, the subject is permeable and always becoming-other. Because the subject is
embedded in a complex, unpredictable and ever-changing world, the term becoming
(devenir) is meant to describe the never-ending process of self-adjustment and change. In
other words, by belonging to and engaging in our dynamic world, the subject is never stable,
thus self-transforming itself again and again. Therefore, Deleuze does not use the term
identity to represent a subject’s accumulation of experiences; instead he speaks of
difference, potentialities and multiplicities. Following this view, the ideas of self-discovery
and of true self-behaviour (experiencing the existential self) should be understood as
processes of constant adaptations of the self rather than as mere outcomes. In fact, Deleuze
speaks of deterritorialisation to illustrate the subject’s dispersal fromand movement towards
(new) territories in an attempt at self-containment. In this view, the subject stretches out of
his/her self-territory (or self-identical project) to integrate new territories always guided by a
desire for self-coherence. Contrary to phenomenology’s human-centred understanding of
tourist’s carnal bodies, Deleuzian bodies are affected by intensities. In other words, bodies
are affected by the transversal, immaterial forces of the world (Beaulieu, 2002). Without
those immaterial forces, there would be no bodily sensations. In Mille Plateaux, Deleuze and
Guattari (1980, p. 244) use the metaphor of a stationary journey to account for the invisible
mediations registered by the body.
Yet, for most of us such profound ‘‘becoming’’ as consciously lived experiences would at
least require a break from every-day-life so as to ‘‘re-assemble’’ all one’s potentialities in a
project so that we may experience one’s own being in moment-by-moment experiences.
Although Heidegger and Deleuze diverge, we maintain that both are existentialists and both
contribute to our understanding of the various dynamics of being and becoming that come
with experiencing in its various forms. While ‘‘being’’ thus may lead to ‘‘just’’ an equilibrium
(Parsons, 1951) that is being felt from moment-to-moment, it may also include one’s
rediscovery of past skills and abilities, as much as a regained sense of self and self-esteem
that creates the happiness of one’s existentially authentic being-in-the-world. We therefore
also de?ne experiencing as ‘‘being in becoming’’ and the experience (noun) as the
re-instantiated memory of that process.
Locating tourism research in experiential space
The following section seeks to demonstrate the practical use of the TEM and categorise
examples of the tourism literature into the four modes of experiencing. As the above
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elaboration on how these modes may be viewed in the ?uidity of life has shown, the modes
indicate intentional qualities by which perceiving occurs and effects on the self are
implicated. We now put these assumptions to the test, as it were by an overview and by
seeking out groups and individual examples of literature to see how they had ?t the model.
The process is thus hermeneutical. Merleau-Ponty (1962) stipulates, for perception to take
place, a relationship or a set of multi-relationships is needed. In other words, the perceiving
mind/body is situated in the world in a way that the body and the world are inseparable. An
additional dimension to consciousness and activity, therefore, is the tourist’s destination itself
as the physical and mental space that turns into a relational place (e.g. D’Andrade, 1995) as
and when the tourist engages and interacts with it. In contrast to previous models on tourists’
experiencing the physical and socio-cultural environment can thus be better accounted for
in this interrelationship. Furthermore, it can reveal to us the types of agency the destination
assumes in the interaction.
Following Luhmann (1995), the actual interaction is preceded by a reduction in the tourist’s
mind of both the subject’s and the place’s complexities so as to make interaction possible.
The process of perception is thereby an intentional selection, organisation and interpretation
of place-stimuli, out of all the various ways in which the interaction could potentially take
place. Hence, the four modes of the TEM (see Figure 1) de?ne the total scope of all potential
interactions, with each mode further qualifying the actual experience implicating
self-engagement and formation.
The organisation of the literature is loosely based on the following four modes of
experiencing: experience as pure pleasure, as re-discovery, as existentially authentic
exploration, and as knowledge seeking.
Experiencing as being
Experience as pure pleasure
In the ?rst mode of experiencing, the tourist’s intentionality is predominantly role-authentic
and expectations marked by the rituals and customs, fads and fashions of every-day life. Its
activity comprises repetitive, consolidating practice and is characterised by its known utility
as veri?ed through previous experience. The self-re?ective character of this type of
experiencing is well encapsulated in Urry’s (1992) notion of gaze characterising it as
existence in a bubble. Activity therefore poses few or no challenges and is entirely based on
the tourist’s existing ‘‘psychic capital’’, as it can be likened to the repetitive, ritualised or
Figure 1 The Tourism Experience Model
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practice-based behaviour that constitutes habitus (Bourdieu, 1986) with all its bene?ts to the
actor. While the tourist attraction may be of focal interest, the touristic environment is largely
stereotyped and experienced autopoietically, that is, the person reinvents him/herself
automatically in the ?uid environment with little attention to actual detail or appreciation of
uniqueness.
Hazel Andrew’s article on Tourism as a Moment of Being (2009) exempli?es these
characteristics with British tourists’ behaviour at resorts in Mallorca, Spain. She details how
they reinvent the UK under the Balearic sun. With ?ag-waving and favoured British food and
beer the experience is ‘‘replete with references to the tourists’ homeworld’’ (p. 10). The
tourist enjoys this interpretation of British life away from home like home in freedom from
restricting pub-closing times, dress codes, and other rules. Sensual indulgence is focal
while the locals and their cultural symbols are looked at as an out-group that is stereotyped
as ‘‘they’’ and ‘‘them’’, almost as aliens in their own land.
Furthermore, the literature appertaining to theme-park experiences (Bigne et al., 2005),
wellness (e.g. Komppula and Konu, 2012; Smith and Puczko, 2009) and resort behaviour
(e.g. Carr, 1999) that relies on highly familiar schema and facilities are of relevance here.
These types of destinations and the activities they offer provide hedonism, thrills, fantasy,
pampering and predominantly sensual arousal on exotic backgrounds that are kept ‘‘at
arm’s length’’. Tourists seek out situations that please their senses rather than challenge
them, where the day is governed by lazing by the poolside, casual sports (Stebbins, 2007) or
by socialising and catching up with friends while enjoying culinary delights.
At a theoretical level, literature relating to tourists’ novelty versus familiarity seeking
(e.g. Cohen, 1972; Basala and Klenosky, 2001) further enhances the depth of our
understanding of the ‘‘how’’ and ‘‘why’’ of this form of experiencing. Literature exploring
hyper-reality (e.g. Eco, 1986) helps probe the appreciation of authenticity, circularity and
self-directedness of this type of experiencing thriving on moment-by-moment pleasure
seeking, while highlighting manufactured dreams in fads, fashion and technological novelty
used for self-grati?cation.
In the same class of experiencing we ?nd the self-indulgent fantasies enhancing the relaxing
bliss that is to be had by camping on a lake site, living on a beach, or re-visiting one’s
favourite holiday-spot. Such stereotypical and nostalgic activities help tourists recover from
their work-a-day lives and allow them to live out simple dreams. As recovery takes place,
however, and re?ection sets in the tourist’s experiencing may well move towards existential
thoughts and realisations as a healthy sign of a consolidated equilibrium (Parsons, 1951). A
frequently cited categorisation by Cohen (1979) would describe activity in the
pleasure-mode as ‘‘diversionary’’. The experience classi?cation offered here is thereby a
critique of Cohen’s conceptualisation of authenticity. It adds that tourists who desire to just
‘‘be’’, in as far as their aim is to recover from the stresses and strains of every-day-life, may
be understood as seeking their authentic self in themselves ?rst before they may be able to
experience the authenticity of their destination, qua re-negotiating themselves into a different
experience mode. Instead of criticising such behaviour as escape (Hamilton-Smith, 1987),
hedonic experiencing may also be characterised by its meta-motivational goals, that is, the
happiness one ?nds in simply being, even if in a fantasy world. A pertinent example for the
latter has been studied by Kim and Jamal (2007) where medieval revivalists copy some
imagined past in order to explore their authentic selves which, however, collapses into
pleasuring carnal stupor that is re-discovered every year. This liminal zone exempli?es the
difference between the Pure Pleasure and Re-Discovery mode of experiencing.
Experience as Re-discovery
That what we call here Re-discovery appears as the most intensely studied experiential
mode of recreation. Modern recreation replaced the seasonally induced period of relaxation
in the agricultural society with holiday (tourism) for the industrial society. Forming the centre
of his reversal-theory, Apter (1982) observed that people at leisure tend to swing between
paratelic and telic orientations. The former relates to playful, arousal-seeking behaviour
while the latter describe goal-oriented activities that require some focus and possibly effort.
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After a period of relaxation has taken hold in the holiday-maker he/she now begins to seek to
re-invent herself, to recreate.
Effort constitutes a determining element in this second mode of experiencing. It evokes the
individual’s sense of their existential authenticity as the gap between the real and ideal self
becomes apparent when, metaphorically, lifting one’s head from the drudgery of every-day
life and remembering one’s own better past or hoped-for future. Importantly however, while
the self in this mode of experiencing is realised beyond mere indulgence, the activity still
remains one that is, self-re?ective, known, and has been practiced before.
Wang (1999) points out that such search for one’s existential self is often the focal activity at
family get-togethers. In this regard, new markets and new behaviours are evolving to which
we can apply the TEM’s perspective. We nowsee increasingly Indian and Chinese extended
families travel together, much as previously the Japanese tended to travel in groups of
colleagues and entire shop-?oors. These groups thrive on the celebration and expression of
their authentic (group) self and practice and re?ne their socially acquired customs and
habits vis-a` -vis new destinations. This does not occur without effort, however, as ‘‘?tting-in’’
with one’s group while ‘‘being conspicuous’’ at destinations often requires self-discipline
over one’s behaviour. Yet when mastered, experiencing moves from self-conscious feelings
of the difference of one’s own personal (role-) behaviour to an exploratory building on one’s
knowledge and skills to adapt to the destination. Eventually, consciousness may be seen as
ending up in a re-discovery mode of one’s authentic self within the travelling group or family.
The feeling experienced in such moments are reminiscent of ?ow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990),
or belonging. The TEM would thus also help uncover agency, for example, the roles
grandparents play in the creation of holiday experiences (e.g. Scha¨ nzel et al., 2012).
In contrast to the above collective self, the sense of individual self that, for example, a
sports-?sherman or a rock-climber may be seeking when re-establishing their skills, clearly
relates to a feeling of existential authenticity with a stronger base in the individual’s self rather
than the communal self. To highlight the dynamics of experiencing within and beyond this
mode, honing practical skills often leads to mastery and ?ow. Then, with even further
challenge, experiencing may lead on to the exploration of one’s own boundaries and the
exploratory discovery of new strengths. ‘‘Dipping’’ into exploratory modes, however is
beyond ?ow as the tourist (on the rock-face or in the downhill skiing event) is clearly aware of
danger, e.g. of losing control, hence acute self-awareness.
Much of the research surrounding Stebbins’ (2007) serious leisure perspective (SLP) involves
tourism. The activities under scrutiny can often be anchored in this mode of re-experiencing.
Far more than casual leisure – which belongs to the consolidation mode, hobby and amateur
leisure activities are characterised by an increasing involvement, skill, time, and money. The
involvement appears, however, less with the place but with the activity, hence the suggestion
that the SLP focuses more or less exclusively on self-re?ective activities.
