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This study aims to investigate the effects of smart tourism technology experience (STTE) on tourist satisfaction and happiness in Bordeaux, with a focus on understanding the mediating role of self-gratification. By examining these relationships, the study seeks to provide insights into how smart tourism technologies can enhance tourist experiences.

The study uses partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze data collected from 380 tourists who visited Bordeaux. The measurement model assesses reliability and validity, while the structural model evaluates the proposed hypotheses and the mediation effects of self-gratification.

The results confirm that STTE positively impacts tourist satisfaction, with accessibility, informativeness and personalization significantly enhancing tourist satisfaction, while interactivity does not. Tourist satisfaction, in turn, positively affects tourist happiness. Furthermore, self-gratification partially mediates the relationship between tourist satisfaction and happiness, highlighting its importance in the smart tourism context.

This research extends the understanding of STTE by demonstrating its effects on tourist satisfaction and happiness. It introduces the mediating role of self-gratification, providing a novel perspective on how personalized smart tourism experiences contribute to overall tourist happiness.

Understanding tourist experiences with virtual reality (VR) products is essential for firms using VR for tourism marketing, particularly in developing countries where customers do not have access to personal VR devices or gadgets. This study aims to provide insights into technology usage for tourism marketing India, which is a developing country. It explores 360° virtual tours as an upcoming strategy for tourism promotion by analysing tourists’ perspectives through a qualitative approach.

360° YouTube video launched by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, was shown to the participants as a marketing stimulus, followed by questions to understand tourists’ experiences and intentions. Responses were collected from 45 tourists who visited popular tourist destinations such as Shimla, Manali and Dharamshala districts of Himachal Pradesh, India.

The findings of the study indicate that several crucial elements play a pivotal role in creating the 360° VR experience. Based on interviews, it was found that 360° video experiences assist in visualising a destination through imaginative exploration, generating curiosity about the destination, forming a favourable image of the destination and facilitates ease of experience. A few participants mentioned experiencing discomforts, such as motion sickness and eye strain, while viewing 360° videos. Moreover, tourists provided valuable insights into various factors, including how 360° videos elicit arousal through entertainment and excitement, develop immersion and engagement in the virtual environment (VE), aid in assessing destination suitability, offers advantage over other media, serves as a substitutes for travel during constraints, generates assurance and influences intentions. These factors have emerged as significant considerations influencing their willingness to adopt such technology in the future.

In the contemporary market landscape, 360° VR technology is anticipated to enhance the experiential elements within VEs. While existing research has focused on the technical attributes of VR, there remains a crucial gap pertaining to the experiential and destination-related elements and their influence on usage, travel planning and intentions. Therefore, this study provides deeper insights into the unexplored concepts and dimensions of the virtual tourism experience, particularly concerning interaction with 360° videos. The study contributes novel insights to the existing body of tourism literature and provides practical implications for enhancing 360° virtual tour experiences.

This study aims to explore the influence of creative tourist experiences (CTE) on tourists’ recommendation intentions (RCI) toward creative tourist destinations. This study examines the roles of tourist engagement and satisfaction in this relationship, proposing a sequential mediation model based on the cognitive-affective-conative model.

The research surveyed travelers to Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India, using a structured questionnaire. Through purposive sampling data were collected from 413 generation Z (Gen Z in short) tourists. The study used exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and sequential mediation analysis. The present research used Model 6 by Andrew Hayes in the SPSS process macro to test the serial mediation.

The findings emphasize the importance of active engagement in creative tourism and its potential to transform cultural heritage into enriching experiences, thereby influencing tourists’ recommendation behaviors. Results of sequential mediation analysis show that there is a significant and positive impact of CTE on tourist’s RCI. Further, results showed the sequential mediation effect of tourist engagement and satisfaction on the relationship between CTE and RCI.

The findings offer valuable insights for destination managers and policymakers in creative tourism. Enhancing tourist engagement and satisfaction through creative experiences can effectively increase RCI, contributing to the sustainable management of cultural resources and preventing the over-commercialization of cultural heritage.

This research contributes to the literature on creative tourism by empirically testing the sequential mediation model and highlighting the pivotal role of tourist engagement and satisfaction in transforming creative experiences into positive behavioral outcomes. This study provides a nuanced understanding of the factors influencing tourists’ RCI in creative tourism contexts.

The study aims to review how the use of technology enhances the authentic tourist experience. Technology and digitalization have enhanced tourist experiences. However, critiques comment on its ability to over-commercialize activity and lack of authenticity. Thus, there is a need to synthesize knowledge of technology usage to increase authentic tourist experience.

The study carries out a bibliometric review of the studies focusing on the use of technology in enhancing tourist experiences. Two hundred journal articles, published between 1997 and 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database to carry out descriptive and network analysis using the Gephi, VOSviewer and Science of Science (Sci2) software. The components of authentic tourism experience are identified from the literature through a content analysis.

