Research Paper
Conceptualising technology enhanced destination experiences
Barbara Neuhofer n
, Dimitrios Buhalis, Adele Ladkin
eTourismLab, School of Tourism, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, United Kingdom
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 9 May 2012
Accepted 14 August 2012
Available online 18 October 2012
Keywords:
Destination
Marketing
Experience
Co-creation
Information and communication
technologies
a b s t r a c t
The notion of creating rich and memorable experiences for consumers constitutes a prevalent concept
in the tourism industry. With the proliferation of destination choices and increasing competition, it has
become critical for destinations to find innovative ways to differentiate their products and create
experiences that provide distinct value for the tourist. However, currently two major paradigm shifts
are drastically changing the nature of experiences, the understanding of which is crucial for
destinations to create successful experiences in the future. Experiences are transforming as
(a) consumers now play an active part in co-creating their own experiences and (b) technology is
increasingly mediating experiences. Despite the amount of literature recognising the impact of
technology on experiences, a holistic conceptualisation of this change is missing. This paper thus
raises the need to conflate the two-fold paradigm shift and calls for new reflections on the creation of
experiences. The aim is to explore technology as a source of innovation to co-create enhanced
destination experiences. The paper contributes on three levels: by introducing and conceptualising a
new experience creation paradigm entitled Technology Enhanced Destination Experiences, by proposing
an extended destination experience co-creation space in the pre/during/post phases of travel and by
discussing managerial implications of this development for the future creation and management of
experiences in a destination context.
& 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Destinations are considered as the core of the travel and
tourism industry (Fyall & Leask, 2007). A destination constitutes
an amalgam of tourism products and services, which conjointly
provide an integrated experience to tourist consumers and form
an entity under the umbrella of a destination (Buhalis, 2000).
They are also portrayed as a unit of action (Saraniemi & Kyl¨anen,
2011) in which different individuals, stakeholders, and parties
involved collaboratively deliver the destination product (Fyall,
Garrod & Tosun, 2006). Due to their complexity and multielemental
structure, destination marketing and management
constitute a challenging endeavour (Buhalis, 2000), as destinations
are one of the most difficult products to manage and market
(Fyall & Leask, 2007). As the tourism industry is becoming
increasingly competitive, destinations seek ways to advance their
market position and sustainability (Ritchie & Crouch, 2003). It is
expected that even more challenges for destination marketing
and management will emerge in the coming decade. Destination
marketing organisations (DMOs) play a key role in the marketing
of a tourism destination (Blain, Levy & Ritchie, 2005). With a
magnitude of tourism locations and attractions on offer, all
organised to target tourist consumers, DMOs are faced with
intensified competition (Stamboulis & Skayannis, 2003). Therefore,
Hudson and Ritchie (2009) suggest that differentiation is
key, as the tangible and intangible attributes of a destination,
such as scenery, attractions, heritage and local people are no
longer sufficient to distinguish from destinations competing with
similar assets. Hence, with the proliferation of destination choices
(Buhalis, 2000), DMOs need to find means to differentiate themselves,
attract consumers and offer distinct value.
In this regard, Morgan, Elbe and de Esteban Curiel (2009)
emphasise the importance of the experience economy concept
within the marketing and management of destinations. Experiences
have been utilised as a popular construct in destination
positioning (Oh, Fiore & Jeoung, 2007). In a market where global
competition has turned products and services into commodities,
competitive advantage could only be gained by reducing the
substitutability of offers (Hudson & Ritchie, 2009) and providing
consumers with unique and memorable experiences (Morgan,
Lugosi & Ritchie, 2010). However, with the growth of the
experience economy, Pine and Gilmore (1999) emphasise that
only those providing compelling and rich experiences will be able
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jdmm
Journal of Destination Marketing & Management
2212-571X/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2012.08.001
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ44 1202 965 046; fax: þ44 1202 515 707.
E-mail addresses: bneuhofer@bournemouth.ac.uk (B. Neuhofer),
dbuhalis@bournemouth.ac.uk (D. Buhalis),
aladkin@bournemouth.ac.uk (A. Ladkin).
Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 1 (2012) 36–46
to remain in the market. Destinations have to find innovative
ways to create desirable experiences for the tourist (Morgan et al.,
2009). One critical way for destinations to do so is to understand
the latest developments and changes in the area of experience
creation.
Two major paradigm shifts have been challenging the current
understanding of the tourism experience. First, the traditional
experience economy has been increasingly replaced by the notion
of experience co-creation, which recognises active consumers
co-creating their experiences in a quest for personal growth and
value (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a). Second, more recently,
there has been evidence that tourism experiences are not only cocreated
but increasingly technology-mediated (Tussyadiah &
Fesenmaier, 2009). This enables tourists to create richer experiences
(Gretzel & Jamal, 2009) and empowers them to co-create
their own experiences (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a). With the
dynamics of empowered consumers and proliferating technologies,
traditional roles, structures and processes in experience
creation have changed. Nevertheless, existing literature seems
to have insufficiently addressed these changes and scholars
testify a major gap in the understanding of the role of technology
inherent in the tourism experience (Beeton, Bowen & Santos,
2006; Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier, 2007). This paper thus raises the
need to combine this two-fold paradigm shift and calls for new
reflections on the creation and management of experiences in a
destination context, which are determined by
1. A shift from passively consuming to actively engaged tourists
co-creating their own experiences.
2. A shift towards using technology to co-create enhanced experiences
with tourist consumers.
To this end, the paper aims to contribute by exploring the
transformational impact of technology on experience co-creation
and developing a holistic conceptualisation of a new destination
experience concept entitled Technology Enhanced Destination
Experiences. The paper first discusses the evolution in the experience
economy, from the staging of experiences for the consumer
to co-creating experiences with the consumer. Second, a review of
the dynamic advances of technology in the tourism experience
will provide new insights into understanding the role information
and communication technologies play in the co-creation of
experiences. The paper concludes by presenting the integrated
concept of Technology Enhanced Destination Experiences and
discussing managerial implications of this development for the
future creation and management of experiences in a destination
context.
