ABSTRACT

Experiential and experience-based consumption entails interactions between actors and events in real time. Informed, involved, motivated and active tourists affect the value extracted from a vacation experience. Studies within tourism experiences suggest that on-site experiences should be viewed from the perspective that some elements enhance the experience value while others may reduce it. The notion of co-creation in the present chapter is understood as the customer's mental and physical participation in the experience creation process. Physical participation is recognized as the customer's own perception of the degree of active participation in the activity experienced. Mental participation is identified as the customer's level of interest in an activity. People engage in physical activities based on three fundamentals: "self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and self-evaluated satisfaction or dissatisfaction". Hence, tourism researchers have to a larger extent taken the view that nature, culture and people are the foundations for travelling and as such a focal point in staging tourist experiences.