ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the unique dimensions of holiday experiences. It sets the scene by showing the extent to which holidays take place outside consumers’ ordinary living conditions, and how they fulfil the need to leave behind everyday life and its various frustrations. This chapter will first go back to the roots of tourist demand, not only the need to escape daily life and its most fundamental frustrations but also how holidays liberate consumers from their cultural constraints (also called liminality). How holidays allow individuals to reconnect with their authentic selves is detailed, including how personality shapes the capacity to immerse oneself into a holiday context. The process of entering the holiday experience and its immersive essence is addressed along with emmersion, the unfortunate ejection from the immersive holiday feeling. Some research specifics are presented to understand how experiences can be investigated.