Rupprecht and Matkin’s (2012) work on marathon-running focuses on women’s dedication to
their serious leisure activity. It tells of the emotional and physical hardship that these athletes
put themselves through repeatedly. The data also records the dread that the respondents
feel whenever they get to the last 6km of the race, as that repeatedly takes them to the fears
for their last reserves. While this research reveals only implicitly the relationship between the
racecourse and the sports-women itself (the destination in fact), research on sports
?shermen points towards another type of interaction between tourist and place. Whereas the
runners before seemed to create their destination through the endurance of hardship, here
results reveal that the place and the surroundings of the actual ?shing spot are aesthetic as
well as an existential part of the ?sher’s self, so much so that the research speaks of place
attachment and dependence. Only once we distinguish between modes of experiencing,
however, do the different ways of turning geographic space into place become apparent.
By way of further illustration, Matteucci’s (2013) recent study on tourists’ experiences of
?amenco music and dance in Seville, Spain reveals the tourism journey as a spiritual one.
The ?amenco journey is characterised by four key dimensions: the tourist’s active
participation in intrinsically motivated activities, the endurance of hardship, the arousal of the
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emotional self, and the experience of eudaimonic well-being. Eudaimonic well-being, which
relates to the experience of the authentic-self, is certainly an unintended experiential
outcome pertaining to both Cohen’s (1979) upper modes of experiences, namely the
experimental and the existential mode. In the experimental mode, alienated tourists search
for rediscovering their real selves in a foreign natural or social environment. Here, the focus is
set on the self.
The challenges of learning ?amenco therefore resemble those of, mountain bikers (Allen
et al., 2008), or scuba divers (Dimmock and Wilson, 2009) as, when testing their levels of
control in a moment-by-moment interaction with the terrain it suggests a notion of
anthropomorphic agency in each of the different terrains. The re-discovering tourist
overcomes hardships and conquers physical space and, by way of the particular repetitious
physical engagement – including a register of technical terms and technology, turns space
uniquely into place (Gnoth, 2014).
Hence, Arnould and Price’s (1993) ethnographic study of white-water rafters also belongs
into this mode of experiencing – at least for those tourists who had participated in this sport
before. Yet given the discussion of the TEM, their study emerges somewhat as a jumble of
yet-to-be-unravelled emotional targets tourists seek, processes, reactions and outcomes. It
provoked Caru` and Cova (2003) to produce a ‘‘more humble’’ analysis of how various
sciences interpret and categorise (emotional and existential) experiences. We therefore like
to follow their suggestion and propose our model as a way forward in analysing the process
of experiencing more systematically, as, for example developed by Borrie and Birzell (2001)
who distinguish phases of experiencing wilderness.
Furthermore, when we emphasise the repetitive nature in the given examples of serious
leisure pursuits, we are also able to classify them in terms of the major bene?t participants
often seek, namely ?ow(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi (2009) list
six factors as encompassing an experience of ?ow:
1. Intense and focused concentration on the present moment.
2. Merging of action and awareness.
3. A loss of re?ective self-consciousness.
4. A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity.
5. A distortion of temporal experience, one’s subjective experience of time is altered.
6. Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding.
These characteristics indicate independently that consciousness and activity styles can
help classify experiences. The description also highlights that, when in ?ow, the experience
of the self changes from ‘‘re?ective self-consciousness’’ to existentially authentic
consciousness as the self becomes one with the environment. Pomfret (2006) mentions a
wealth of literature on mountaineering, in which she emphasises very different processes
and outcomes whereby the processes relate to re-discovery, newly built knowledge through
exploration, and peak experiences leading to intense happiness. Happiness is also an
existential mode of becoming as it looks forward to future experiencing from a new platform,
often experienced as rejuvenation.
There are other examples revealing peak or ?ow experiences in the tourism literature. An
early one is Daniel’s (1996) study on dance performed by tourists at various destinations. For
Daniel, tourists involved in dance performances undergo extraordinary, rewarding
experiences where the tourist body, mind and the surrounding social and physical
environments become one. Daniel de?nes this profound subjective experience as
experiential authenticity. Similar to experiential authenticity is the description of the tourist
moment (Hom Cary, 2004), a serendipitous encounter through which tourists feel ful?lled
and which also suggests the loss of separate identity.
Apart from the activity involved, these results indicate a further quality of the consciousness
dimension by pointing to types of situations in which it changes. They reveal indications of the
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?uidity of the self, changing ?rst froman allocentric to an idiocentric self (Bettencourt and Dorr,
1997), and then to a self that converges with its environment and the activity it is involved in. A
similar convergence can be achieved through forms of yoga and the continuous effort to rid
oneself of desire. To what extent these states differ from?ow, however, is yet to be ascertained.
Focal repetition may thus lead to the exploration of new experiences in some situations more
than in others. Repetition can also recapture the past. Its (re)experience in memory could lead
to new and as yet not discovered insights (Russell and Levy, 2012).
Experiencing as becoming
Existentially authentic exploration
The previously cited research examples including Stebbins’ serious leisure perspective and
Ciksentmihalyi’s ?ow are mostly based on a self-re?ective consciousness and self-directed
activities including collective selves as experienced in families and communitas (Turner,
1973). The discussion also pointed out that there is a feeling of self that is somehow beyond
the ego-centric sense of self as it seems to relate to a permeable body-in-becoming as
described by Deleuze (1968). Experiencing therefore relates to a form of exploratory activity
of the authentic self that is marked by an experience of ongoing self-change. Despite some
rivalries between Deleuze and Heidegger, they both tend to point towards what may yet
represent the purest form of being-in-the-world and as a process in which the human
being-in-becoming relates all her existence to all of her environment, moment-by-moment.
The TEM provides for a suitable tool to deconstruct and differentiate the different stances of
experiencing that take place in hitherto con?ated processes and outcomes.
Cohen’s (1979) existential tourists are such individuals who believe that they would live
happier and more meaningful lives elsewhere. Existential tourists desire to ‘‘go native’’ and
therefore search to relocate, sometimes on a permanent basis, to other places. Even more
than Cohen’s other experiential modes described previously, it is a mode replete with desires
and fantasies, and with romantic and nostalgic associations of cultures. While the
experimental tourist is challenged to the point that the self is discovered or rediscovered and
renegotiated, in the existential mode of experience, the previously mysterious, ineffable,
unattainable and sublime is gradually demysti?ed (Lengkeek, 2001). Individuals gain control
and assurance in their relationship with the ‘‘Other’’. Here, the extraordinary becomes
routine. Whereas for some tourists, the experience of ?amenco in Seville in Matteucci’s work
above may be a simple liminal experience through which ecstatic and self-enriching
experiences were felt, for others, deeper self-transformation gave rise to newlife trajectories;
whereby adopting alternative lifestyles or undertaking new careers in which ?amenco
occupies a central role. Whereas the re-discoverer seeks unity as ?ow through focussing
activities, the existentialist turns more and more outward, taking in new environments
exploratorily. Memories gained here can become subject to re-discovery when the tourist is
back home, or subject to new discoveries as they are ‘‘re-consumed’’ fromdifferent and new
angles (Russell and Levy, 2012).
Previously cited research on mountaineering (Pomfret, 2006) or rafting (Arnould and Price,
1993) but also Matteucci (2013) on ?amenco journeys in Andalusia all point towards what
can be felt and experienced when the self is no longer connected to its past in that no worries
restrict the full experience. In this dimension of experiencing we therefore locate Cohen’s
experimental and existentially authentic tourist, spiritual tourism experiences (Norman,
2012; Turner, 1973), transformative travel (Lean, 2012; Ross, 2010) as well as all the literature
that deals with exploratory behaviour which does not depend on socially acquired norms
and expectations based in tourists’ home-cultures. Particularly the backpacker research
literature not only speaks of intense experiences of being but also of becoming as the
maturing self is felt as being formed. Constant change by continuously moving becomes an
exploration of the self vis-a` -vis new places and the lack of commitment the indulgence in
one’s moment-by-moment sense of becoming.
In their exploration of long-distance walking, Saunders et al. (2013) found that by walking
over extended periods of time tourists felt a sense of self-ef?cacy, self-discovery, and
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personal growth. These authors argue that meaningful walks can therefore augment tourists’
sense of well-being. By way of further illustration, Zahra and McIntosh (2007) found that
volunteer tourist experiences in developing countries led to profound and lasting changes in
the tourists’ values and behaviours. Cathartic experiences and tourist experiences of the
authentic self are also found in contexts such as of adventure tourism (Duffy and Overholt,
2013), nature-based sports (Humberstone, 2011), volunteer tourism (Alexander and Bakir,
2013), independent travel (Wilson and Harris, 2006), religious tourism (Digance, 2006; Li
et al., 2006) and Ashram experiences (Sharpley and Sundaram, 2005).
Furthermore, a whole new area of research has developed in the last two decades that is
devoted to the study of happiness (Seligman, 2011). Here too, the TEM offers a way of
structuring existing de?nitions of happiness according to the dominant mode they re?ect. Its
particular theorisation provokes the question: which form of happiness would be the best to
achieve in what situation and why? In any case, however, the organisation according to the
TEM would give some further analytical tools worth testing the relationships between
situational parameters and of types of happiness and satisfaction.
The knowledge seeking experience
This last subcategory of the experience model relates to experiencing marked by a
role-authentic orientation, which views its activity as new and exploratory. Learned and
accepted-as-true the tourist here uses stereotypical schema that relate to a tourist role as, for
example, described by Adler (1989) or Gibson and Yiannakis (2002). The socially derived,
patterned behaviour is chosen for pre-meditated outcomes often again determined by
society, and ful?lling such socially derived needs as esteem, authority, in?uence, or power,
that come with the acquisition of new knowledge, ?nancial wealth, and the image of having
been to certain places, actually seen certain things, and learned from them in some form or
another. In some of these more materialistically oriented areas, there is a paucity of relevant
literature due to stigma. This relates especially to deviant behaviour (sex or drug tourism).
Related to that is literature on non-compliant tourist behaviour usually found in social impact
literature and, far less problematic, in the acculturation literature including tourism and
peace studies. Further literature often strongly in?uenced by the role-authentic, socially
patterned ways of knowledge and impression acquisition is often subject to diary entries or
forming the background to novels. Here too, there are a number of sub-themes where the
literature is increasing such as Muller and Woodside’s (2012) example of epiphany travel as
a search for being in becoming by following scripts acquired from literature.