2. Theoretical background
2.1. Tourism experience economy
Experiences have always constituted an important notion in
both research and practice (Uriely, 2005). This has been reflected in
the great body of literature (MacCannell, 1973; Csikszentmihalyi,
1975; Cohen, 1979; Mannell & Iso-Ahola, 1987; Ryan, 1997), which
established the theoretical context of the experience concept.
The term experience, originally noted in the 1960s, covers a
multiplicity of definitions (Moscardo, 2009). Traditionally, experience
has been defined as a personal occurrence with highly
emotional significance obtained from the consumption of products
and services (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). In the specific context
of tourism, early conceptual delimitations of tourism experiences
postulated the need for differentiation due to their distinctiveness
from mundane, everyday life experiences (MacCannell, 1973;
Turner & Ash, 1975; Cohen, 1979). Drawing from an abundance
of definitional attempts, the tourism experience can be defined,
for instance, as a sensation resulting from interaction (Gupta
& Vajic, 2000), as an outcome of participation within a social
context (Lewis & Chambers, 2000), or the moment of value creation
when tourism production and consumption meet (Andersson,
2007). Thereby, the individual, emotional, physical, intellectual
and spiritual engagement in the experience (Mossberg, 2007) is
significant enough to be translated into long-term memory
(Larsen, 2007).
Despite the fact that there exists a plethora of definitions in
numerous scientific fields (Walls, Okumus, Wang & Kwun, 2011),
a general consensus in literature is lacking and the exact definition
of an experience remains elusive (Jennings et al., 2009).
Nonetheless, common agreement exists that the experience concept
is key to understanding consumer behaviour (Addis &
Holbrook, 2001) and represents a fundamental concept in marketing
(Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982) and the experience economy
(Pine & Gilmore, 1999). At the beginning of the 21st century,
tourism experiences have received renewed attention which is
manifested in state-of-the-art literature (Cutler & Carmichael,
2010; Gouthro, 2010; Morgan et al., 2010; Sharpley & Stone,
2010; Kim, Ritchie & McCormick, 2011; Tung & Ritchie, 2011),
attesting the perpetual interest in and unabated relevance of the
tourism experience concept (Quan & Wang, 2004; Morgan et al.,
2010).
Society has undergone a profound shift over the past decades,
as people have abandoned the idea of buying products and
services but rather seek to buy experiences gained from the
consumption of products and services (Morgan et al., 2010).
At the turn of the 21st century, this shift has led to the
contemporaneous emergence of various notions, labelled as the
dream society (Jensen, 1999), the entertainment economy (Wolf,
1999), the experience economy (Pine & Gilmore, 1999), and
creative tourism (Richards & Raymond, 2000). Pine and Gilmore
(1999) with their seminal contribution shaped the prevailing
term ‘‘experience economy’’. The managerial interest in the
experience economy was particularly triggered by the importance
of delivering experiences, as conventional products and services
have become replicated, interchangeable, and commoditised
(Morgan et al., 2010). In the present market, characterised by
increasing globalisation, deregulation and convergence of industries
and technologies, companies have been attempting to
differentiate their offers (Binkhorst & Den Dekker, 2009). The
idea of providing consumers with compelling experiences (Pine &
Gilmore, 1999) and thereby creating added value for them
(Gr¨onroos, 2000), was proposed as the key to competitive advantage
and success.
Pine and Gilmore (1999) conceptualised the progression of
economic value, depicting the transformation from the production
of commodities and goods, provision of services to the
staging of experiences. Experiences represent the ultimate
objective in the ladder: while commodities are fungible, goods
tangible and services intangible, experiences are memorable.
The progression of value is to stage experiences, whereby
‘staging experiences is not about entertaining customers; it’s
about engaging them’ (Pine & Gilmore, 1999, p. 30). Therefore,
marketers need to create staged events that engage individuals
in a personal and memorable way (Arnould, Price & Zinkhan,
2002). As a result, Pine and Gilmore (1999) emphasised that
companies do not compete in terms of market price but rather
in terms of the distinctive value of an experience provided.
With consumers striving for high value and their willingness to
pay a high price for obtaining great value, the strategic
production of experiences has become a worthwhile concept
for businesses (Darmer & Sundbo, 2008).
B. Neuhofer et al. / Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 1 (2012) 36–46 37
2.2. Shift towards experience co-creation
Binkhorst and Den Dekker (2009) point out that despite its
popularity, the experience economy theory has received a considerable
amount of criticism since its proposition in the late
1990s. The creation of experiences has traditionally been treated
as a one-directed approach, meaning that experiences are created
by the company for the consumer. The company has been
regarded as the focal point of the experience production guided
by the economic interest of how to increase the turnover by
selling experiences as de-materialised commodities (Stamboulis
& Skayannis, 2003; Darmer & Sundbo, 2008). This merely
business-oriented idea of staging experiences is however strongly
inspired by industrialisation and determined by economic values
and capitalist thinking (Boswijk, Thijssen & Peelen, 2007). With a
radical shift in the company-consumer relationship taking place,
these traditional views have been increasingly challenged
(Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a). The staging of experiences is
now considered to be too commercial and superficial, and thus
not appropriate to reflect the needs and wants of contemporary
consumers (Boswijk et al., 2007).
In recent years, society has undergone a transformation towards
the centricity of individuals and their human experiences (Prahalad
& Ramaswamy, 2004a). Consumers have become increasingly
informed, active and powerful which has induced a major change
in the industrial system (Ramaswamy, 2009a). This has led to the
emergence of a ‘‘prosumer society’’, reflecting the notion of consumers
being actively involved in both the process of consumption
and production (Ritzer & Jurgenson, 2010). While the concept of
prosumption has existed for many years, it has particularly
flourished through the social changes brought by the Internet
and Web 2.0 (Ritzer & Jurgenson, 2010). With the empowerment
of the Internet, consumers are no longer static market targets but
now dictate the way they want to receive and respond to
information (King, 2002). Hence, prosumers are encouraged more
than ever before to play an active part in shaping the nature
of their consumption through engaging in the production.
