Research Seminar in Economics - Natan Uriely, "The Tourist Experience: Past and Future Research"
Institute of Economics
Date: 22 August 2016
This lecture identifies four noteworthy conceptual developments in the study of the tourist experience: a turn from differentiation to de-differentiation of everyday life and touristic experiences; a shift from generalizing to pluralizing conceptualizations; a transformed focus from the toured objects to the tourist subjective negotiation of meanings; and a movement from contradictory and decisive statements to relative and complementary interpretations. Thus, it is suggested that contemporary conceptualizations of this subject correspond to the so-called ‘‘postmodernist’’ theorizing in the social sciences. This turn in the literature is evaluated while addressing past and future research. Specifically, the lecture presents four guidelines for future research of tourist experiences: Moving from De-differentiation to Re-differentiation; focusing on the consequences and impact of tourist experiences; shifting from “The Tourist Experience” to “Experiences in Tourism; and becoming inward rather than outward oriented.
*the lecture is based on the following two papers:
Uriely, N. 2005. “The Tourist Experience: Conceptual Developments", Annals of Tourism Research
Uriely, N. 2014. “Exploring the Post Tourist: Guidelines for Future Research”, Tourism Recreation Research