The literature detailing experiences that, broadly speaking, involve knowledge acquisition
from a socio-culturally determined angle can include museum tourism (e.g. McIntosh, 1999;
Hede and Thyne, 2010) but also city-tourism (Maitland and Ritchie, 2009).It is considered
worth knowing and satis?es social values of role-development. While the latter easily
straddles into the consolidating and recreating modes of experiencing as most behaviour in
that environment would be well-practiced, when it becomes exploratory it is a form of
acquiring targeted new experiences within an urban environment and its facilities (Harvey,
1989). It would include visiting galleries and exhibitions but also sports events although the
latter often has a strong social component when spectator experiences are included
(e.g. Miller et al., 2001). Further experience literature that uses socio-culturally developed
value schema are thana or dark tourism (Korstanje, 2011; Biran and Hyde, 2013),
rubbish-dump tourism, and slum tourism which are currently being studied. An example of
dark tourism is the study on Israeli tourist experiences of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration
camp by Biran et al. (2011). These authors found that education, a desire for emotional
involvement and the construction of identities were amongst the key motives to visit the
death camp. Any experiences in these areas tend to ful?l needs for knowledge and
understanding using, for example the skills of a historian or of an anthropologist or any other
socially sanctioned or formed way of knowledge acquisition. Only more general research
could be found on how, for example, Japanese experience destinations as opposed to other
cultures (Watkins and Gnoth, 2011).
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The role-authentic tourist-person travelling in cross-cultural space can also be seen to use
normative scripts and roles to protect their ego. Winnicott’s notion of a false self (1960) refers
to a subject’s compliance with external rules or socially de?ned schemas and scripts.
Following Winnicott, a tourist who is somehow challenged by different and novel settings is
not necessarily thrown outside his/herself to the point that the tourist does not get to
experience his/her own true self. Rather, it is ‘‘hiding’’ in the stereotypes of every-day-life and
lack of concern. An example of this is Bruner’s (1991) mass tourist to developing countries
who is not radically challenged by the sites they gaze upon. Those tourists’ complacent
adherence to the safe and cosy tourist bubble they ?nd themselves in does not allow for
much insight into the visited culture. Yet, potentially, it is also emotionally contrasting as the
more the tourist gets involved in a destination with its own norms and role expectations, the
more divergent the experience can become because ‘‘differences’’ become more apparent.
From this point-of-view, the tourist’s gaze described by Urry (1992) may be revised from
being a separating wall to a continuum. An experience like Bruners’ tourists above may be
marked by a sensationalistic lust for novelty without insight driving the initial travel motivation
on one hand. It may develop further via a protective reaction to numb an emotionally
disconcerting experience (false self), and then rise to an emerging awareness as the tourist
views unfamiliar, ‘‘different’’ sights or events, on the other hand. As Russell and Levy (2012)
have shown, tourists can re-consume their experiences in memories and learning may yet
occur. While the former would relate to a somewhat forced experience of being in the sense
that the tourist feels as if living a ‘‘state’’, the latter suggests experiencing as ‘‘being in
becoming’’ whereby the tourist makes an effort to actively search for new learning in ‘‘the
other’’.
Discussion
With recourse to systems theory, the TEM allows us to view tourist experiences according to
their constituting characteristics. Differences in experiencing thereby occur ?rstly, as a
function of how the mind knows of its own activities, namely as repeated practice, or as
exploratory activity; and secondly, whether these are perceived as either predominantly from
a role-authentic, or from an existentially authentic point-of-view. Roles include knowledge
and skills that have been acquired socially forming a repertoire of capital by which the social
world is organised and to which one conforms through habitus (Bourdieu, 1986) that
dominates every-day-life. Existential authenticity, then, is the individual’s capacity to
recognise and realise her own unique being moment-by-moment through mindfulness. To be
yourself requires time, re?ection and often effort as the every-day-world is managed easily
by ‘‘falling into’’ and conforming with roles. Holiday tourism provides extraordinary
opportunities to recover from every-day-life, recreate and/or experience new things to
further one’s well-being through being active and existentially conscious.
The hermeneutically conceived model and approach to structure the literature by way of
using the activity and consciousness criteria revealed a number of results that appear
worthy of further attention. First, if behaviour at toured places is simply dominated by tourists’
encultured every-day norms and expectations and are thus perceived as normal activities
‘‘one does’’ on holidays, experiencing often celebrates sensuous indulgence (Urry, 1992;
Andrews, 2009, Bigne et al., 2005). Whether exploratory or consolidating in their nature,
these activities follow sanctioned patterns of scripts and schema, indeed, and are
essentially contrastive in their emotional content: what tourists cherish are ‘‘differences’’,
whether indulging in sensuous experiences at a theme-park, or whether exploring art at
galleries or city-life in a different culture, and where learning (and feeling authentic) are major
goals. The essence of the experience here is retrospective in nature as it exists in the
comparison of past examples and ideals.
It is therefore not surprising that if experiencing stays mainly in these dimensions of
knowledge seeking and/or sensuous indulgence that it is satisfaction that tourists seek (P1).
Satisfaction research in tourism, however, shows little evidence of differentiating between
what holiday experiences (incl. tourism services) have done for tourists’ recreation versus
what holiday experiences do for the tourist’s future ways of being-in-the-world and their
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well-being over and above achieving an equilibrium. (P2). Satisfaction research is focused
on predominantly retrospective experiencing as it relies on expectation-ful?lment patterns
that are dominated by emic orientations of the experiencing mind (P3). It rarely captures
transformational experience as it does not segment according to modes of experience
thereby losing nomological validity with often spurious explanations for variance captured.
A further prominent streamof research is based on the sociologically de?ned understanding
of experiences which stands in contrast to humanistic, socio-psychological, and existential
approaches to experiencing. The sociologically de?ned, ‘‘objectively’’ observable tourism
behaviour (Parsons, 1951) ?nds all its variance explained by simple reference to
stimulus-response patterns of situational parameters. These let researchers conclude the
purpose (pleasure seeking) and outcomes (satisfaction). Much of Urry’s ?ndings on the
gaze (1992) is framed by this methodology, particularly when the assumptions of
object-authenticity become a criterion to prove both the existence and the limitations of the
gaze.
However, using the same approach to classify modes of experiencing, the quiet ‘‘holiday in a
cabin on the lake’’, or camping on the beach to name but a few nostalgic and otherwise
culturally framed activities would also fall under this category. Rather than classifying such
activities critically (e.g. as escapism (Hamilton-Smith, 1987)), the TEM views them
humanistically and as expressions of recuperation and consolidation followed by attempts at
expanding one’s horizon following socially sanctioned patterns of behaviour. If verifying the
existence of the gaze becomes a veri?cation of tourists’ ignorance then the next step for
tourism scholars may well be, how to improve the didactics around visitor recuperation,
education and the revelation of the local or socio-cultural essence of toured objects. Holiday
tourism research is often descriptive but if it is viewed as dynamic and from an existentially
authentic point-of-view on experiencing to achieve well-being, new opportunities arise for its
facilitation.
Progress is evident in the presentation of cultural attractions such as in museums (e.g. Hede
and Thyne, 2010) but progress has yet to become unstuck in other areas such as in city or
even cultural tourism (see, e.g. McKercher, 2002). Understanding how modes of
experiencing come about, are reinforced, sped up and changed may well support this
effort. Opportunities therefore exist when viewing experiencing as dynamic. Cohen’s (1979)
treatment of tourists’ diversionary activity may simply re?ect tourists’ need to ?rst ?nd their
authentic selves before venturing out and exploring new things as a way of learning about
the world. There may well be fruitful tasks in the future in order to develop didactics that
attract and train cultural tourists as well as lead themto explore and discover the uniqueness
of their hosts’ places (P4). Thus, city tourism, for example, will achieve better outcomes for
tourists if not only providing for satisfaction but also for well-being, i.e. ?rst for recuperation
and recreation and second, for improving opportunities for holistic insights and exploratory
learning (e.g. through easier access to interpretation; opportunities for ‘‘inter-cultural’’
interaction in public places, etc.).
Experiencing is dynamic. Both the quietly indulging as well as the loutish pleasure tourist to
mass-resorts may ‘‘swing into action’’, as it were, once energy-levels improve and they
should seek inspiration, or the development of new skills as hobbies or other activities they
should feel attracted to. The re-discovery mode of experiencing emphasises recreation and
an active desire to regain skills, strength or dexterity once held or merely dreamed of before
(P5). Yet, here the sociologically based approach to studying experiences begins to showits
limits when it comes to understanding what tourists seek in experiences other than those
dominated by role-authentic aspirations.
It could be shown that much of Stebbins’ (2007) serious leisure activities fall into this mode of
experiencing as it is characterised by the challenge to achieve and perfect skill through
practice, and where the satisfaction of achievement leads to an inner-directed veri?cation of
the recreationist’s authenticity. It could also be pointed out that the TEM classi?cation sits
well with all other activities that are self-re?ective and based on repetitive action whether they
had be mountain biking, skiing, scuba diving or other holiday activities.
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In the same breath we may mention Chiksentmihalyi’s ?ow which engages the self in a
self-re?ective, challenging manner so as to become one with the environment. Flow is being
in becoming and an existentially authentic form of existence that thrives on repetition. The
activity becomes the mechanism whereby the individual converges with the context of the
situation so much so that he/she momentarily forgets about her own existence and just is.
Not all activities practised in this manner may achieve ?ow, for example, a spa-visit with
intensive application. But such involving and sometimes challenging engagements with
water treatments, massages, exercises and diets, too, amount to a re-discovery of a real or
idealised self.
The discussion of the literature could furthermore demonstrate that, in many occasions,
different experiential stages, states and modes of feeling await far more detailed research.
The review revealed that ?ow engages the self through process but also that notions of
happiness, rejuvenation, insights or epiphany may be better treated as outcomes that
emerge after ?ow. Rather than occurring ‘‘all at once’’ their nature and occurrence could be
shown to be far closer related to processes of becoming and during exploratory activities
(P6). Therefore, a better understanding of how moments of needs ‘‘to be’’ alternate with
needs ‘‘to become’’ in tourists (see, e.g. Apter, 1982) coupled with more research into the
phasic nature of experiencing (see, e.g. Borrie and Birzell, 2001) can lead to better insights
into how to achieve existentially authentic outcomes (rejuvenation, exhilaration, peak
experiences as ‘‘moments of highest happiness and ful?lment’’ (Maslow, 1968, p. 73) as the
highest form of well-being.
Conclusion
The TEM provides a model for all potential experiencing, that is, it models the boundaries of
what experiencing could be as the tourist travels: the totality of one’s subjective
being-in-the-world in which the individual is able to live and fully experience the
uniqueness of every moment-by-moment. This being-in-the-world represents the total
experience. It is often not what the individual actually experiences, that is, what he/she
perceives as the experiencing takes place because the focal activities of every-day-life are
taking place, in?uencing mood, energy levels and sense of happiness. It is within his/her
ontic being that perception takes place, and with which the interaction or better,
interpenetration with the toured object and destination emerges. Perception is selecting,
organising and interpreting the stimuli perceived in the environment; yet the mode
determines how these steps take place, and how mood and emotional orientations drive
decision-strategies and experiencing.
Holiday tourism promises the opportunity to choose one’s optimal environment for
experiencing in which the individual seeks to be that form of self he/she strives for. The
literature we discussed and chose hermeneutically by way of using the basic principles of
experiencing gives substance to the model’s framework and encourages a more substantive
review, particularly of the suggested emotional contrasts between modes of experiencing.