Co-creation builds on this very principle and puts the focus back
on consumers, their respective needs and wants and the question
of how companies can meet these (Ramaswamy & Gouillart, 2008).
This novel mindset has especially been brought forward by
Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004a), who ascribe a much bigger
role to individuals as prosumers and co-creators of the experience.
Instead of consuming staged experiences, consumers now strive for
more authenticity and expect a balance between the experience
stager and the freedom to co-create their own experiences
(Binkhorst, 2006; Ramaswamy & Gouillart, 2008).
This has transformed the company-consumer relationship and
has changed the understanding of how experiences are now
created and consumed (Boswijk et al., 2007). In the experience
co-creation mindset, the individual human being, rather than the
company, is regarded as the starting point of the experience
(Binkhorst & Den Dekker, 2009). In the traditional relation, the
roles of companies and consumers in the production and consumption
were distinct (Ramaswamy, 2011). As consumers have
transformed into prosumers and co-creators of their experiences,
this simplistic consumption exchange process is challenged. The
new market constitutes a collective, collaborative and dynamic
forum of interaction between individuals, companies and consumer
communities. In this space, the roles of consumers and
companies converge as they engage in a mutual interaction
(Ramaswamy, 2011). Companies therefore need to create a forum
to enter into a dialogue with their consumers to co-create
experiences and value (Binkhorst & Den Dekker, 2009). At the
same time, it is crucial for companies to allow for an environment
that facilitates not only its interactions with consumers, but also
allows for interactions among consumers. A growing body of
literature highlights that customer-to-customer interactions
become an integral part of co-creation experiences (Gruen,
Osmonbekov & Czaplewski, 2007; Baron & Harris, 2010; Huang
& Hsu, 2010).
These advances in the way how experiences are created and by
whom underline the paradigm shift that has transformed the
traditional understanding of experiences. With increasing dissatisfaction
of researchers with existing, predominantly goodscentric
and transaction-based models, co-creation provides an
invaluable paradigm in the field of marketing which is reflected in
the amount of literature discussing this novel idea (Prahalad &
Ramaswamy, 2004a; Vargo & Lusch, 2004; Edvardsson, Enquist
& Johnston, 2005; Payne, Storbacka & Frow, 2008; Ramaswamy &
Gouillart, 2008; Binkhorst & Den Dekker, 2009; Ramaswamy,
2009a, 2009b; Huang & Hsu, 2010; Ramaswamy, 2011). In
addition to co-creation determining the nature of contemporary
experiences, currently, a second major factor appears to impact
upon experiences, namely technology (Prahalad & Ramaswamy,
2004a).
2.3. Impact of ICTs on the experience
One of the most far-reaching changes to society in the 21st
century is the proliferation of information and communication
technologies (ICTs). The technological advancements of the past
years have not only had a great impact on society and people’s
everyday lives (Crouch & Desforges, 2003), but have also determined
the way various sectors, including the tourism industry,
operate (Buhalis, 2003; Middleton, Fyall, Morgan & Ranchhod,
2009). As one of the fastest growing industries in the world, the
travel and tourism industry has always been at the forefront of
technology (Sheldon, 1997) and has taken advantage of the
synergies between technology and tourism (Buhalis & Law, 2008).
The role of ICTs in the tourism industry is varied. For instance,
technology has been ascribed a key role in the operation,
structure and strategies of tourism organisations (Buhalis, 2003;
Buhalis & Law, 2008), a central element in the innovation of
products, processes and management (Hjalager, 2010), and an
enabler of opportunities for tourism organisations to attract and
retain visitors (Werthner & Klein, 1999).
Considering this impact, it is unquestioned that the technological
developments imply numerous challenges (Benckendorff,
Moscardo & Murphy, 2005; Gretzel, Fesenmaier, Formica &
O’Leary, 2006) and at the same time, offer great potential for its
implementation in the present and future (Wang, Fesenmaier,
Werthner & W¨ober, 2010). The advent of technology has not only
caused radical changes (Cetinkaya, 2009) but has revolutionised
the very nature of the tourism industry. Its pervasive adoption
throughout the industry has brought fundamental implications
for the way travel is planned (Buhalis & Law, 2008) and the tourism
product is created and consumed (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2003;
Stamboulis & Skayannis, 2003). This is particularly true for the case
of tourism experiences. As early as 1998, Pine and Gilmore
remarked that emerging technologies would generate new types
of experiences via tools such as interactive games, chat rooms or
virtual realities. Indeed, since their work in the 1990s, experiences
have been profoundly affected by the plethora of ICTs.
As in many other industries, the arrival of the Internet with its
multiple purposes inherent as a source of information, user
generated content and platform for interaction has played a
particularly critical role in changing the tourism industry
(Buhalis & Law, 2008; Schmallegger & Carson, 2008). It has
fostered the new prosuming tourist, who is more knowledgeable
and empowered in the search for experiences and extraordinary
value (Buhalis & Law, 2008). The subsequent emergence of the
B. Neuhofer et al. / Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 1 (2012) 36–4638
Web 2.0 and social media has implied even more drastic changes
for the tourism industry by turning the Internet into an immense
space of social networking and collaboration of users (Sigala,
2009). The Web 2.0 has been portrayed as ‘a set of economic,
social, and technological trends that collectively form the basis for
the next generation of the Internet—a more mature, distinctive
medium characterised by user participation, openness, and network
efforts’ (O’Reilly, 2006, p. 4).
