ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to understand different elements that evolve around and during the experience. First, it addresses the complex question of communication strategies associated with tourist experiences. Communicating on an experience is indeed quite complex and subtle and this chapter investigates how companies and destinations can communicate efficiently on experiences. Beyond communicating, tourism actors also have a role to play in preparing consumers for the experience: providing necessary skills, communicating codes, giving inside information are all key elements that can help visitors boost their experience and achieve a deeper sense of attachment and emotion. They also need to understand how consumers immerse themselves in new consumption universes. Appropriation is a concept that investigates this process and helps tourism actors understand how they can create a better homey feeling for new visitors. Disconnection is a key outcome of immersion and a central one in tourist experiences, and this feeling can be boosted by optimal experiences, that touch consumers’ heart and spirit. Flow experiences have been studied for some time and certainly play a key role in leading the path to stronger emotions, disconnecting experiences that are necessarily more memorable. Optimal experiences are a broader concept that describes impactful experiences as being also meaningful and allowing individual growth. Looking beyond the consumption context, understanding the importance of the tourist experience in individuals’ lives through the notions of quality of life, wellbeing, eudaimonia, is also another strategic approach to analyze how experiences are impactful.
