Experiential marketing of tourism destinations

Destinations are combination of tourism products, offering an integrated experience to consumers (Buhalis, 1999). Research shows that demand for experiences is a major trend in the tourism industry. Schneider (2004) briefly defined experiential travel as a travel that enriches the soul while broadening the mind . Tourists are no longer satisfied with traditional services only - they want to go beyond that and have therefore created demand for diversified experiences (Banff Lake Louise Tourism, 2005). This increasing demand for experiences shows that it is no longer enough for destinations to compete with their facilities and amenities, but instead they need to create differentiating experiences if they want to attract today\u27s travelers (Banff Lake Louise Tourism, 2005). The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of experiential marketing in tourism destinations in particular concerning how it can be used as a form of differentiation. Specifically, the study describes the application of the experience concept to a destination suffering from the challenges of commoditization. This discussion identifies the primary benefit of experiential diversification is as a guide to move away from promoting physical destination attributes towards a goal of promoting emotional attributes that generate lasting and unique memories for visitors. Challenges primary relate to the institutional capacity needed to lead a destination towards understanding, identifying, creating and delivering a unique experience across the complete tourism system