Consumer immersion in the experiencescape of managed visitor attractions: The nature of the immersion process and the role of involvement

By Veronica Blumenthal, Øystein Jensen. Tourism Management Perspectives, 2019

87 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This article focuses on consumer immersion and explores how interactions with the experiencescape can influence the immersion process. The study presented in this article is explorative in nature and utilize a grounded theory approach. Data was collected through a combination of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with visitors participating in themed sailing trips offered at the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum in Denmark. Data analysis revealed three distinct stages in the immersion process: “involvement triggers”, “involvement words” and “state of immersion”. Each stage was connected to an increasingly higher level of involvement. Findings further indicated that the visitors' progression through the immersion process was dynamic and appeared to be moderated by the visitors' individual reactions to the incidents that occurred during the experience. This article provides new insights into the nature of the immersion process that have practical and theoretical implications for attraction management as well as experience design.

Subfields: Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e9c01b81ff526fe464b4a07796631bf2230da749