Abstract

People do not buy products, or even services; they purchase the total experience that the product or service provides. Experience management is seen as the way to remain competitive in markets where globalisation and technology have turned products and services into commodities. This book draws together academic and practitioner insights into the consumer experience by combining the perspectives of the tourist consumer with that of experience managers, supported by examples from tourism, leisure, hospitality, sport and event contexts. With contributions from established and emerging international scholars, it is organised into three sections: understanding experiences, researching experiences and managing experiences. It aims to provide students, researchers and managers with a stimulating overview of the current research and managerial issues in the field and as well as a resource to guide their further reading.

Michael Morgan is Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University and leader of the MA European Tourism Management programme delivered by a consortium of European universities. He has written and contributed to several books on Leisure and Tourism Marketing, including the latest edition (2009) of Marketing in Travel and Tourism with Victor Middleton and Alan Fyall. His current research activities into the experience of tourism have included the editing of special editions of the International Journal of Tourism Research and the Journal of Foodservice.

Peter Lugosi is Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University. He has researched and published on a wide range of subjects including research ethics, hospitable spaces, consumer participation, hospitality and urban regeneration, entrepreneurship and organisational culture. His work appears in a number of journals including Qualitative Inquiry, Space and Culture, The Service Industries Journal and Urban Studies.

J. R. Brent Ritchie holds the Professorship in Tourism Management at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, and serves as Chair of the University of Calgary's World Tourism Education & Research Centre.

This book is arguably by far the most comprehensive compilation of qualitative methods in tourism research.It is a thoroughly enjoyable book and is highly recommended.

This book both represents an advance on Ryan's 'The Tourist Experience' and a response to Pine Jr and Gilmore's 'The Experience Economy' by offering both conceptual and empirical arguments about the central role of visitor experiences in tourism. This is done within a framework of differing research paradigms and managerial implications, but also it raises questions about our understandings of what will constitute tourism in the 21st century. To my mind tourism increasingly needs to be understood within new measures of mobility, migrant workers (professional and non-professional) and urban planning that brings together IT, recreation, leisure and new work patterns as well as conventional interpretations of tourism together in a new hybridity. This collection of papers helps us toward better understanding a new habitus of tourism.

The Tourism and Leisure Experience: Consumer and Managerial Perspectives makes an original contribution in the use of research philosophies which link existing literature with management and practical opportunities. The book will be useful for undergraduate students with an interest in research methodologies, postgraduate students and researchers in the range of methods and perspectives given consideration. The work extends understanding of research into experience encounters and provides a concise overview of developments in the field using a range of leisure and tourism examples.

A comprehensive exploration of the tourist experience, this book breaks new ground in conceptualising the topic. It proposes new and thoughtful research agendas and, through insightful case studies, reveals responses to the challenges of managing the tourist experience in a variety of contexts. An inspiring and essential read for those seeking a contemporary perspective on the subject.