Most discussion of visitor experiences uses a behavioural or managerial approach where the way the visitor thinks is ignored - it's a black box. Visitor Experience Design is the first book of its kind to examine best practice in creating and delivering exciting and memorable travel and visitation experiences from a cognitive psychological perspective - it opens the black box. The chapters draw on recent findings from cognitive psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience to provide a basis for a better understanding of the antecedents of a memorable experience, including: * The psychological process of the formation or creation of a visitor's experiences * Psychological aspects of tourism experiences such as attention, emotion, memory and mindfulness * Pre-stage experience: customer inputs such as knowledge, myths, values and memories from previous travel * On-site experience: co-creation processes * Post-stage experience: immediate and long term outcomes including happiness and well-being * Experience design cases Tourism, hospitality and event managers seek to provide WOW experiences to their visitors through better design and management.This book encourages the discussion of different facets of experience design such as emotions, attentions, sensations, learning, the process of co-creation and experiential stimuli design. It will be of interest to tourism researchers and postgraduate students studying tourism management, marketing and product design.

Stories have always been part of tourism with tourists eager to both share and listen to stories about destinations. Destinations also build identity and distinctiveness by sharing stories with visitors. It is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the role that stories play in marketing and branding destinations, as well as how storytelling through digital mobile technologies can aid in these practices. Global Perspectives on Strategic Storytelling in Destination Marketing is a key reference that offers theoretical frameworks and empirical approaches to the study of storytelling in tourism at the organizational and destination levels, and from the perspectives of experience providers and customers. It further addresses current and future challenges of tourism organizations and destinations that may be tackled by creatively adopting storytelling as a strategy for brand differentiation and customer involvement. Covering topics such as film-induced tourism, heritage tourism, and community engagement, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for marketers, advertising executives, brand managers, travel agencies, tour operators, event and program managers, business executives, government officials, community leaders, students, researchers, academicians, professionals, and practitioners in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Stories are central to human life and cultural cohesion. Moreover, stories have always been part of tourism practice, from both perspectives of providers and consumers. Tourists are eager to listen to stories about the destination, but also to share with friends and relatives their personal meaningful events during a trip. Destinations also then build identity and distinctiveness by sharing stories with visitors. Stories convey meaning and are also powerful tools for eliciting emotional responses. Stories develop emotional bonds between people, and between people and organizations and brands. Currently, digital mobile technologies are part of the overall tourism experience, facilitating global communication among consumers, and personal stories from tourism experiences are common contents found in digital platforms and social media. Stories have been a subject of research in many sciences, ranging from anthropology and ethnography, to history, sociology, linguistics, psychology and neuroscience. Storytelling research in tourism draws from diverse academic sources, however there is need to better address the sciences and theories informing studies in this field, but also to explore the methodologies that contribute the best to a deeper understanding of the role, for tourists and providers, of stories. Practical issues related to the management and marketing of tourism will expectedly benefit from developing knowledge in this area. The book A Companion to Storytelling in Tourism is a key reference in the study of storytelling in tourism by covering a broad range of topics in this stream of research. It provides an updated review of research, as well as of the theoretical frameworks and empirical approaches adopted so far to study storytelling applied to the context of tourism, at the organization and destination levels, and from the perspective of experience providers and customers. Additionally, this book addresses current and future challenges of tourism organizations and destinations that may be tackled by creatively adopting storytelling as a strategy for brand differentiation and customer involvement. In this respect, both innovative theoretical and methodological contributions and case studies on the topic are covered. This book is a dynamic resource for researchers, students and professionals involved in the study and design of the tourism experience, as well as in the marketing and management of tourism organizations and destinations.