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RCPT 428:  Tourism and Event Marketing

Credit Hours: (3)

Instructional Method Three hours lecture

Note(s): A (Cultural or Behavioral Analysis) Area

Experiential travel, also known as immersion travel, is a form of tourism in which people focus on experiencing a country, city or particular place by actively and meaningfully engaging with its history people, culture food and environment. The course covers one of the fastest-growing trends in the field: experiential tourism and events. It aims to develop students’ critical thinking skills in product and program design, and customer service. It provides insight into experiential tourism and events, experience management, and experience-centric techniques. The coursework enhances the students’ cooperative skills and design thinking, while class discussions aim to develop students’ critical thinking and intellectual discussion skills. The course involves laboratory: creative workshops, field visits, and field-based project assignments.

Content

 The content of the course focuses on the theory and cases of experiential tourism and events, including:

• the latest consumption trends in travel and tourism;
• the psychological and social aspects of the tourist experience;
• customer journey mapping and visitor experience mapping methods; experiential destination strategies;
• design thinking in the context of destinations, hotels, and tour operators;
• experiential travel writing;
• concepts of high-quality service provisioning in tourism and special events;
• best practices of tourism and special events experiential products and services.

Modules:

Module 1: The psychology of experience and happiness Module 2: The latest customer trends in tourism and events

Module 3: Tourism Experience Theory and Consumer Experience Mapping Module 4: The concepts of staged experience and experience co- creation

Module 5: Experiential product design in tourism destinations and experiential travel writing

Module 6: Experiential Tourism cases in hotels, restaurants, special events and tour-operating

Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

Course instruction strategies may include, but not be limited to classroom discussions, case studies, audio- visual materials, student presentations, group learning, field trips, and creative workshops.

Student Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this course, the student will be able to:

• understand and analyze experiential concepts in the field of tourism and special events;
•  discuss the psychological and social aspects of the tourist experience;
• describe the theoretical foundations of experience-centric strategies and techniques in the context of tourism destinations, hospitality services, special events, and travel agencies;
• apply design thinking and other creative techniques in the field of tourism and special events focusing on experiential product development and service enhancement;
• describe and apply customer experience mapping methods
• understand and use basic creative travel writing techniques.

Assessment Measures

Assessment measures may include but not limited to: quizzes, peer and instructor rubrics, supervisor assessments, comprehensive exams, group project assignments, and field visits.

Other Course Information

Bibliography:

Kalbach, J. (2016). Mapping Experiences. O’Reilly Media: Sebastopol, CA. Pine, J. B.& Gilmore, J. H. (1998). Welcome to the Experience Economy.

Harvard Business Review , July-August. https://hbr.org/1998/07/welcome- to-the-experience-economy

Smit, B.& Melissen, F. (2018). Sustainable Customer Experience Design. Co- creating Experiences in Events, Tourism and Hospitality . Routledge: Oxon, UK.

Zatori, A., Smith, M.& Puczko, L. (2018). Experience-involvement, memorability and authenticity: the service provider’s effect on tourist experience. Tourism Management 67 (August), pp. 111-126. DOI: 10. 1016/j. tourman. 2017. 12. 013

Zatori, A. (2017). Co-creating the sightseeing experience with and without a guide. In N. Prebensen, J. Chen,& M. Uysal (Eds.) Co-Creation in Tourist Experiences – A Practical Approach. Routledge, pp. 125-142.

Zatori, A. (2015). Tourist experience co-creation and management. Lambert Academic Publishing: Saarbrucken, Germany.

 

Revised June, 20223