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Conceptualising tourist experience as Gadamerian Erfahrung

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  • Martens, Hanno
  • Jarvis, Nigel
  • Weeden, Clare

Abstract

Tourist experience research frequently disregards underlying philosophical debates on experience particularly neglecting the dynamic and subjective processes occurring before, during and after trips. This conceptual paper addresses these limitations by envisaging tourist experience through the Gadamerian hermeneutic approach of Erfahrung, entailing consideration of life experiences and historicity, dynamics of memories as remembering and forgetting, and language and subjective interpretation. The paper guides researchers on what to consider when implementing the alternative tourist experience conceptualisation in their research, discusses changed perspectives on key concepts in tourism and resulting methodological insights. This has major implications for future research on tourist experience providing the growing research area with more dynamic and holistic approaches considering travellers as people and not an economic dimension.

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  • Martens, Hanno & Jarvis, Nigel & Weeden, Clare, 2025. "Conceptualising tourist experience as Gadamerian Erfahrung," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:111:y:2025:i:c:s0160738325000349
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2025.103928
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