The findings of the study are broadly classified into two: first, the most frequently used keywords in the study include tourist experience and satisfaction, co-creation, virtual reality, smart tourism, technology, authenticity and heritage tourism. Second, the five major themes studied in the topic include virtual reality and tourist experience; media, tourist experience and encounters; technology, smart tourism and tourist experience; digital transformation, social media and tourist experience; and virtual reality and tourist experience which are still relevant in the literature because of the presence of study gaps.

The findings are used to develop a conceptual framework for the role of technology in enhancing authenticity in tourism typologies where authenticity is critical.

This paper aims to understand Chinese tourists’ changing shopping experience in Macao. In scrutinizing reviews posted in the pre-COVID and during COVID eras, the study has identified changing patterns in Chinese tourists’ shopping experiences, including increased leisure components while shopping, decreased luxury pursuits and an improved overall leisure and shopping experience because of decreased prices in accommodation and a less crowded retail and leisure environment. An emergent opportunity to provide “retail-tainment” experience is discussed.

Tourist guides undertake many versatile roles as a requirement of their profession. The realisation of these roles also affects the performance of the guide. Findings obtained from empirical evidence on the effects of the tour guide's performance on memorable tourism experiences and the intention to revisit the Cappadocia region shed light on the importance of these elements on each other. Accordingly, the primary purposes of this research are to measure the effect of tourist guides' performance on memorable tourism experiences and the impact of memorable tourism experiences on revisit intention (RVI). For these purposes, the survey technique obtained data from 569 domestic and foreign tourists who participated in guided tours in the Cappadocia region. According to the results of the research, it has been observed that the performance of the tourist guide influences the memorable tourism experience, and the memorable tourism experience affects RVI. In light of the results, suggestions to tourism stakeholders and researchers are listed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between wine tourism experiences (i.e. winescape, winery service quality, winery brand differentiation and tourist motivation) and tourist behavioral intentions (satisfaction, loyalty and revisit intention) from both demand and supply perspectives in Ningxia, China, by using the SERVQUAL model and the self-determination theory.

The research comprises two studies with an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach. Study 1 adopted semi-structured interviews with winery owners and managers to explore the factors related to wine tourism experiences that influence tourists’ tourism experience. The results from the Study 1 leads to Study 2, which used a survey to explore wine tourist experiences and their behavioral intentions

This study provided important information regarding the factors that influence wine tourists experience in Ningxia wine region from the perspectives of supply and demands sides. Frist, this study confirmed the various factors influence wine tourism experiences in Ningxia based on the results from Study 1 (supply perspectives). Second, by further investigation in the Study 1, this study integrates the SERVQUAL model and the self-determination theory as fundamental theoretical frameworks in Study 2 to analysis the tourist perspectives. Third, as results, the authors finally confirmed the theoretical frameworks of wine tourism in Ningxia based on dual supply-demand perspectives.

The integration of multiple research approaches enriches the research findings and provides a more robust understanding of the wine tourism experiences in Ningxia.

This study aims to examine the impact of the structural linkages between memorable tourism experiences, destination attachment, tourists’ satisfaction and customer-based destination brand-equity on tourists’ storytelling intentions.

The authors proposed a conceptual model that examines how memorable experiences contribute to tourists’ sense of attachment to a destination, which can lead to their willingness to share their trip stories. Using partial least square estimation, the authors analysed the conceptual model through data generated by a survey of 448 Indian domestic tourists.

Study confirms the validity and usefulness of the conceptualized model, as it shows significant correlations between the key variables. Specifically, the authors found that positive and memorable tourism experiences significantly affect tourists’ attachment and their satisfaction with destinations. As a result, tourists who form a strong customer-based destination brand equity are more likely to develop storytelling intentions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, current study is the earliest to explore the association between memorable tourism experiences, tourist satisfaction, attachment, customer-based brand equity and how they impact storytelling intentions of tourists.

In the field of tourism, numerous studies have been conducted on tourists' food experiences. However, more studies are needed to comprehend tourists' dining experience in unique cuisines. Thus, the main purpose of this study was to examine the components of tourists' dining experiences related to palace cuisine foods.

In this study, a qualitative approach was adopted to capture the components of tourists' dining experiences. The online narratives of tourists (n = 911) who had experienced Ottoman palace cuisine in Istanbul were obtained from an online travel platform (TripAdvisor) and analyzed using content analysis.

Seven main components were revealed: perceived authenticity, perceived service quality, knowledge, a sense of royalty, food specialties and attributes, a memorable experience and a sense of awe.

By identifying components of the palace cuisine dining experience and their relevant importance, the findings of this study can increase service providers' knowledge and facilitate their jobs. To be able to meet the expectations of tourists experiencing the palace cuisine, service providers can improve their services by considering research results.

Results revealed that obtained six dimensions were parallel with previous studies on food experience; however, this study uncovered a previously unexplored dimension named a sense of royalty. This can be shown as the unique contribution of this study to the tourist food experience literature.