Exploring Person-Centered Tourist Engagement: An Experiential Tourism Research Approach

Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Dr. Jessica Yuan is an associate professor in the Department of Hospitality and Retail Management at Texas Tech University. She has published extensively on hospitality and tourism related topics in a wide array of refereed journals and books. Her research interests include experiential tourism, wine tourism development, and tourists’ memorable experience.

Abstract (150 Words)

Tourism has been changing from product/service centric to a more experiential person-centered approach. The destinations and activities that individual tourists choose are very dependent upon unique interests and personal idiosyncrasies. These changing traveling interests and desires are creating an imminent paradigm shift within the tourism industry from traditional service hospitality to person-centered (co-created) full-tourist engagement across multiple stages of travel. This research paper focuses on addressing the eminent gaps in tourism research that revolve around the individualization of experiences. By focusing on an interdisciplinary exploration of the complexity of the experiential tourism phenomenon, we anticipate developing more in-depth understanding of a person-centered tourism perspective. Through this study, we propose to (1) test a person-centered tourist engagement scale, and (2) describe and substantiate the attributes that contribute to tourists’ engagement or feelings of belongingness as they experience tourism activities.

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Exploring Person-Centered Tourist Engagement: An Experiential Tourism Research Approach

Tourism has been changing from product/service centric to a more experiential person-centered approach. The destinations and activities that individual tourists choose are very dependent upon unique interests and personal idiosyncrasies. These changing traveling interests and desires are creating an imminent paradigm shift within the tourism industry from traditional service hospitality to person-centered (co-created) full-tourist engagement across multiple stages of travel. This research paper focuses on addressing the eminent gaps in tourism research that revolve around the individualization of experiences. By focusing on an interdisciplinary exploration of the complexity of the experiential tourism phenomenon, we anticipate developing more in-depth understanding of a person-centered tourism perspective. Through this study, we propose to (1) test a person-centered tourist engagement scale, and (2) describe and substantiate the attributes that contribute to tourists’ engagement or feelings of belongingness as they experience tourism activities.