The focus of future analysis would thus turn to the process of experiencing and achieve a
?ner distinction between our understanding of the character of the tourist’s activity,
experiential outcomes (e.g. ?ow, satisfaction) and consequences (e.g. well-being;
happiness). While other approaches focus on individual aspects of experiencing
(e.g. motivation, satisfaction, involvement), the TEM highlights not a particular mode or
phase within an experience but better captures the latency of experiencing that provokes
the question, whence and where-to does the tourist’s experiencing evolve? Viewing
experiencing as a subjective process while taking its whole scope into consideration –
rather than merely, e.g. satisfaction or loyalty (Bigne et al., 2005) may lead to a better
understanding of well-being and happiness.
The direction that future holiday tourism research could therefore take is to consider the TEM
as a foundation to model how recreation or self-extension really takes place as the tourist
emerges from every-day-life. The model helps to better distinguish the processes of
experiencing and challenges research to identify phases and developments, strategies and
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heuristics that take the tourist’s potential ‘‘travel career’’ or self-developmental trajectories
into consideration. Such research can only take place within a more structured environment
of holiday tourism research. The present analysis and discussion suggests that entire
streams of literature are myopic when it comes to considering the tourist’s full potential for
experiencing his/ her destination.
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About the authors
Juergen Gnoth teaches at Otago University, New Zealand. He teaches consumer behaviour
and specialises in tourism psychology and place branding. Juergen Gnoth is the
corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]
Xavier Matteucci teaches at various institutions in Austria. His research interests are in the
areas of tourism experiences, transformative travel, cultural tourism and quality of life.
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doc_761049024.pdf
This paper aims to discuss a framework in which the behavioural tourism and leisure
literature is organised. It seeks to demonstrate the practical use of Gnoth’s Tourism Experience Model
(TEM), and provide future directions in holiday tourism research.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
A phenomenological view of the behavioural tourism research literature
J uergen Gnoth Xavier Matteucci
Article information:
To cite this document:
J uergen Gnoth Xavier Matteucci , (2014),"A phenomenological view of the behavioural tourism research literature", International J ournal of
Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 8 Iss 1 pp. 3 - 21
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Important ?ndings in tourism research
A phenomenological view of the
behavioural tourism research literature
Juergen Gnoth and Xavier Matteucci
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to discuss a framework in which the behavioural tourism and leisure
literature is organised. It seeks to demonstrate the practical use of Gnoth’s Tourism Experience Model
(TEM), and provide future directions in holiday tourism research.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a phenomenological approach to tourists’
experiencing as a critical and productive tool for tourism development. The literature reviewed is
structured through the four modes of experiencing outlined in the TEM: experience as pure pleasure, as
re-discovery, as existentially authentic exploration, and as knowledge seeking.
Findings – The TEM provides a model for all potential experiencing, that is, it models the boundaries of
what experiencing could be throughout the tourist journey. The discussion of the literature also shows
that, in many occasions, different experiential stages, states and modes of feeling await far more
detailed research.
Originality/value – The paper highlights not a particular mode or phase within an experience but better
captures the latency of experiencing. The paper argues that the model helps to better distinguish the
processes of experiencing and challenges research to identify phases and developments, strategies
and heuristics that take the tourist’s potential ‘‘travel career’’ or self-developmental trajectories into
consideration.
Keywords Phenomenology, Becoming, Being, Modes of experiencing, Tourist experience
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
This paper discusses a way of organising the behavioural tourism and leisure literature
based on a phenomenological analysis of holiday tourism’s processes and core outcome,
experiencing and experiences. The proposed structure creates new opportunities for the
literature to consolidate its context and for researchers and managers alike to improve
outcomes for the tourist and destinations. Guided by leisure and recreation research (Kelly,
1983; Neulinger, 1981) holiday tourism has the chance of becoming a distinct ?eld of study
that promotes the bene?ts of subjective experiencing and self-development as holidays are
turning into a universal need for globalising economies. Tourism thereby becomes an
attractive tool for achieving desired holiday outcomes due to the extraordinary conditions
combining with holidays.
Here we detail a viewon experiencing according to Gnoth’s (n.d.) TourismExperience Model
(TEM) (unpublished ms) that provides a complementary view to sociological approaches
and provides future directions in holiday tourism research. This paper poses the question,
how does the behavioural research literature understand and structure tourists’
experiences? Given a full and all-embracing de?nition of experiencing as provided by the
DOI 10.1108/IJCTHR-01-2014-0005 VOL. 8 NO. 1 2014, pp. 3-21, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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PAGE 3
Juergen Gnoth is a
Professor at the
Department of Marketing,
University of Otago,
Dunedin, New Zealand.
Xavier Matteucci is a
Research Associate in
Tourism and Service
Management, MODUL
University Vienna, Vienna,
Austria.
Received 9 January 2014
Revised 20 January 2014
Accepted 20 January 2014
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TEM, how do various streams of the literature treat experiencing, which aspects are covered
and what are insights provided regarding behavioural outcomes regarding tourists’
well-being?
During holidays, working people can regain their equilibrium (Parsons, 1951), re-focus, and
restore their full being-in-the-world (Heidegger, 1962), by promoting their own
self-development through leisure activities. Holiday tourism is therefore an extraordinary
situation as it is marked by life away from home and work, and sustained by discretionary
income. Many critics argue that holiday tourism lacks suf?cient uniqueness to necessitate a
separate discipline or subject of study. Such arguments must be taken seriously since the
powerful paradigms of chaos and complexity theory (Gunderson and Holling, 2002)
emphasise the interrelationship of the world’s phenomena rather than re?ecting distinctly
co-existing realities as promoted by Cartesian thinking. Yet we here argue for the distinct
usefulness of holiday tourism for working people’s well-being and personal growth. While
tourism symbols are indeed embedded in people’s every-day lives, for most of us holiday
tourism is distinct as it affords the availability of a substantial amount of free time to oneself
during which one can relax to experience the world as one pleases.
Subjective perceptions relate to lived experiences (Husserl, 1970). In tourism services for
example, these have been found to alter ‘‘objective’’ functionalities of experience and
product attributes in order to meet tourists’ own needs (Uriely, 2005). In other words,
resources encountered and offered at resorts become means to tourists’ own ends – which
only then turn into the tourist’s destinations. Furthermore, the neo-liberal commodi?cation of
resources in a globalising world is likely to create further undesirable impacts as discussed
in the critical tourism literature (Ateljevic et al., 2007; Rojek, 2009). Yet the critical analysis of
how tourists cope, why and how tourists alter ‘‘products’’ to gather original or authentic
experiences is often forgotten in this ?nger-pointing exercise. No doubt, when seeking the
truth about experiences and experiencing we need to take into account what forces hold
sway (Tribe, 2006). We also need to know what reasons might drive epistemological
endeavours (Hall, 2004) yet, essentially, unless the notion of subjective experiencing is not
proved conclusively it remains fragmented and calls for holiday tourism as a distinct ?eld of
study fail to convince. The present paper therefore takes a phenomenological approach to
tourists’ experiencing as a critical and productive tool for tourism development. It forms the
basis in the organisation of the tourism research literature because only the inclusion of
tourists’ subjectivity alongside societal and ‘objective’ views (Parsons, 1951) can create an
epistemological space in which all of their contributions can be clearly identi?ed. Hence, this
discussion paper outlines Gnoth’s Tourism Experience Model (unpublished ms) and details
how tourist experiencing can be structured. Subsequently, prominent examples of
approaches to tourism and leisure experiences and their location according to the
experience model are discussed.
Experiencing
The tourism literature is rich in detailing views on experiences as outcomes, with major foci
on observable behaviour, but also on motivations and satisfaction. In contrast, the TEM ?rst
seeks to understand the process of experiencing itself as the precursor to experiences. This
is important when considering, on one hand, the tourist’s role, right and desire for ful?lling
experiences and, on the other the unique nature of destinations that are to be bridged. At
closer inspection, however, the ‘‘understanding’’ of experiences is often submerged in
unwieldy supply models couched in behaviouristic stimulus-response theories (e.g. Crouch
and Ritchie, 1999) and oblivious to the subjectivity of experiencing. To assist those and
others, the TEM de?nes tourists’ experiencing as ‘‘the con?ux of, what is sensually
perceived, how it is processed, and how it is retained in the resulting experience’’ whereby
the experience implicates the self in its being, change and growth. By describing the
interrelated processes by which human beings acquire, change and adapt knowledge and
skills as a function of their emotional being-in-the-world, we can begin to understand how
tourists structure and perceive their destination.
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Critically, the TEM details the tourist’s mind at the systems level and accords its own role
during tourists’ activities as it details how the individual views his/her activities. The physical
activity is of importance only in how it challenges the mind into becoming active. The
systems level makes it possible to include all activities as isomorphous and differentiate all
tourists’ experiencing according to some fundamental qualities. Subsequently, these then
help determine tourists’ type of orientation, in other words, tourists’ constantly evolving,
subjectively felt relationships with their destination while experiencing.
These fundamental qualities relate to how the mind receives its own activity, that is, how the
mind becomes aware of its own awareness. Different approaches to conceiving of
awareness exist. The mind may be seen to become aware of its senses in ‘‘real time’’. It may
further become aware as it critically re?ects but here we already begin to rely on previous
experience, thus looking backwards in time to understand what is immediately ‘‘in front of
us’’. Formally, it may also be viewed as a perceptual process that selects, organises and
interprets.
Highlighting the purposive partitioning and reductive processes involved in perceiving,
experiencing in tourism may therefore be understood as a less fettered approach of viewing
the world (Inglis, 2000). For example, free choice and free time permit the mind to be
unfocused and more receptive to otherwise neglected stimuli. The ‘‘how’’ thus relates to
‘‘how the mind discerns’’ (socially or existentially) and the ‘‘what’’ relates to ‘‘what is its own
activity’’ while discerning? In other words, does mind rely on known activities or is it
acquiring new ones?
The tourist as a psychic system
According to Luhmann (1995), social and psychic systems need to accomplish two basic
functions: to reproduce themselves (to keep existing), and to learn (to keep adapting to
exist). These processes of reproduction and learning determine ‘‘what’’ constitutes the
mind’s activity, namely repetition of what it already knows and exploration of what it does not
know. Any system consists of elements that form a structure, and of boundaries that delimit
the structure, whereby the distinctiveness of the boundary is represented by the system’s
structural uniqueness. The system, say a language or an entire culture, thus becomes
discernible in the environment by the way it forms its structures.
To remain alive, the system learns to organise and work its elements by constantly
‘‘reinventing’’ itself, that is, by repeating learned actions for their known outcomes. By
practicing activities found to be successful in achieving solutions, the system consolidates
itself. Any systemic activities, such as the use of language in prose or poetry, or the
individual’s (cultural) habits around eating, sleeping or recreating occur self-referentially,
i.e. with reference to him/herself and in such ways that the system forms and maintains an
identity of itself. In this sense, the identity is the system’s own boundary by which it
distinguishes itself from others. This capacity and ability of forming and reforming its self are
part of the psychic system’s capital to operate in its environment. Like social systems
(Luhmann, 1995; Bourdieu, 1986) the individual as a psychic system acquires behaviours
and turns them into rituals and habits to accomplish his/her self-reproduction ef?ciently and
effectively.
