- Stimulate the senses. We experience our world through sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. The more senses are stimulated, the richer an experience (Pine & Gilmore 1999).
- Authentic. Make the experience authentic. First, this means that the experience evolves around a relevant match between customer and place identity. Second, when the experience connects the past, present and future of a place, this leads to greater understanding of the visitor about the place. In turn this results in more emotional involvement and hopefully enhanced loyalty to the place.
- Learning. Building upon the previous argument it is preferred that an experience involves an element of learning about one selves, triggered by the special characteristics and support structure of a certain place (Pine & Gilmore 1999).
- Balance familiar and unfamiliar. Of course not everything should be special. Try to find the right balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar. In other words it’s all about “pleasant” surprises.
- Participation. Try to make the experience relevant to the visitor by letting him / her participate in your experience as well as interact with others (Pine & Gilmore 1999).
- To read more about the 3 other ingredients, please contact us to join the Placebrandz circle.
Gnoth, J. (2002) “Leveraging export brands through a tourism destination brand”. Brand Management, 9 (4-5), 262-280.
Pine, B.J. and Gilmore, J.H. (1999) The experience economy: Work is theatre and every business is a stage. Boston Mass: HBS Press.
Shoemaker, S. (1996) “Scripts: Precursor of Consumer Expectations”. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administrative Quarterly, 1996,pp. 596-611.