Exploring the essence of memorable tourism experiences

The concept of the tourism experience has become a focal point for current tourism research and management. While academic studies are increasingly examining tourism as a function of memorable experiences (ME), more research most be done to uncover the essence of what exactly makes certain experiences special, spectacular, and fittingly, memorable. This study sought to explore the essence of MEs based on research from the field of psychology, with a view to understanding the cognitive processes that impede individuals from paying attention to their experiences, as well as the conceptual processes of memory formation and retention. In-depth interviews revealed four key dimensions of MEs: affect, expectations, consequentiality and recollection. Finally, we propose several avenues for future research on MEs.

► Integrates tourism experience literature with theory in psychology.
► Investigates the memorability of tourism experiences from a psychological standpoint.
► Four dimensions of memorable experiences were extracted via grounded theory.
► Practical implications of the findings are discussed.