Repetition and practice are thus a fundamental function for the system to maintain and
consolidate itself over time. As time and space are constantly changing, systems also need
to adjust. The incremental and self-referential learning that takes place in every-day
circumstances is called autopoiesis (Heidegger, 1962; Luhmann, 1995). It relates to a
certain ?exibility that all organic systems possess and is often suf?cient for the system to
survive when in relatively balanced and non-turbulent environments (Gunderson and
Holling, 2002). Little conscious activity needs to be applied in such autopoietic adjustments
including those that occur in people’s every-day-life. Most behaviour and learning
associated with such system maintenance is self-re?ective, that is, all serves to consolidate
the system. Thresholds and tolerance levels exist to warn the system if differences become
noticeable (Weber, 1964).
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Learning also occurs when exploring and seeking to understand how other identi?ed
systems in the environment function; it results in appreciating other systems in their own
rights. By turning its focus onto others, and the less self-re?ective the learning system
becomes, the more exploratory it will be. It is characteristic of exploratory learning that its
object is unknown, has not been practiced, or not been considered before so as to
comprehend its Gestalt by which it is oftentimes attracted. Hence, the more exploratory a
tourist’s behaviour becomes the more is he/she able to discover the uniqueness of a toured
object and as its own context is being revealed.
As a consequence, if a system kept repeating its activities without learning (change), it
would consolidate itself. However, if that was all it ever did it would reach stasis and,
eventually self-destruction. For example, the Japanese ‘‘karochi’’ refers to death through
overwork where workers missed to maintain their own bodily system and identity.
Conversely, if the system’s activity became exploratory to the extent that it was totally
unfamiliar and unprepared for its object of activity, it would likely self-destruct as well, as it
would eventually fail to function in an unknown (hostile) environment. Hence, tourists usually
seek to ?nd their own, manageable amount of novelty and familiarity in terms of tourism
decision-making parameters. In these processes, tourists would not only evaluate such
physical travel parameters of transport, the route, or accommodation and thereby framing
the scope of their travels (Woodside and MacDonald, 1993) but they would appraise these
too from their physiological and value constellations of desired processes and goals
(Becken and Gnoth, 2004). Experiencing is not only contingent on what the destination
provides but also on how the mind perceives the activity it is engaged in and as it interacts
with its environment.
The mind’s activity: what does it utilise to be aware with?
The tourist’s un/sub/conscious mind discerns his/her own activity in more or less one of two
ways. It either repeats previously learned behaviour for its known outcomes or it begins to
experiment by exploring its environment with new behaviour not previously used, or old
behaviour in new situations. We will return to this ‘‘repetition-exploration’’ dichotomy further
below, for ?rst, it is critical to note that there are two different ways in which the mind learns its
own knowing about its own activity. Consciousness itself has no memory (Luhmann, 1995).
Awareness therefore refers to being aware of something. While tourists may be aware of an
object or of what their senses are sensing it is not until that awareness has been processed
that it leads to the experience of the object as its outcome.
Howdo tourists learn to experience? First, we develop humanistically or as a body-and-mind
unity that seeks holistic convergence with our environment through the use of our body and
senses. The senses (Gibson, 1966) allowus to become aware through feeling. Enculturation,
social practice and performance then teach us to interpret these and other emotional
experiences. Furthermore, the processes around socialisation teach us norms and
expectations so that emotional experiences become part of how we adapt to our
socio-cultural environments. Adopting these processes makes us ‘‘conform’’ or ‘‘?t in’’ and
often helps us succeed in society.
But that is not where it ends as we are also learning to become aware of our ‘‘selves’’ as
individuals, particularly when our ‘‘real self’’ differs fromour ‘‘ideal self’’ usually at times when
we face a challenge, including when we struggle or feel inclined to resist to conform to
conventions or structures. Husserl’s phenomenology and Heidegger’s existentialism (1962)
have produced a wealth of insights into what it means to be an individual and to experience
the world in an existentially authentic manner. Accordingly, experiencing existentially here
means that we become aware of ourselves spontaneously, moment-by-moment, and in
search of the convergence of our emotions with the situations we ?nd ourselves in (Guignon,
1984). The trajectory of this search is ultimately directed towards what we have learned and
feel as being ‘‘good’’. The ideal of this ‘‘goodness’’ is a vision of a Gestalt that relates to our
fundamental beliefs for which we strive once we rid ourselves of egoism and materialism.
Hence, in contrast to existentially authentic experiencing, role-authentic experiencing is
retrospective, as its norms and standards have been learned in the past. It is contrasting and
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comparative, and focussing on differences. ‘‘Difference’’ is the fundamental criterion in the
epistemology of sociology (see, e.g. Parsons, 1951). The perception of ‘‘differences’’ is to
contrast and one of opposites (disharmony). As a cognitive tool in every-day-life its tendency
is confrontational, whereas humanistic perception seeks convergence as aimed for in an
existential mindset. The tourist’s mind thus becomes aware of its destination in more or less
either of the two outlined modalities: the mind either applies the perceptual norms, standards
and expectations of a person whose perception seeks the authenticity of and alignment with
roles, or his/her mind is humanistically oriented and seeks spontaneous convergence of
emotions and situation that re?ects the individual’s existence at each given moment.
Being and becoming: experiencing as a function of consciousness and activity
When combining the two fundamental functions in experiencing described by the TEM,
consciousness and activity, there unfold distinct ways by which we may view the process.
Rather than distinct categories they suggest orthogonally positioned dimensions with distinct
qualities, which we later will compare to selected evidence in the tourism research literature.
We may then see how literature accounts for the emergent qualities of experiencing as the
mind receives its own activities and how that affects the experiencing self.
Considering experiencing as a process then, the ?rst issue we therefore need to consider is
‘‘existence’’ between being and becoming. It relates to the discussion of whether holiday
tourism actually creates a different form of being than encountered in the work-a-day world
and, even more importantly, whether indeed it affects tourists’ experiencing, their self, and
how that would bequeath a special role to holiday-tourism.
If the tourist’s mind views its own activity as known, repeatedly practised and, with the
assurance of past successes, predictable in its outcome, the mind focuses on ‘‘being’’, that is,
on the consolidation or recreation of known feelings and outcomes. In terms of the search for
novelty versus familiarity, such behaviour tends towards familiarity-seeking while novelty is
consumed for its role to gratify variety-seeking. If the tourist’s mind (consciousness) then also
applies predominantly socially acquired norms and expectations to this repeatedly practised
behaviour (e.g. lying by the pool side, drinking cocktails) the experience consolidates the
tourist as a person, in systems terms. In this mode, the tourist experiences known feelings and
outcomes and is able to predict what moderately novel environments may produce, and varies
their intensity to a measured degree through choice and decisions. ‘‘Being’’ here is
exempli?ed through activities such as visiting a botanical garden or even a theme park where
even novelty rides etc. merely accentuate known feelings that then can be indulged in.
Holding (repetitive) activity constant, as it were, but changing to an existentially authentic
perceiving mind, experiencing tends to become more a re-discovery of past selves and if
the mind re?ects critically, of the true self. This follows because the activity is known and
repetitive but the mind is seeking to close a gap between the real and the ideal self. Above,
the tourist consolidates his/her socially conceived being when applying socially acquired
norms and standards to experiencing by using known activities. Here, the tourist begins to
rediscover himor herself as he/she seeks to apply some formof effort in order to re-establish
known skills and capabilities.
Both of these modes of experiencing promote the feeling of ‘‘being’’ as they remain within
the realms of what is known. The destination is thereby perceived self-re?ectively and
evaluated by way of its utilitarian value to achieve a predetermined outcome. In contrast, if
the activity the mind engages in becomes exploratory, that is new to the person or the
individual, it involves learning because the mind’s focus is less and less self-re?ective but
other-oriented. Hence, novelty seeking moves beyond self-grati?cation when becoming
exploratory and – when the mind is seeking. If, for example, the mind applies socially
acquired norms and patterns to new environments by exploring how it operates (e.g. the
destination as a culture) or howan artefact has been constructed (a painting or architecture),
the experience builds on known patterns of behaviour (schema and scripts).
The hobby-historian or anthropologist applying prescribed patterns thus builds on existing
knowledge to extend it further. If such exploratory behaviour becomes spontaneously
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playful, experimental and seeking existential, emotional convergence rather than
conformance or contrast with prescribed norms and expectations, activity becomes
creative and holistic as moments are experienced as Gestalts rather than differentially
experienced details, even if not comprehended (e.g. appreciating the authenticity of Dali’s
own museum, or of a graceful dance even if the meaning of ?nger-postures of Balinese
dancers escapes the tourist). The search for knowledge using socialised scripts is here
contrasted with a holistic comprehension of a Gestalt.
Creative learning through exploration is also typi?ed by the powerful feelings of insight after
contemplation, achievement or happiness after reaching a destination such as a mountain
peak, thought beyond reach. It is considered holistic rather than built via socially transmitted
schema or scripts, as it describes a feeling of spontaneous, overwhelming immersion such
as in peak experiences (Maslow, 1968). The experience of insight as a physical and
existential experience may also come about through intensely exploratory application of
learnt schema. According to the TEM’s premises, the difference to built learning mentioned
above, however, is its strongly experimental application that surprises the tourist to the
extent that the insight becomes a physically felt phenomenon. Whereas the exploratory
forays of a museum visitor may create new knowledge through learning strings of facts
enhancing a tourist’s socially de?ned self-esteem, the electrifying realisation of the Gestalt
expressed in an insight carries experiencing into the existentially authentic realmof a feeling
of being in becoming.
To further illustrate the state of becoming, we refer to Deleuzian’s theorizing on the self. Gilles
Deleuze (1968) refuses the idea of the self as a static, ?nite being; rather in Deleuzian
philosophy, the subject is permeable and always becoming-other. Because the subject is
embedded in a complex, unpredictable and ever-changing world, the term becoming
(devenir) is meant to describe the never-ending process of self-adjustment and change. In
other words, by belonging to and engaging in our dynamic world, the subject is never stable,
thus self-transforming itself again and again. Therefore, Deleuze does not use the term
identity to represent a subject’s accumulation of experiences; instead he speaks of
difference, potentialities and multiplicities. Following this view, the ideas of self-discovery
and of true self-behaviour (experiencing the existential self) should be understood as
processes of constant adaptations of the self rather than as mere outcomes. In fact, Deleuze
speaks of deterritorialisation to illustrate the subject’s dispersal fromand movement towards
(new) territories in an attempt at self-containment. In this view, the subject stretches out of
his/her self-territory (or self-identical project) to integrate new territories always guided by a
desire for self-coherence. Contrary to phenomenology’s human-centred understanding of
tourist’s carnal bodies, Deleuzian bodies are affected by intensities. In other words, bodies
are affected by the transversal, immaterial forces of the world (Beaulieu, 2002). Without
those immaterial forces, there would be no bodily sensations. In Mille Plateaux, Deleuze and
Guattari (1980, p. 244) use the metaphor of a stationary journey to account for the invisible
mediations registered by the body.
Yet, for most of us such profound ‘‘becoming’’ as consciously lived experiences would at
least require a break from every-day-life so as to ‘‘re-assemble’’ all one’s potentialities in a
project so that we may experience one’s own being in moment-by-moment experiences.