In this context, social media have gained immediate popularity,
as ‘a group of Internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that
allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content’
(Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p.61). Recent studies describe the
adoption and potential of social media in the tourism industry as
enormous (Miguens, Baggio & Costa, 2008; Schmallegger & Carson,
2008; Fotis, Buhalis & Rossides, 2011; Dwivedi, Yadav & Venkatesh,
2012; Hays, Page & Buhalis, In press). Besides the impact of the
Web 2.0, the development of mobile technologies has caused one
of the most significant changes to tourists experiencing travel.
The advances of the mobile market are highly relevant to tourism,
as one of the industries that can use the advantages of the mobile
information medium most (Brown & Chalmer, 2003; Umlauft,
Pospischil, Niklfeld & Michlmayr, 2003). Due to their ubiquity,
constant connectivity and access to information anywhere and
anytime (Green, 2002), mobile technologies have led to a behavioural
transformation of tourists from ‘‘sit and search’’ to ‘‘roam
and receive’’ (Pihlstr¨om, 2008). Hence, Bouwman et al. (2012)
claim that mobile services bring the Web even closer to consumers
by enabling information retrieval anywhere at any time. Considering
these developments, it is evident that ICTs had a major impact
on consumer experiences (Kim & Ham, 2007; Law, Leung & Buhalis,
2009) and particularly on tourism experiences, as confirmed by
multiple studies in the past (Crouch & Desforges, 2003; Stamboulis
& Skayannis, 2003; Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier, 2007, 2009).
Yet, it appears that most of them have only touched upon
technology by recognising its impact and importance or by
exemplifying single scenarios of use in the context of the tourism
experience (e.g. Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a; Binkhorst & Den
Dekker, 2009; Ramaswamy, 2009a). Darmer and Sundbo (2008)
and Gretzel and Jamal (2009) however claim that ICTs will support
new types of activities which will transform existing and lead to
new types of tourism experiences. With the dynamics of ICTs
changing the creation and consumption of the tourism experience,
destinations are thus facing a major paradigm shift (Buhalis & Law,
2008). With technology in use, tourists have transformed from
passive recipients to connected prosumers co-creating their experiences
in a technology enabled destination environment (Prahalad
& Ramaswamy, 2004a; Gretzel, Fesenmaier & O’Leary, 2006;
Andersson, 2007). Huang and Hsu (2010) argue that it is crucial
to capture these changes, whereby it is not the technological
development on functional terms per se but rather the integration
of technology into experiences which is of interest (Darmer &
Sundbo, 2008). Therefore, it is the purpose of this paper to understand
these dynamics, implied changes and underlying potential to
introduce a new concept for the creation, marketing, and management
of destinations experiences.
3. Conceptualising technology enhanced destination
experiences
3.1. Co-creating destination experiences
In the context of destinations, marketing and management
have mainly focused on targeting the products and services a
destination has to offer to a mass market (King, 2002). Hitherto,
DMOs have predominantly been operating in traditional processes,
driven by political, governmental and regional interests
to balance the needs of stakeholders (Buhalis, 2000), while
ignoring the needs and wants of consumers. Due to the proclaimed
shift in the relationship between providers and consumers
(Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a), the dynamics of the
market have however changed. It is critical to overcome conventional
strategies, avoid serial production of experiences and allow
for more freedom and meaningful experiences in an equal relation
between tourists and the destination (Richards & Raymond,
2000). With tourists being able to choose from a wide range of
destinations competing worldwide, destinations need new strategies
to accommodate the changed conditions to create contemporary,
compelling experiences.
Yet, King (2002) argues that despite common claims that more
consumer-centric approaches have been adopted, most DMOs are
still slow to adapt to these changed conditions. Until recently,
tourism was dominated by a company-centric view in which
tourists were allocated a passive role and neglected in the design
and creation of experiences (Ek, Larsen, Hornskov & Mansfeldt,
2008). However, with consumers taking over the process of
co-creation (Boswijk et al., 2007), destinations need to realise
that conventional experience creation processes have become
obsolete. As a result, the rules of the game have changed and
new realities for destination marketing have emerged. These
create a completely new point of departure upon which DMOs
now need to act (King, 2002). Thus, for destinations to succeed
it is critical to fully understand (a) who is involved in the
co-creation of experiences and value, and (b) where and how
experiences can be co-created in the context of a destination.
The starting point for DMOs is to acknowledge the individual
tourist (Binkhorst & Den Dekker, 2009). Tourism organisations
need to abandon their outdated approaches of targeting a mass
market, abdicate their role as the experience producer, and
manage to involve tourists in co-creating destination experiences
instead (King, 2002). Destinations need to realise the creative
potential of making tourists active participants in the destination
setting. This implies that not only tourists are actively, dynamically
and creatively involved in the experience but the destination
itself needs to find creative ways to allow for such experiences to
occur (Richards & Raymond, 2000). To fully embrace this dynamic
state, tourists therefore need to be recognised in multiple roles as
co-producers of the experience (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a),
co-creators of value (Ek et al., 2008; Payne et al., 2008) and coconstructors
of the experience space (Mossberg, 2007). For the
specific context of destinations this implies that tourists do not
only create their own experiences but become central in the
creation of the overall tourist space, i.e. the destination they are
immersed in.
Tourists do not experience the destination space in isolation
but rather interact with tourism suppliers, their friends and
families and other co-consumers in a dynamic experience
co-creation space. Thereby, co-construction of destination space
occurs when tourists are co-creating on a collective level through
tourist practices, performances, events, activities or learning experiences
they are participating in. Examples of co-creation practice
include geocaching, an interactive co-creation experience in a
destination space performed by co-consumers; or culinary trails
and events across a destination which allow tourists to play an
active part in the event to become co-creators of the experience and
the overall experience space themselves. In light of this development,
Tung and Ritchie (2011, p.1369) underline that organisations
should ‘facilitate the development of an environment (i.e., the
destination) that enhances the likelihood that tourists can create
their own memorable tourism experiences’. As DMOs can only
create prerequisites for an experience, they need to facilitate a space
B. Neuhofer et al. / Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 1 (2012) 36–46 39
that is attractive and compelling and allows for valuable experiences
to be created (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2003). This space should
constitute an interactive forum for multiple players, with the
tourism consumer as the focal point of the experience, who cocreates
with tourism suppliers and co-consumers the experience,
value and space in the specific context of the destination. The overall
experience co-creation space is depicted in Fig. 1.
