The Power of Experience: Competitiveness, Engagement and Sustainable Tourism

Dear Colleagues,

Experience has become one of the most valuable components of the tourism industry. Nowadays, people no longer search for typical tourism products and services but rather for the distinctive and novel experiences. What tourists experience greatly influences their perceptions, level of satisfaction, likelihood of returning, and future behavior. Offering high-quality, unique, authentic, and memorable experiences for visitors is recognized as an essential strategy for achieving a long-term competitive advantage with valuable benefits for both consumers and service providers. The visitor experience serves as both an indicator of success and a strategic resource that encourages development, innovation, loyalty, and market differentiation.

The tourist experience is acknowledged as one of the key factors fostering competitiveness and sustainability at all levels, from entire destinations to specific entities such as hotels, museums, attractions, events, activities, tours, and other tourism-related elements. This Special Issue seeks to advance understanding of the mechanisms through which tourist experiences influence traveler behavior and elevate visitor satisfaction while simultaneously generating enduring value in tourism and hospitality. This Special Issue explores the dynamic and multifaceted nature of the tourism experience, reflecting current theoretical developments, empirical findings, and practical innovations. The collection of articles aims to highlight how tourism experiences are increasingly shaped by digital technologies, sustainability concerns, cultural authenticity, and evolving tourist motivations. Through theoretical and empirical research, we aim to expand knowledge about tourism experience, including its antecedents and outcomes, the measurement and management of the experience, enhancement strategies, and its role in development and capacity building. We welcome original papers on different approaches to the concept of tourism experience, from both the standpoint of tourism providers and of visitors.

Dr. Sanja Kovačić
Dr. Aleksandra Tešin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Tourism and Hospitality is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• tourism experience
• memorable experience
• authentic experience
• competitiveness
• tourist behavior
• destination marketing and management
• destination branding
• tourism development
• sustainable development
• smart tourism and hospitality