Travel beautifully: The role of aesthetics in experience design

Ksenia Kirillova, Philipp Wassler

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceedingChapter in an edited book (as author)Academic researchpeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Tourism research has been largely unconcerned with the aesthetic dimension, although few attempts have recently begun to surface. In this chapter, the authors highlight a multifaceted process of incorporating aesthetics in tourist experience design, based on a three-level framework for theming. The first level is based on aesthetic features of destinations as atmospherics. The second level deals with multisensory atmospherics, transcending the mere visual focus of the tourist gaze. Key experiences of the beautiful, sublime and picturesque are deeply embedded in visual, somatic, olfactory, auditory and gustatory decoding of aesthetic markers. The third level deals with the human factor in atmospherics, particularly focussing on the role of residents. Through a discursive lens, local people are simultaneously identified as sources, co-creators and beneficiaries of aesthetic environments. Thus, the chapter hopes to open possibilities for exploring experiences of atmospherics (including aesthetics) through a dialectic approach.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
PublisherEmerald Group Publishing Ltd.
Pages153-163
Number of pages11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019

Publication series

NameAdvances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Volume16
ISSN (Print)1871-3173

Keywords

  • Beautiful
  • Destination aesthetic qualities
  • Multisensory experience
  • Picturesque
  • Residents
  • Sublime

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management

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