Facilitating the experience co-creation space is paramount for
destinations to allow tourists to create experiences and in turn
value, which is key to fostering growth and innovation, and
unravel sources of competitive advantage (Shaw, Bailey &
Williams, 2011). This is of particular importance to destinations,
which by their very nature operate in a highly competitive market
(Hudson & Ritchie, 2009). With the proliferation of destination
choices (Buhalis, 2000), it is more important than ever before for
DMOs to innovate by providing compelling experience and value
propositions. For this reason, experience co-creation has been
proposed as indispensable to developing a zone of strategic
differentiation (Ramaswamy & Gouillart, 2008).
Nevertheless, Pine and Gilmore (1999) warn that with experience
propositions becoming multiplied, only those continuously
creating innovative experiences will be able to remain in the
market. As the concept of experience co-creation is gaining
popularity in the tourism industry (Binkhorst & Den Dekker,
2009), it can be argued that co-creation represents the new
benchmark of experience creation. Although still novel in
thought and application, tourism businesses need to find more
innovative ways to add value to co-creation in order to stand
out from the competition. This is essential for destinations
which, due to the dynamic and fast changing nature of the
tourism industry, must innovate at an accelerated pace (Zach,
Gretzel & Xiang, 2010).
Beyond traditional co-creation, this paper posits that technology
needs to be considered as the key instrument to innovate and
enhance co-creation and thereby create richer experiences and
add value for the consumer. Buhalis and Law (2008) state that
technology is an integral element for the competitiveness of
businesses in the tourism industry, which is supported by
Cetinkaya (2009) and Zach et al. (2010) who affirm that the
adoption of ICTs provides a main source of competitive advantage.
In line with van Limburg (2012), the co-creation space must
be open for the opportunities brought by emerging technologies
through which competitiveness by better co-creation of value can
be achieved (Shaw et al., 2011). To take the lead in experience
creation, DMOs need to not master co-creation, and additionally,
realise the potential of technology as a strategic instrument to cocreate
enhanced destination experiences and distinct value.
3.2. Technology enhanced destination experiences
ICTs become increasingly implemented in the co-creation of
tourism experiences. As previously indicated, technology has
drastically affected DMOs in the ways in which business is
conducted and above all, how consumers interact with the
organisation (Buhalis, 2003). The Internet in particular holds
great potential as a vehicle for co-creation. It is a facilitator that
allows tourists to better communicate and interact (Buhalis &
Law, 2008) and destinations to establish closer relationships
with tourists (Buhalis & Licata, 2002). Numerous studies (e.g.
Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier, 2007; Binkhorst & Den Dekker, 2009;
Gretzel & Jamal, 2009; Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier, 2009) attest
that ICTs support experience co-creation in a number of
different ways.
For instance, websites, portable city guides, travel guides,
virtual life or hotel room enhancement (Binkhorst & Den Dekker,
2009) are all cutting-edge examples of technology enhancing the
experience. From the variety of ICTs available, the Web 2.0 can be
considered as one of the most relevant technological developments
in relation to co-creation, as according to Sigala (2009, p. 1345), it
‘enables online consumers to become co-marketers, co-producers,
and co-designers of their service experiences by providing them
a wide spectrum of value’. The plethora of social interaction tools
available in the Web 2.0, including blogs, videos, wikis, fora, chat
rooms or podcasts, encourage individuals to co-create their
Fig. 1. Co-creating the destination experience.
Source: Based on Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a, p.11.
B. Neuhofer et al. / Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 1 (2012) 36–4640
experiences with others more than ever before (Ramaswamy,
2009a). Dwivedi et al. (2012) highlight that social media sites,
such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Flickr, enable DMOs and
tourists to build a platform to interact, comment and share their
experiences, and build a sense of experience community (Hays
et al., In press).
With new forms of ICTs emerging over the coming years,
co-creation is expected to flourish further (Etgar, 2008). Thus, the
question is not whether technology impacts on the experience
(Buhalis & Law, 2008; Law et al., 2009), but rather, how technology
changes the destination experience and how to use its full potential
to enhance the co-creation of destination experiences, generate
added value and in turn competitive advantage. In order to act upon
this change, DMOs need to understand the use of ICTs in experience
co-creation. For this purpose, the paper suggests to compartmentalise
the experience creation process to develop a detailed understanding
of where and how to use technology alongside the
different stages of travel.
3.2.1. Technology enhanced experience co-creation space
By integrating technology, this paper posits that experience
co-creation is taken to a whole new dimension. Due to the
increasing force of the Internet, ubiquitous connectivity of mobile
technologies, and engaging nature of social media, there is now
evidence that interactions between companies and individuals
have ‘exploded on an unprecedented scale everywhere in the
value creation system’ (Ramaswamy, 2009a, p. 17). This means
that ICTs, by accompanying the tourist with any device, anywhere,
anytime, are dispersing interactions by introducing new
possibilities to co-create experiences everywhere along the value
creation system, i.e., the whole customer journey. The tourism
experience has been widely represented as a multi-phase phenomenon
in terms of its chronological or temporal nature
(Clawson & Knetch, 1966; Arnould & Price, 1993; Craig-Smith &
French, 1994). The experience is not restricted to a single service
encounter on-site but consists of a pre, during and post travel
stage (Stickdorn & Zehrer, 2009). For destinations this implies
that the experience begins long before the actual encounter in the
experience space, i.e. destination, and continues long after the
return of the tourist to the home environment (Green, 2002;
Gretzel, Fesenmaier, Formica, O’Leary, 2006; Gretzel & Jamal,
2009; Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier, 2009; Huang, Backman &
Backman, 2010; Fotis et al., 2011).