Although Heidegger and Deleuze diverge, we maintain that both are existentialists and both
contribute to our understanding of the various dynamics of being and becoming that come
with experiencing in its various forms. While ‘‘being’’ thus may lead to ‘‘just’’ an equilibrium
(Parsons, 1951) that is being felt from moment-to-moment, it may also include one’s
rediscovery of past skills and abilities, as much as a regained sense of self and self-esteem
that creates the happiness of one’s existentially authentic being-in-the-world. We therefore
also de?ne experiencing as ‘‘being in becoming’’ and the experience (noun) as the
re-instantiated memory of that process.
Locating tourism research in experiential space
The following section seeks to demonstrate the practical use of the TEM and categorise
examples of the tourism literature into the four modes of experiencing. As the above
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elaboration on how these modes may be viewed in the ?uidity of life has shown, the modes
indicate intentional qualities by which perceiving occurs and effects on the self are
implicated. We now put these assumptions to the test, as it were by an overview and by
seeking out groups and individual examples of literature to see how they had ?t the model.
The process is thus hermeneutical. Merleau-Ponty (1962) stipulates, for perception to take
place, a relationship or a set of multi-relationships is needed. In other words, the perceiving
mind/body is situated in the world in a way that the body and the world are inseparable. An
additional dimension to consciousness and activity, therefore, is the tourist’s destination itself
as the physical and mental space that turns into a relational place (e.g. D’Andrade, 1995) as
and when the tourist engages and interacts with it. In contrast to previous models on tourists’
experiencing the physical and socio-cultural environment can thus be better accounted for
in this interrelationship. Furthermore, it can reveal to us the types of agency the destination
assumes in the interaction.
Following Luhmann (1995), the actual interaction is preceded by a reduction in the tourist’s
mind of both the subject’s and the place’s complexities so as to make interaction possible.
The process of perception is thereby an intentional selection, organisation and interpretation
of place-stimuli, out of all the various ways in which the interaction could potentially take
place. Hence, the four modes of the TEM (see Figure 1) de?ne the total scope of all potential
interactions, with each mode further qualifying the actual experience implicating
self-engagement and formation.
The organisation of the literature is loosely based on the following four modes of
experiencing: experience as pure pleasure, as re-discovery, as existentially authentic
exploration, and as knowledge seeking.
Experiencing as being
Experience as pure pleasure
In the ?rst mode of experiencing, the tourist’s intentionality is predominantly role-authentic
and expectations marked by the rituals and customs, fads and fashions of every-day life. Its
activity comprises repetitive, consolidating practice and is characterised by its known utility
as veri?ed through previous experience. The self-re?ective character of this type of
experiencing is well encapsulated in Urry’s (1992) notion of gaze characterising it as
existence in a bubble. Activity therefore poses few or no challenges and is entirely based on
the tourist’s existing ‘‘psychic capital’’, as it can be likened to the repetitive, ritualised or
Figure 1 The Tourism Experience Model
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practice-based behaviour that constitutes habitus (Bourdieu, 1986) with all its bene?ts to the
actor. While the tourist attraction may be of focal interest, the touristic environment is largely
stereotyped and experienced autopoietically, that is, the person reinvents him/herself
automatically in the ?uid environment with little attention to actual detail or appreciation of
uniqueness.
Hazel Andrew’s article on Tourism as a Moment of Being (2009) exempli?es these
characteristics with British tourists’ behaviour at resorts in Mallorca, Spain. She details how
they reinvent the UK under the Balearic sun. With ?ag-waving and favoured British food and
beer the experience is ‘‘replete with references to the tourists’ homeworld’’ (p. 10). The
tourist enjoys this interpretation of British life away from home like home in freedom from
restricting pub-closing times, dress codes, and other rules. Sensual indulgence is focal
while the locals and their cultural symbols are looked at as an out-group that is stereotyped
as ‘‘they’’ and ‘‘them’’, almost as aliens in their own land.
Furthermore, the literature appertaining to theme-park experiences (Bigne et al., 2005),
wellness (e.g. Komppula and Konu, 2012; Smith and Puczko, 2009) and resort behaviour
(e.g. Carr, 1999) that relies on highly familiar schema and facilities are of relevance here.
These types of destinations and the activities they offer provide hedonism, thrills, fantasy,
pampering and predominantly sensual arousal on exotic backgrounds that are kept ‘‘at
arm’s length’’. Tourists seek out situations that please their senses rather than challenge
them, where the day is governed by lazing by the poolside, casual sports (Stebbins, 2007) or
by socialising and catching up with friends while enjoying culinary delights.
At a theoretical level, literature relating to tourists’ novelty versus familiarity seeking
(e.g. Cohen, 1972; Basala and Klenosky, 2001) further enhances the depth of our
understanding of the ‘‘how’’ and ‘‘why’’ of this form of experiencing. Literature exploring
hyper-reality (e.g. Eco, 1986) helps probe the appreciation of authenticity, circularity and
self-directedness of this type of experiencing thriving on moment-by-moment pleasure
seeking, while highlighting manufactured dreams in fads, fashion and technological novelty
used for self-grati?cation.
In the same class of experiencing we ?nd the self-indulgent fantasies enhancing the relaxing
bliss that is to be had by camping on a lake site, living on a beach, or re-visiting one’s
favourite holiday-spot. Such stereotypical and nostalgic activities help tourists recover from
their work-a-day lives and allow them to live out simple dreams. As recovery takes place,
however, and re?ection sets in the tourist’s experiencing may well move towards existential
thoughts and realisations as a healthy sign of a consolidated equilibrium (Parsons, 1951). A
frequently cited categorisation by Cohen (1979) would describe activity in the
pleasure-mode as ‘‘diversionary’’. The experience classi?cation offered here is thereby a
critique of Cohen’s conceptualisation of authenticity. It adds that tourists who desire to just
‘‘be’’, in as far as their aim is to recover from the stresses and strains of every-day-life, may
be understood as seeking their authentic self in themselves ?rst before they may be able to
experience the authenticity of their destination, qua re-negotiating themselves into a different
experience mode. Instead of criticising such behaviour as escape (Hamilton-Smith, 1987),
hedonic experiencing may also be characterised by its meta-motivational goals, that is, the
happiness one ?nds in simply being, even if in a fantasy world. A pertinent example for the
latter has been studied by Kim and Jamal (2007) where medieval revivalists copy some
imagined past in order to explore their authentic selves which, however, collapses into
pleasuring carnal stupor that is re-discovered every year. This liminal zone exempli?es the
difference between the Pure Pleasure and Re-Discovery mode of experiencing.
Experience as Re-discovery
That what we call here Re-discovery appears as the most intensely studied experiential
mode of recreation. Modern recreation replaced the seasonally induced period of relaxation
in the agricultural society with holiday (tourism) for the industrial society. Forming the centre
of his reversal-theory, Apter (1982) observed that people at leisure tend to swing between
paratelic and telic orientations. The former relates to playful, arousal-seeking behaviour
while the latter describe goal-oriented activities that require some focus and possibly effort.
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After a period of relaxation has taken hold in the holiday-maker he/she now begins to seek to
re-invent herself, to recreate.
Effort constitutes a determining element in this second mode of experiencing. It evokes the
individual’s sense of their existential authenticity as the gap between the real and ideal self
becomes apparent when, metaphorically, lifting one’s head from the drudgery of every-day
life and remembering one’s own better past or hoped-for future. Importantly however, while
the self in this mode of experiencing is realised beyond mere indulgence, the activity still
remains one that is, self-re?ective, known, and has been practiced before.
Wang (1999) points out that such search for one’s existential self is often the focal activity at
family get-togethers. In this regard, new markets and new behaviours are evolving to which
we can apply the TEM’s perspective. We nowsee increasingly Indian and Chinese extended
families travel together, much as previously the Japanese tended to travel in groups of
colleagues and entire shop-?oors. These groups thrive on the celebration and expression of
their authentic (group) self and practice and re?ne their socially acquired customs and
habits vis-a` -vis new destinations. This does not occur without effort, however, as ‘‘?tting-in’’
with one’s group while ‘‘being conspicuous’’ at destinations often requires self-discipline
over one’s behaviour. Yet when mastered, experiencing moves from self-conscious feelings
of the difference of one’s own personal (role-) behaviour to an exploratory building on one’s
knowledge and skills to adapt to the destination. Eventually, consciousness may be seen as
ending up in a re-discovery mode of one’s authentic self within the travelling group or family.
The feeling experienced in such moments are reminiscent of ?ow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990),
or belonging. The TEM would thus also help uncover agency, for example, the roles
grandparents play in the creation of holiday experiences (e.g. Scha¨ nzel et al., 2012).
In contrast to the above collective self, the sense of individual self that, for example, a
sports-?sherman or a rock-climber may be seeking when re-establishing their skills, clearly
relates to a feeling of existential authenticity with a stronger base in the individual’s self rather
than the communal self. To highlight the dynamics of experiencing within and beyond this
mode, honing practical skills often leads to mastery and ?ow. Then, with even further
challenge, experiencing may lead on to the exploration of one’s own boundaries and the
exploratory discovery of new strengths. ‘‘Dipping’’ into exploratory modes, however is
beyond ?ow as the tourist (on the rock-face or in the downhill skiing event) is clearly aware of
danger, e.g. of losing control, hence acute self-awareness.
Much of the research surrounding Stebbins’ (2007) serious leisure perspective (SLP) involves
tourism. The activities under scrutiny can often be anchored in this mode of re-experiencing.
Far more than casual leisure – which belongs to the consolidation mode, hobby and amateur
leisure activities are characterised by an increasing involvement, skill, time, and money. The
involvement appears, however, less with the place but with the activity, hence the suggestion
that the SLP focuses more or less exclusively on self-re?ective activities.
Rupprecht and Matkin’s (2012) work on marathon-running focuses on women’s dedication to
their serious leisure activity. It tells of the emotional and physical hardship that these athletes
put themselves through repeatedly. The data also records the dread that the respondents
feel whenever they get to the last 6km of the race, as that repeatedly takes them to the fears
for their last reserves. While this research reveals only implicitly the relationship between the
racecourse and the sports-women itself (the destination in fact), research on sports
?shermen points towards another type of interaction between tourist and place. Whereas the
runners before seemed to create their destination through the endurance of hardship, here
results reveal that the place and the surroundings of the actual ?shing spot are aesthetic as
well as an existential part of the ?sher’s self, so much so that the research speaks of place
attachment and dependence. Only once we distinguish between modes of experiencing,
however, do the different ways of turning geographic space into place become apparent.
By way of further illustration, Matteucci’s (2013) recent study on tourists’ experiences of
?amenco music and dance in Seville, Spain reveals the tourism journey as a spiritual one.
The ?amenco journey is characterised by four key dimensions: the tourist’s active
participation in intrinsically motivated activities, the endurance of hardship, the arousal of the
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emotional self, and the experience of eudaimonic well-being. Eudaimonic well-being, which
relates to the experience of the authentic-self, is certainly an unintended experiential
outcome pertaining to both Cohen’s (1979) upper modes of experiences, namely the
experimental and the existential mode. In the experimental mode, alienated tourists search
for rediscovering their real selves in a foreign natural or social environment. Here, the focus is
set on the self.
