Chapter 3: Experience Co-Creation in the Touristscape: The Path toward a Systematic Theoretical Construct

Generally, experiences can be linked to any human activity beyond consumption alone. Therefore, meanings of experience vary depending on the scientific viewpoint used. From a philosophical perspective, experience accumulation leads to individual knowledge (Dilthey, 1976). An experience is regarded as a personal effort or a test, which largely transforms the individual (Carù & Cova, 2003). Psychology considers experience to be a cognitive activity or “a means to construct reality and, above all, to verify it” (Dubet, 1994, p. 93; Carù & Cova, 2003). Moreover, anthropological and ethnological studies investigate experience as expressions of how individuals or ethnic groups experience their culture and how those experiences are expressed in different forms including narrative, literary work, theatre, carnival, ritual, reminiscence and life review (Turner & Bruner, 1986). Experiences from a sociological viewpoint are understood as personal, individual and cognitive activities, which allow a person to develop (Carù & Cova, 2003)…