Technologies are central to the whole travel, as they are used
from the anticipatory stage, through the destination on-site, to the
recollection phase (Gretzel & Jamal, 2009; Tussyadiah &
Fesenmaier, 2009). In this process, ICTs support tourists throughout
various activities, such as preliminary information search, comparison,
decision making, travel planning, communication, retrieval of
information and post-sharing of experiences. Depending on their
respective needs, tourists employ a wide range of tools, such as
websites, travel blogs, recommendation systems, virtual communities
or mobile technologies to facilitate and enhance these actions
(Gretzel et al., 2006; Buhalis & Law, 2008). With technology being
present in all stages, the traditional experience co-creation space, as
postulated by Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004a), undergoes a
significant change. Beyond the co-creation space on-site, ICTs
unclose a new space in the pre- and post-travel stages, where the
destination, tourism suppliers, tourists and networks of consumer
communities interact, not only in a physical but also in a virtual
experience co-creation space.
1. Pre travel: virtual experience co-creation
According to Gretzel and Jamal (2009), the pre-phase is
characterised as an actively involved and socially intense
phase. Due to the emergence of the Internet, social media, and
virtual worlds tourists are able to experience and assess a
destination before their physical travel. Social media, such as
Facebook, YouTube or TripAdvisor, allow individuals to experience
the destination and live experiences of other consumers,
by engaging with both their own social circles and unknown
co-consumers. Moreover, virtual environments, among the
most popular, Second Life, have become attractive platforms
for destinations to represent products and services in a threedimensional
online world (Huang et al., 2010). The embodiment
through avatars enables tourists to experience the
destination in both the pre- or post-phase of their holiday
(Gretzel & Jamal, 2009). The pre-travel phase is crucial as
tourists explore, seek inspiration and interact with the destination.
Huang et al. (2010) thus emphasise the opportunities
for destinations to use technology to facilitate immersive
virtual environments in which they can co-create with tourists
and thereby enhance their experiences before their journey
commences.
2. On-site destination: physical and virtual experience co-
creation.
The actual travel phase, often referred to as the on-site phase
in the physical tourism destination, is determined by the
tourist being on the move. Different technologies come into
use while the tourist is on the move, in transit or at the
destination. The increased mobility has rendered mobile
technologies key tools (Egger & Jooss, 2010), as these
enable information retrieval anywhere and anytime
(Balasubramanian, Peterson & Jarvenpaa, 2002). Mobile technologies,
such as location based services, offer instant access
to information, videos or recommendation sites relevant to
the current location. This offers opportunities for destinations
to connect, assist, and engage with the tourist in the online
environment on-site (Green, 2002).
The connection to social media sites such as Twitter allows
tourists to engage with the wider public in real time, share
current conditions in the destination and raise particular
demands, which destinations can address by co-creating with
them virtually. Moreover, mobile devices such as smart
phones allow tourists not only to take a photo for themselves
but immediately share their experiences with others while
experiencing them (Green, 2002). Destination experiences
hence reach new levels of interaction. While being immersed
in the physical destination setting, tourists not only co-create
their experiences with their immediate surrounding but also
engage with physically distant environments in which they
share and interact with friends, peers, tourism providers,
locals and other consumers. The on-site phase can thus be
considered as the most intriguing phase for DMOs, with
multiple levels of engagement that allow destinations to cocreate
experiences with the tourist in the physical and virtual
setting at the same time.
3. Post-travel: virtual experience co-creation.
In the post-travel stage, technologies help tourists enhance the
experience through recollection and remembering previously
undergone travel. Social media play a critical part in encouraging
tourists to interact and share their experiences online
(Gretzel & Jamal, 2009). Tussyadiah and Fesenmaier (2009)
argue that technologies that allow for sharing multimedia
content such as photographs and videos, with others are of
great importance. Likewise, travel review websites, such as
TripAdvisor, play an important role for tourists by post-sharing
their experiences, views, recommendations and suggestions
with likeminded individuals (Gretzel, Yoo & Purifoy, 2007).
The post-travel stage is therefore critical for destinations to
engage with former tourists in order to co-create their lived
B. Neuhofer et al. / Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 1 (2012) 36–46 41
experiences (Gretzel & Jamal, 2009). While reconstructing past
experiences, this stage simultaneously demarcates the beginning
of the dreaming stage of the next travel, where ideas and
inspiration for future holiday destinations are gathered (Fotis
et al., 2011).
3.2.2. Conceptual model: technology enhanced destination
experiences
ICTs have drastically changed the nature of the tourism
experience by empowering co-creation and extending the space
in which experiences can be co-created. Elaborating on the
foregone discussion this paper proposes a novel and holistic
conceptualisation of Technology Enhanced Destination Experiences
(Fig. 2). The key contribution of this model lies in (a) the
recognition of an extended destination experience co-creation
space (pre, during, post travel), (b) the distinction of two levels of
co-creation (physical and virtual co-creation) and (c) multiple
levels of engagement, i.e. the destination with the tourism consumer,
tourism suppliers, the social network, and co-consumers.