The challenges of learning ?amenco therefore resemble those of, mountain bikers (Allen
et al., 2008), or scuba divers (Dimmock and Wilson, 2009) as, when testing their levels of
control in a moment-by-moment interaction with the terrain it suggests a notion of
anthropomorphic agency in each of the different terrains. The re-discovering tourist
overcomes hardships and conquers physical space and, by way of the particular repetitious
physical engagement – including a register of technical terms and technology, turns space
uniquely into place (Gnoth, 2014).
Hence, Arnould and Price’s (1993) ethnographic study of white-water rafters also belongs
into this mode of experiencing – at least for those tourists who had participated in this sport
before. Yet given the discussion of the TEM, their study emerges somewhat as a jumble of
yet-to-be-unravelled emotional targets tourists seek, processes, reactions and outcomes. It
provoked Caru` and Cova (2003) to produce a ‘‘more humble’’ analysis of how various
sciences interpret and categorise (emotional and existential) experiences. We therefore like
to follow their suggestion and propose our model as a way forward in analysing the process
of experiencing more systematically, as, for example developed by Borrie and Birzell (2001)
who distinguish phases of experiencing wilderness.
Furthermore, when we emphasise the repetitive nature in the given examples of serious
leisure pursuits, we are also able to classify them in terms of the major bene?t participants
often seek, namely ?ow(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi (2009) list
six factors as encompassing an experience of ?ow:
1. Intense and focused concentration on the present moment.
2. Merging of action and awareness.
3. A loss of re?ective self-consciousness.
4. A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity.
5. A distortion of temporal experience, one’s subjective experience of time is altered.
6. Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding.
These characteristics indicate independently that consciousness and activity styles can
help classify experiences. The description also highlights that, when in ?ow, the experience
of the self changes from ‘‘re?ective self-consciousness’’ to existentially authentic
consciousness as the self becomes one with the environment. Pomfret (2006) mentions a
wealth of literature on mountaineering, in which she emphasises very different processes
and outcomes whereby the processes relate to re-discovery, newly built knowledge through
exploration, and peak experiences leading to intense happiness. Happiness is also an
existential mode of becoming as it looks forward to future experiencing from a new platform,
often experienced as rejuvenation.
There are other examples revealing peak or ?ow experiences in the tourism literature. An
early one is Daniel’s (1996) study on dance performed by tourists at various destinations. For
Daniel, tourists involved in dance performances undergo extraordinary, rewarding
experiences where the tourist body, mind and the surrounding social and physical
environments become one. Daniel de?nes this profound subjective experience as
experiential authenticity. Similar to experiential authenticity is the description of the tourist
moment (Hom Cary, 2004), a serendipitous encounter through which tourists feel ful?lled
and which also suggests the loss of separate identity.
Apart from the activity involved, these results indicate a further quality of the consciousness
dimension by pointing to types of situations in which it changes. They reveal indications of the
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?uidity of the self, changing ?rst froman allocentric to an idiocentric self (Bettencourt and Dorr,
1997), and then to a self that converges with its environment and the activity it is involved in. A
similar convergence can be achieved through forms of yoga and the continuous effort to rid
oneself of desire. To what extent these states differ from?ow, however, is yet to be ascertained.
Focal repetition may thus lead to the exploration of new experiences in some situations more
than in others. Repetition can also recapture the past. Its (re)experience in memory could lead
to new and as yet not discovered insights (Russell and Levy, 2012).
Experiencing as becoming
Existentially authentic exploration
The previously cited research examples including Stebbins’ serious leisure perspective and
Ciksentmihalyi’s ?ow are mostly based on a self-re?ective consciousness and self-directed
activities including collective selves as experienced in families and communitas (Turner,
1973). The discussion also pointed out that there is a feeling of self that is somehow beyond
the ego-centric sense of self as it seems to relate to a permeable body-in-becoming as
described by Deleuze (1968). Experiencing therefore relates to a form of exploratory activity
of the authentic self that is marked by an experience of ongoing self-change. Despite some
rivalries between Deleuze and Heidegger, they both tend to point towards what may yet
represent the purest form of being-in-the-world and as a process in which the human
being-in-becoming relates all her existence to all of her environment, moment-by-moment.
The TEM provides for a suitable tool to deconstruct and differentiate the different stances of
experiencing that take place in hitherto con?ated processes and outcomes.
Cohen’s (1979) existential tourists are such individuals who believe that they would live
happier and more meaningful lives elsewhere. Existential tourists desire to ‘‘go native’’ and
therefore search to relocate, sometimes on a permanent basis, to other places. Even more
than Cohen’s other experiential modes described previously, it is a mode replete with desires
and fantasies, and with romantic and nostalgic associations of cultures. While the
experimental tourist is challenged to the point that the self is discovered or rediscovered and
renegotiated, in the existential mode of experience, the previously mysterious, ineffable,
unattainable and sublime is gradually demysti?ed (Lengkeek, 2001). Individuals gain control
and assurance in their relationship with the ‘‘Other’’. Here, the extraordinary becomes
routine. Whereas for some tourists, the experience of ?amenco in Seville in Matteucci’s work
above may be a simple liminal experience through which ecstatic and self-enriching
experiences were felt, for others, deeper self-transformation gave rise to newlife trajectories;
whereby adopting alternative lifestyles or undertaking new careers in which ?amenco
occupies a central role. Whereas the re-discoverer seeks unity as ?ow through focussing
activities, the existentialist turns more and more outward, taking in new environments
exploratorily. Memories gained here can become subject to re-discovery when the tourist is
back home, or subject to new discoveries as they are ‘‘re-consumed’’ fromdifferent and new
angles (Russell and Levy, 2012).
Previously cited research on mountaineering (Pomfret, 2006) or rafting (Arnould and Price,
1993) but also Matteucci (2013) on ?amenco journeys in Andalusia all point towards what
can be felt and experienced when the self is no longer connected to its past in that no worries
restrict the full experience. In this dimension of experiencing we therefore locate Cohen’s
experimental and existentially authentic tourist, spiritual tourism experiences (Norman,
2012; Turner, 1973), transformative travel (Lean, 2012; Ross, 2010) as well as all the literature
that deals with exploratory behaviour which does not depend on socially acquired norms
and expectations based in tourists’ home-cultures. Particularly the backpacker research
literature not only speaks of intense experiences of being but also of becoming as the
maturing self is felt as being formed. Constant change by continuously moving becomes an
exploration of the self vis-a` -vis new places and the lack of commitment the indulgence in
one’s moment-by-moment sense of becoming.
In their exploration of long-distance walking, Saunders et al. (2013) found that by walking
over extended periods of time tourists felt a sense of self-ef?cacy, self-discovery, and
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personal growth. These authors argue that meaningful walks can therefore augment tourists’
sense of well-being. By way of further illustration, Zahra and McIntosh (2007) found that
volunteer tourist experiences in developing countries led to profound and lasting changes in
the tourists’ values and behaviours. Cathartic experiences and tourist experiences of the
authentic self are also found in contexts such as of adventure tourism (Duffy and Overholt,
2013), nature-based sports (Humberstone, 2011), volunteer tourism (Alexander and Bakir,
2013), independent travel (Wilson and Harris, 2006), religious tourism (Digance, 2006; Li
et al., 2006) and Ashram experiences (Sharpley and Sundaram, 2005).
Furthermore, a whole new area of research has developed in the last two decades that is
devoted to the study of happiness (Seligman, 2011). Here too, the TEM offers a way of
structuring existing de?nitions of happiness according to the dominant mode they re?ect. Its
particular theorisation provokes the question: which form of happiness would be the best to
achieve in what situation and why? In any case, however, the organisation according to the
TEM would give some further analytical tools worth testing the relationships between
situational parameters and of types of happiness and satisfaction.
The knowledge seeking experience
This last subcategory of the experience model relates to experiencing marked by a
role-authentic orientation, which views its activity as new and exploratory. Learned and
accepted-as-true the tourist here uses stereotypical schema that relate to a tourist role as, for
example, described by Adler (1989) or Gibson and Yiannakis (2002). The socially derived,
patterned behaviour is chosen for pre-meditated outcomes often again determined by
society, and ful?lling such socially derived needs as esteem, authority, in?uence, or power,
that come with the acquisition of new knowledge, ?nancial wealth, and the image of having
been to certain places, actually seen certain things, and learned from them in some form or
another. In some of these more materialistically oriented areas, there is a paucity of relevant
literature due to stigma. This relates especially to deviant behaviour (sex or drug tourism).
Related to that is literature on non-compliant tourist behaviour usually found in social impact
literature and, far less problematic, in the acculturation literature including tourism and
peace studies. Further literature often strongly in?uenced by the role-authentic, socially
patterned ways of knowledge and impression acquisition is often subject to diary entries or
forming the background to novels. Here too, there are a number of sub-themes where the
literature is increasing such as Muller and Woodside’s (2012) example of epiphany travel as
a search for being in becoming by following scripts acquired from literature.
The literature detailing experiences that, broadly speaking, involve knowledge acquisition
from a socio-culturally determined angle can include museum tourism (e.g. McIntosh, 1999;
Hede and Thyne, 2010) but also city-tourism (Maitland and Ritchie, 2009).It is considered
worth knowing and satis?es social values of role-development. While the latter easily
straddles into the consolidating and recreating modes of experiencing as most behaviour in
that environment would be well-practiced, when it becomes exploratory it is a form of
acquiring targeted new experiences within an urban environment and its facilities (Harvey,
1989). It would include visiting galleries and exhibitions but also sports events although the
latter often has a strong social component when spectator experiences are included
(e.g. Miller et al., 2001). Further experience literature that uses socio-culturally developed
value schema are thana or dark tourism (Korstanje, 2011; Biran and Hyde, 2013),
rubbish-dump tourism, and slum tourism which are currently being studied. An example of
dark tourism is the study on Israeli tourist experiences of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration
camp by Biran et al. (2011). These authors found that education, a desire for emotional
involvement and the construction of identities were amongst the key motives to visit the
death camp. Any experiences in these areas tend to ful?l needs for knowledge and
understanding using, for example the skills of a historian or of an anthropologist or any other
socially sanctioned or formed way of knowledge acquisition. Only more general research
could be found on how, for example, Japanese experience destinations as opposed to other
cultures (Watkins and Gnoth, 2011).
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The role-authentic tourist-person travelling in cross-cultural space can also be seen to use
normative scripts and roles to protect their ego. Winnicott’s notion of a false self (1960) refers
to a subject’s compliance with external rules or socially de?ned schemas and scripts.
Following Winnicott, a tourist who is somehow challenged by different and novel settings is
not necessarily thrown outside his/herself to the point that the tourist does not get to
experience his/her own true self. Rather, it is ‘‘hiding’’ in the stereotypes of every-day-life and
lack of concern. An example of this is Bruner’s (1991) mass tourist to developing countries
who is not radically challenged by the sites they gaze upon. Those tourists’ complacent
adherence to the safe and cosy tourist bubble they ?nd themselves in does not allow for
much insight into the visited culture. Yet, potentially, it is also emotionally contrasting as the
more the tourist gets involved in a destination with its own norms and role expectations, the
more divergent the experience can become because ‘‘differences’’ become more apparent.
