ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews and analyses, from a temporal or procedural point of view, the role granted to the tourist experience by tourism supply managers. The historical analysis is organised into three broad periods in each of which the evolution of the meaning given to experience, the tourism market approach and value creation in tourism supply are examined. The first period, which extends up to the 1990s, is characterised by the relocation of tourists to the centre of the tourism system. For the purposes of this discussion, tourists are understood as clients to whom products and services must be offered and given by providing as much added value as possible. The second period, referred to here as the ‘design of emotional products for guests’, occurs during the last decade of the twentieth century and responds to the so-called first generation experience economy in which tourist experience products and services are offered, and the creation of added value is achieved by selling memorable experiences. Finally, the third period, entitled ‘co-creation of experiences and emotions’, covers the first decade of the twenty-first century, when the tourist no longer has a passive role. It raises a ‘second generation experience economy’ characterised by a tendency to provide the opportunity for co-creating and living meaningful tourist experiences. The market focus has shifted from ‘what I offer to you’ to ‘what you want to experience’, so that the tourist is no longer a consumer and becomes a colleague, a partner, a friend who should be taken into consideration when producing tourist experiences. As a consequence, the tourist experience product/service value chain is superseded by the tourist experience value chain.