(a) Extended experience co-creation space
This paper goes beyond the traditional understanding of cocreation,
conceptualised as taking place in a marketplace
within the physical destination space (Prahalad &
Ramaswamy, 2004a). An extended experience co-creation
space is proposed that also includes co-creation processes in
the pre-travel and post-travel stages. Inversini and Buhalis
(2009) affirm that with the advent of the Internet, geographical
and cultural boundaries have continuously dissolved and have
enabled human beings to experience tourism products and
destinations without actually being in the place (Buhalis &
Law, 2008). By using technology, experiences are no longer
only created in the tourist space, but also in the context of
everyday life, reflecting both the anticipatory and recollection
stage of the tourist experience in the mundane environment
(Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier, 2009). This has caused a major
compression of space and time (Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier,
2009) and a blurring of boundaries between home and away
(Uriely, 2005; Gretzel & Jamal, 2009). This de-differentiation
leads to the recognition of an overall experience co-creation
space by considering the pre- and post-travel stages as an
extension of the on-site destination experience. As more
dynamic views of time and space are needed in the tourist
experience (Ek et al., 2008), this paper suggests that by using
ICTs as a facilitator, DMOs now operate in an extended physical
and virtual experience co-creation space.
(b) Physical and virtual co-creation
This conceptualisation suggests that there exists a virtual
space not only in the pre-travel and post-travel stages but
also in the on-site stage. With the adoption of mobile services,
tourists are connected to virtual channels, which add a virtual
layer to their physical movement in the destination. The onsite
destination experience is hence no longer limited to
engagement with the immediate physical surrounding.
Rather, it involves an interaction with the virtual environment
of the tourist, including a network of friends, tourism
suppliers and co-consumers, who are all inter-connected and
co-create the destination experience together. This implies
great opportunities for DMOs to enhance on-site experiences
in two ways. First, by engaging with tourists through virtual
platforms, DMOs can identify potential tourists’ needs and cocreate
by virtually providing real-time, personalised information
and recommendations to enhance tourists’ physical
destination experiences. As tourists are less willing to wait
or accept delays (Buhalis & Law, 2008), providing them with
information at the right time in the right place thus constitutes
an invaluable enhancement of the experience. Second,
DMOs can gather information in the virtual space and use it
Fig. 2. Conceptual model technology enhanced destination experiences.
B. Neuhofer et al. / Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 1 (2012) 36–4642
for enhancing experiences in the physical space. For instance,
by connecting with Foursquare, DMOs can use tourists’ checkins
to create surprises and incentives in the physical destination
experience. Considering these differences in the use of
co-creation spaces, this paper conceptually distinguishes
between a physical and a virtual co-creation space.
(c) Multiple levels of engagement
As technology unfolds new spaces of co-creation, multiple
individuals become connected. The use of Web 2.0 technologies
facilitates a collective virtual space in which the tourist
consumer is connected with a whole network of people,
including friends, family and peers. In addition to familiar
individuals, the tourist is also connected to a wider social
network of followers, visitors, tourists and fans, who enjoy
engaging, interacting and sharing experiences about a particular
destination online. With ICTs in place, this paper puts
forward multiple levels of engagement which go beyond the
dual business-to-consumer (BC2) or consumer-to-consumer
(C2C) terminology. This is in line with Prahalad and
Ramaswamy (2004b) who argue that with increasing levels
of interaction, I2N2I, a flow from individuals to the nodal firm
and its network and back to the individual, needs to be
recognised. In this vein, DMOs need to exploit the potential
of multiple levels of engagement by bringing the network of
individuals associated with the destination together and
encouraging them in the co-creation of their destination
experiences.
4. Implications for DMOs
The new conceptualisation aims to provide DMOs with a better
understanding of how two recent paradigm changes give rise to a
new concept, namely Technology Enhanced Destination Experiences.
It illuminates how recent developments have affected the
conditions of destination experience creation and suggests how
DMOs can use the full potential of co-creation and technology to
become leaders in the facilitation of successful destination experiences.
Having stressed the necessity to move from tourism
products to services and to providing experiences (Experience
Economy), onwards to the recognition of the consumer who
actively co-creates experiences with the destination (Experience
Co-Creation), the next crucial step is to innovate by facilitating and
enhancing experience co-creation through technology (Technology
Enhanced Experience). This leads to new perspectives for the
practice of marketing and management of destination experiences.
As a core element of the tourism industry, destinations need to
embrace the opportunities offered by emerging ICTs and start
facilitating an extended destination experience space on both
physical and virtual levels. In contrast to conventional, i.e., nontechnology-enabled
experiences, the integration of ICTs will help
tourists co-create better experiences (Prahalad & Ramaswamy,
2004a), generate richer experiences (Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier,
2007) and have more personalised experiences (Niininen, Buhalis
& March, 2007; Sandstr¨om, Edvardsson, Kristensson & Magnusson,
2008). This will lead to added value for the tourist and in turn
competitive advantage for the destination.
Technology hence needs to be regarded as the key instrument
for strategic innovation of co-creation and competitive positioning.
It is crucial that DMOs still focus on their core competencies,
products and experiences, but in addition to that, utilise ICTs in
order to maximise and enhance the co-created experience. The
role of the destination as the facilitator of the physical co-creation
space remains the same. What has changed significantly, however,
are the multiple spaces, levels of engagement and networks of
interaction that can now be exploited by DMOs.
To further strengthen the understanding and implications of
Technology Enhanced Destination Experiences for destination
practice, this paper wishes to draw attention to a number of
current best practice examples in the industry. Thailand can be
considered as a best practice example of a technology enhanced
destination experience in the virtual co-creation space, both
pre-travel and post-travel. Thailand’s DMO website features tools
such as videos, images and user-generated stories that particularly
enhance the virtual pre-travel experience by inspiring,
pre-living experiences and encouraging individuals to come to
Thailand. Additionally, Thailand focuses on customer-to-customer
co-creation by means of storytelling to engage tourists in their
post-travel phase to remember and share their experiences and at
the same time allow prospective tourists in their pre-travel stage
to get inspired by real-life stories. Montreal can be named as a
further best practice example, as it features an interactive video
on the website which takes tourists through different destination
experiences. As tourists actively control and interact with the
video, a high level of consumer involvement and co-creation with
the destination is achieved. The integration of interactivity not
only enables tourists to find better information but makes them
more engaged and inspired while increasing the likelihood of the
destination visit.