From this point-of-view, the tourist’s gaze described by Urry (1992) may be revised from
being a separating wall to a continuum. An experience like Bruners’ tourists above may be
marked by a sensationalistic lust for novelty without insight driving the initial travel motivation
on one hand. It may develop further via a protective reaction to numb an emotionally
disconcerting experience (false self), and then rise to an emerging awareness as the tourist
views unfamiliar, ‘‘different’’ sights or events, on the other hand. As Russell and Levy (2012)
have shown, tourists can re-consume their experiences in memories and learning may yet
occur. While the former would relate to a somewhat forced experience of being in the sense
that the tourist feels as if living a ‘‘state’’, the latter suggests experiencing as ‘‘being in
becoming’’ whereby the tourist makes an effort to actively search for new learning in ‘‘the
other’’.
Discussion
With recourse to systems theory, the TEM allows us to view tourist experiences according to
their constituting characteristics. Differences in experiencing thereby occur ?rstly, as a
function of how the mind knows of its own activities, namely as repeated practice, or as
exploratory activity; and secondly, whether these are perceived as either predominantly from
a role-authentic, or from an existentially authentic point-of-view. Roles include knowledge
and skills that have been acquired socially forming a repertoire of capital by which the social
world is organised and to which one conforms through habitus (Bourdieu, 1986) that
dominates every-day-life. Existential authenticity, then, is the individual’s capacity to
recognise and realise her own unique being moment-by-moment through mindfulness. To be
yourself requires time, re?ection and often effort as the every-day-world is managed easily
by ‘‘falling into’’ and conforming with roles. Holiday tourism provides extraordinary
opportunities to recover from every-day-life, recreate and/or experience new things to
further one’s well-being through being active and existentially conscious.
The hermeneutically conceived model and approach to structure the literature by way of
using the activity and consciousness criteria revealed a number of results that appear
worthy of further attention. First, if behaviour at toured places is simply dominated by tourists’
encultured every-day norms and expectations and are thus perceived as normal activities
‘‘one does’’ on holidays, experiencing often celebrates sensuous indulgence (Urry, 1992;
Andrews, 2009, Bigne et al., 2005). Whether exploratory or consolidating in their nature,
these activities follow sanctioned patterns of scripts and schema, indeed, and are
essentially contrastive in their emotional content: what tourists cherish are ‘‘differences’’,
whether indulging in sensuous experiences at a theme-park, or whether exploring art at
galleries or city-life in a different culture, and where learning (and feeling authentic) are major
goals. The essence of the experience here is retrospective in nature as it exists in the
comparison of past examples and ideals.
It is therefore not surprising that if experiencing stays mainly in these dimensions of
knowledge seeking and/or sensuous indulgence that it is satisfaction that tourists seek (P1).
Satisfaction research in tourism, however, shows little evidence of differentiating between
what holiday experiences (incl. tourism services) have done for tourists’ recreation versus
what holiday experiences do for the tourist’s future ways of being-in-the-world and their
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well-being over and above achieving an equilibrium. (P2). Satisfaction research is focused
on predominantly retrospective experiencing as it relies on expectation-ful?lment patterns
that are dominated by emic orientations of the experiencing mind (P3). It rarely captures
transformational experience as it does not segment according to modes of experience
thereby losing nomological validity with often spurious explanations for variance captured.
A further prominent streamof research is based on the sociologically de?ned understanding
of experiences which stands in contrast to humanistic, socio-psychological, and existential
approaches to experiencing. The sociologically de?ned, ‘‘objectively’’ observable tourism
behaviour (Parsons, 1951) ?nds all its variance explained by simple reference to
stimulus-response patterns of situational parameters. These let researchers conclude the
purpose (pleasure seeking) and outcomes (satisfaction). Much of Urry’s ?ndings on the
gaze (1992) is framed by this methodology, particularly when the assumptions of
object-authenticity become a criterion to prove both the existence and the limitations of the
gaze.
However, using the same approach to classify modes of experiencing, the quiet ‘‘holiday in a
cabin on the lake’’, or camping on the beach to name but a few nostalgic and otherwise
culturally framed activities would also fall under this category. Rather than classifying such
activities critically (e.g. as escapism (Hamilton-Smith, 1987)), the TEM views them
humanistically and as expressions of recuperation and consolidation followed by attempts at
expanding one’s horizon following socially sanctioned patterns of behaviour. If verifying the
existence of the gaze becomes a veri?cation of tourists’ ignorance then the next step for
tourism scholars may well be, how to improve the didactics around visitor recuperation,
education and the revelation of the local or socio-cultural essence of toured objects. Holiday
tourism research is often descriptive but if it is viewed as dynamic and from an existentially
authentic point-of-view on experiencing to achieve well-being, new opportunities arise for its
facilitation.
Progress is evident in the presentation of cultural attractions such as in museums (e.g. Hede
and Thyne, 2010) but progress has yet to become unstuck in other areas such as in city or
even cultural tourism (see, e.g. McKercher, 2002). Understanding how modes of
experiencing come about, are reinforced, sped up and changed may well support this
effort. Opportunities therefore exist when viewing experiencing as dynamic. Cohen’s (1979)
treatment of tourists’ diversionary activity may simply re?ect tourists’ need to ?rst ?nd their
authentic selves before venturing out and exploring new things as a way of learning about
the world. There may well be fruitful tasks in the future in order to develop didactics that
attract and train cultural tourists as well as lead themto explore and discover the uniqueness
of their hosts’ places (P4). Thus, city tourism, for example, will achieve better outcomes for
tourists if not only providing for satisfaction but also for well-being, i.e. ?rst for recuperation
and recreation and second, for improving opportunities for holistic insights and exploratory
learning (e.g. through easier access to interpretation; opportunities for ‘‘inter-cultural’’
interaction in public places, etc.).
Experiencing is dynamic. Both the quietly indulging as well as the loutish pleasure tourist to
mass-resorts may ‘‘swing into action’’, as it were, once energy-levels improve and they
should seek inspiration, or the development of new skills as hobbies or other activities they
should feel attracted to. The re-discovery mode of experiencing emphasises recreation and
an active desire to regain skills, strength or dexterity once held or merely dreamed of before
(P5). Yet, here the sociologically based approach to studying experiences begins to showits
limits when it comes to understanding what tourists seek in experiences other than those
dominated by role-authentic aspirations.
It could be shown that much of Stebbins’ (2007) serious leisure activities fall into this mode of
experiencing as it is characterised by the challenge to achieve and perfect skill through
practice, and where the satisfaction of achievement leads to an inner-directed veri?cation of
the recreationist’s authenticity. It could also be pointed out that the TEM classi?cation sits
well with all other activities that are self-re?ective and based on repetitive action whether they
had be mountain biking, skiing, scuba diving or other holiday activities.
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In the same breath we may mention Chiksentmihalyi’s ?ow which engages the self in a
self-re?ective, challenging manner so as to become one with the environment. Flow is being
in becoming and an existentially authentic form of existence that thrives on repetition. The
activity becomes the mechanism whereby the individual converges with the context of the
situation so much so that he/she momentarily forgets about her own existence and just is.
Not all activities practised in this manner may achieve ?ow, for example, a spa-visit with
intensive application. But such involving and sometimes challenging engagements with
water treatments, massages, exercises and diets, too, amount to a re-discovery of a real or
idealised self.
The discussion of the literature could furthermore demonstrate that, in many occasions,
different experiential stages, states and modes of feeling await far more detailed research.
The review revealed that ?ow engages the self through process but also that notions of
happiness, rejuvenation, insights or epiphany may be better treated as outcomes that
emerge after ?ow. Rather than occurring ‘‘all at once’’ their nature and occurrence could be
shown to be far closer related to processes of becoming and during exploratory activities
(P6). Therefore, a better understanding of how moments of needs ‘‘to be’’ alternate with
needs ‘‘to become’’ in tourists (see, e.g. Apter, 1982) coupled with more research into the
phasic nature of experiencing (see, e.g. Borrie and Birzell, 2001) can lead to better insights
into how to achieve existentially authentic outcomes (rejuvenation, exhilaration, peak
experiences as ‘‘moments of highest happiness and ful?lment’’ (Maslow, 1968, p. 73) as the
highest form of well-being.
Conclusion
The TEM provides a model for all potential experiencing, that is, it models the boundaries of
what experiencing could be as the tourist travels: the totality of one’s subjective
being-in-the-world in which the individual is able to live and fully experience the
uniqueness of every moment-by-moment. This being-in-the-world represents the total
experience. It is often not what the individual actually experiences, that is, what he/she
perceives as the experiencing takes place because the focal activities of every-day-life are
taking place, in?uencing mood, energy levels and sense of happiness. It is within his/her
ontic being that perception takes place, and with which the interaction or better,
interpenetration with the toured object and destination emerges. Perception is selecting,
organising and interpreting the stimuli perceived in the environment; yet the mode
determines how these steps take place, and how mood and emotional orientations drive
decision-strategies and experiencing.
Holiday tourism promises the opportunity to choose one’s optimal environment for
experiencing in which the individual seeks to be that form of self he/she strives for. The
literature we discussed and chose hermeneutically by way of using the basic principles of
experiencing gives substance to the model’s framework and encourages a more substantive
review, particularly of the suggested emotional contrasts between modes of experiencing.
The focus of future analysis would thus turn to the process of experiencing and achieve a
?ner distinction between our understanding of the character of the tourist’s activity,
experiential outcomes (e.g. ?ow, satisfaction) and consequences (e.g. well-being;
happiness). While other approaches focus on individual aspects of experiencing
(e.g. motivation, satisfaction, involvement), the TEM highlights not a particular mode or
phase within an experience but better captures the latency of experiencing that provokes
the question, whence and where-to does the tourist’s experiencing evolve? Viewing
experiencing as a subjective process while taking its whole scope into consideration –
rather than merely, e.g. satisfaction or loyalty (Bigne et al., 2005) may lead to a better
understanding of well-being and happiness.
The direction that future holiday tourism research could therefore take is to consider the TEM
as a foundation to model how recreation or self-extension really takes place as the tourist
emerges from every-day-life. The model helps to better distinguish the processes of
experiencing and challenges research to identify phases and developments, strategies and
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heuristics that take the tourist’s potential ‘‘travel career’’ or self-developmental trajectories
into consideration. Such research can only take place within a more structured environment
of holiday tourism research. The present analysis and discussion suggests that entire
streams of literature are myopic when it comes to considering the tourist’s full potential for
experiencing his/ her destination.
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About the authors
Juergen Gnoth teaches at Otago University, New Zealand. He teaches consumer behaviour
and specialises in tourism psychology and place branding. Juergen Gnoth is the
corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]
Xavier Matteucci teaches at various institutions in Austria. His research interests are in the
areas of tourism experiences, transformative travel, cultural tourism and quality of life.
VOL. 8 NO. 1 2014
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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