Overview

Gayle Jennings

What is a quality tourism experiences? At first glance, this would seem to be an easy question to answer, especially given the plethora of tourism literature, which is permeated with references and commentaries in regard to quality and tourism experiences, let alone quality tourism experiences. However, within the multiplicity of references, an inherent deception is masked, for the answer to What is a quality tourism experiences? is not so easy. The body of tourism literature resonates with influences from various disciplinary fields and studies, of differing perspectives, standpoints, and theoretical predilections, as well as audience expectations. Further, the development of tourism at local, regional, and national levels has resulted in the appearance of tourism reflexivity : the set of disciplines, procedures and criteria that enable each (and every?) place to monitor, evaluate and develop its tourism potential within the emerging patterns of global tourism (Urry, 2002, p. 141). Such reflexivity has not always resulted in consistent or standardized practices. This is not surprising, given the elusive and unpredictable nature of the phenomenon of tourism itself with all its complexity and multiplicity of interactions, settings, and participants particularly in the first half of the twenty-first century compared to, for example, the mid-twentieth century.

The passage of time also adds to the difficulty of providing a definitive answer to What is a quality tourism experiences? This is because the phenomenon of tourism has a temporal nature what was quality yesterday may not be so today and what is a tourism experience tomorrow...