Besides these two successful examples, a number of additional
destinations need to be mentioned. For instance, Las Vegas
provides creative personal itineraries and idea generators,
New Zealand offers an interactive Trip planner with integrated
maps, price ranges, and types of activities to choose from. Cocreation
on a customer-to-customer level is specifically encouraged
by destinations such as Vancouver, which exemplifies the
value of customer engagement by integrating Tripadvisor in their
website. Similarly, the Canadian DMO website focuses on facilitating
customer-to-customer engagement with a feature called
‘‘Explore Canada like a local’’ which allows tourists to gather
advice from locals and travellers who know Canada. In this
regard, Visit Sweden can be named as a leader in co-creation
among consumers by developing a platform called ‘‘Community
of Sweden’’, which is entirely consumer-led and allows them to
interact and share experiences about their destination online.
While the majority of DMOs using ICTs focus on virtual pretravel
and post-travel elements, there is an increasing number of
destinations embracing the virtual co-creation space on-site.
Prominent examples include Visit England offering the ‘‘Enjoy
England’’ travel application, which allows tourists to gather ideas
and personalise their search according to indoor/outdoor activities,
must-see places and budget available. By allowing direct
connection to Facebook and Twitter, the live experience in the
destination can be shared with the social network of friends,
families and followers. In a similar vein, Hong Kong provides a
mobile application named ‘‘DiscoverHongKong Mobile App Series’’,
which was one of the first travel applications worldwide to
integrate augmented reality technology. Moreover, VisitBritain
offers ‘‘LoveUK’’, a mobile application which is completely consumer
generated by listing the top 100 locations of the UK ranked
by tourists’ Facebook check-ins. Hence, VisitBritain places travel
suggestions in the hands of tourism consumers who co-create by
determining the must-see places of a destination through their
collective behaviour and preferences.
The ways in which the above presented DMOs realise Technology
Enhanced Destination Experiences demonstrates the
importance of implementing ICTs to engage, co-create and
enhance the overall destination experience throughout all stages,
before, during and after travel. As leading destinations adopt ICTs,
it is increasingly important for all other destinations to keep up
with the dynamics of the market and innovate to remain
competitive. Therefore, destinations not yet embracing ICTs in
B. Neuhofer et al. / Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 1 (2012) 36–46 43
the creation of their experiences need to act as the future of the
innovative destination lies in the creation of technology enhanced
experiences.
5. Conclusion
The notion of creating experiences has become paramount for
successful destination marketing and management. Considering
that the competitiveness of destinations heavily relies on minimising
the interchangeability and replicability of tourism products
and services and on maximising the creation of rich
experiences (Pine & Gilmore, 1999), it is crucial for DMOs to gain
an in-depth understanding of the paradigm shifts changing the
conditions they are operating in. To that end, the present
paper set out to introduce and conceptualise Technology
Enhanced Destination Experiences. In reviewing the theoretical
background of the experience economy, experience co-creation
and ICTs, the paper has recognised two major shifts are profoundly
changing the nature of experiences and transforming
how destinations will create experiences: (a) tourists are cocreating
their own experiences, and (b) technology can be used to
co-create enhanced experiences. This paper aimed to address
questions that are critical for destinations wanting to understand
this new phenomenon on multiple levels, by answering who is cocreating,
where co-creation occurs and where and how technology
comes into play in the co-creation of enhanced destination
experiences.
Whilst most literature to date has focused on the creation of
experiences on-site, this paper goes further to suggest that
through technology experience co-creation can reach a new level.
By introducing the novel concept of Technology Enhanced Destination
Experiences it is argued that the plethora of ICTs, particularly
those enabled by mobile technologies and social media platforms,
allow DMOs to not only co-create experiences in the physical
destination space on-site but to extend experience co-creation
into a virtual space. This leads destinations to operate in a new
multi-phase experience co-creation space of a physical and virtual
nature in the pre-/during-/post- stages of travel. The paper
concludes that technology thus needs to be understood as the
main source of innovation, strategic differentiation and competitive
advantage for the successful co-creation of experiences in the
future. The successful destination of the future will therefore be
the one that strategically and effectively integrates ICTs in all
structures, communications and interactions to dynamically cocreate
technology enhanced destination experiences with tourists
in all travel stages.
To conclude, as Binkhorst and Den Dekker (2009) state, we are
only at the beginning of experience co-creation research in
tourism. This paper argued that this is even more the case in
research that focuses on using ICTs to co-create enhanced
experiences. This paper has contributed by providing an initial
conceptualisation of Technology Enhanced Destination Experiences.
Although by no means a final and complete conceptualisation,
it introduces novel thoughts on destination experience creation
that might serve as the first step in a new approach to experience
creation in theory and in practice. This study undoubtedly leaves
open many questions that are to be addressed in the future.
Building on the conceptual propositions of this paper, an agenda
for future research on technology enhanced experiences needs to
be set out to both strengthen the theoretical basis and extend
the implications for destination marketing and management.
To develop this new experience concept, empirical consumercentric
studies are needed to uncover how to use different types of
technologies to facilitate experience co-creation within destinations,
and how to exploit the virtual co-creation network of
tourism providers and consumers to maximise the co-creation
potential for enhanced destination experiences in the future.
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Barbara Neuhofer is a PhD Researcher at the eTourismLab at Bournemouth
University. Her research interests regard etourism, mobile tourism and the role of
ICT in the enhancement of tourism experiences.
Dimitrios Buhalis is a leading eTourism expert and Director of the eTourismLab,
Bournemouth University.
Adele Ladkin is Professor of Tourism Employment in the School of Tourism and
eTourismlab, Bournemouth University. Her research interests and publications are
in the areas of labour migration, tourism employment, and labour issues in the
tourism, hospitality and conference industries.
B. Neuhofer et al. / Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 1 (2012) 36–4646