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The impact of experiential marketing on tourism destination competitiveness in Spanish cities.

Abstract

The importance of the experience economy in modern cultures is expanding. In light of

these shifts, it is common to see more popular tourist spots promoting unique selling points by

providing exceptional experience services. This study aims to design and evaluate a framework

for understanding the impact of consumers' participation in experiential marketing activities

while on vacation. Researchers investigate how participation, experience, and identity with a

brand might boost competition among that brand's clientele. Researchers use data from major

Spanish cities' tourist attractions to go into these questions. These results imply that the

dimensions of customer involvement have varying impacts on customers' experiences and

identification with a place, which in turn influences customers' loyalty to that location. The most

important aspects of customer interaction are revealed, such as those that improve the consumer's

overall perception, sense of belonging, and propensity to take action.

Keywords: Customer experience, Experiential marketing, Destination competitive, Customer

engagement

Introduction
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The significance of the Spanish tourist industry has grown as its popularity has spread

throughout Europe. In response to this shift, the number of tourist hotspots in the country has

increased to meet the rising international demand for vacationing in the United States. In recent

years, the usage of (new) technologies like social networks and collaborative economy-based

apps like Airbnb have entirely transformed the travel and tourist industry. Garcia Henche's

(2018) experiential marketing viewpoint is supported by the fact that consumers are increasingly

customizing their travel experiences with these technologies. According to Cleland et al. (2020),

companies are shifting their attention from goods to customer-centric processes. Based on these

findings, Chen & Hsieh (2010) proposes adopting "a new point of view, one that enables

individual consumers to actively design their own consuming experiences via individualized

engagement, therefore co-creating unique value for themselves." Similarly, studies show that

consumers are interested in something other than purchasing actual goods but rather in the

narratives that go along with them and the resulting experiences.

Both researchers and business leaders are curious about what is driving the present tourist

growth in the nation. The inauguration of Disneyland in 1955 is a prime example of the very

abstract characteristics of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, out of which experiential marketing was

born (Garcia Henche, 2018). What does a tourist or traveler get that makes these services more

competitive? The consumer sees the most outstanding value in the experience you provide them.

Encounters, in contrast to more objective economic products like products, commodities, or

activities, exist solely in the client's imagination once they have been moved on some level

(psychological, physiological, cognitive, or spiritually) (Chipotereke & Zengeni, 2022). A

positive client experience will remain in their memories and guide their actions. In light of this, it

is clear that tourism businesses can only thrive or gain an edge if they do a better job of shaping

their clients' actual experiences.

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A much more profound understanding of tourist decision-making's experiential and

intellectual factors is replacing the long-held concept of "tourists-as-rational decision-makers" in

tourism research (Chen & Hsieh, 2010). Studies have shown that one of the most critical trends

in the tourism business in Spain is the need for encounters and that attractions compete

nowadays by emphasizing the visitor's overall impression of their stay (Garcia Henche, 2018).

The fact that destinations need help with what we at Chen & Hsieh (2010) call the

corporatization of offerings is a significant reason for this finding. Destinations provide a

suitable product and service to visitors by fusing physical goods with intangibles. That is why

experiencing travel is so essential to Le et al. (2018); it "enriches the soul while widening the

intellect," as the organization puts it. As a result, the demand for non-traditional services has

increased as visitors seek more unique and immersive activities (Chang, 2020). In order to keep

enticing visitors in the modern day, locations need to offer visitors more than just the same old

things. Relationship marketing and experience marketing are considered crucial because of the

nature of the tourist industry. Tourism businesses may set themselves apart from rivals, increase

revenue, and win the loyalty of repeat visitors by focusing on customer satisfaction before,

during, and after each service contact.

Unfortunately, empirical studies on the experience economy are still in their infancy,

irrespective of the significance of these theoretical works. The reality that relatively few recent

scholarly papers offer a readily operationalizable launching point for the empirical study is likely

a significant contributor (Chipotereke & Zengeni, 2022). However, Lemon et al. (2016) provide

a basic exemption to this rule by operationalizing the experiential economy across four

components: learning, escape, beauty, and pleasure. The relationship between experiential

marketing and tourism competitiveness and other dependent factors (such as customer

segmentation and performance expectancy) is of involvement to tourism firms. However, there

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are few studies on this topic and none (to our understanding) in the area of tourist sites in Spain.

This study expands on the previous work by exploring how brand competitiveness in tourism is

affected by experiential marketing activities and providing a framework for doing so.

Theoretical framework

Experiential marketing

Experiential marketing is an up-and-coming strategic marketing ideology (Chang, 2020)

that has been demonstrated to influence traveler decisions. A client's senses (e.g., the desire for a

thrill) are motivated. An experience occurs due to the customer's direct observation or

participation in events, which can be confirmed, whimsical, or simulated (Garcia Henche, 2018).

Subjective emotional state is one definition of experience in the tourism sector (Lunt et al.,

2018). More than that, we rarely create our own experiences but impose them upon ourselves.

They are dependent on or connected to the stimuli to which they react. Additionally, experiences

can be viewed as intricate, developing structures. No two events are identical (Garcia Henche,

2018).

The foundational research of Musikyan (2016) introduced the idea of experience into

marketing. It is central to our knowledge of consumer behavior regarding the customer

experience. Finally, by the late '90s, when Pine and Gilmore (1998) discussed the dynamics of

economic development, the experiential facets of consumer culture had advanced. Production is

not the goal of economic output; instead, it is the satisfaction of wants via consumerism

(Lebergott, 1993). Experience, according to Rather (2019), is a unique economic product that

provides an edge that is hard to replicate or replace. In light of these changes, Capocchi et al.

(2019) suggest that marketers and academics should place more emphasis on the consumer

experience. According to Rather (2019), there is a need for the creation of experiential marketing
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since conventional marketing is engineering-driven, logical, and antiquated. The author argues

that successful goods, communication, and marketing efforts should "dazzle the senses, engage

the emotions, and excite the intellect" of their target audience. Customers look for goods,

messages, and advertising that they can use daily. Because of this, they expect experiences to be

provided via the products, messages, and advertising they engage with.

Customer engagement and Brand competitiveness

Brand recognition is a sensory concept indicating identity mirroring and identity fit,

according to social identity theory, the theoretical underpinning of the idea of customer

identification and customer brand identification. Customers place high importance on

psychological and symbolic brand advantages because they may aid in developing their self-

identity, which is shorthand for the persona they display to the world. In order to find products

that fit in with their ideal selves, consumers use a "matching" procedure to determine which

brands best suit them. Tsaur et al. (2007) propose a self-concept construct called customer brand

engagement, which marries customer id with Customer Experience. As a potential Customer

Experience outcome from customers' unique interactive brand experiences, Chen & Hsieh (2010)

considers consumers' connections to their brands, and identification refers to the emotional

connection that customers have with a product or service. Because of this, the stronger the

connection between a consumer and a brand, the higher the brand's perceived importance. The

brand is seen more positively when customers find a common thread between themselves and a

company's narrative. It is more likely to be purchased than competitors without as strong of a

link to the consumer's own identity (Chang, 2020). In line with the research, a consumer's

increased emotional and rational investment in a brand would strengthen the consumer's sense of

affiliation with that brand. Richards & Raymond (2000) demonstrates that consumers' emotional
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and rational involvement with brands on social media predicts customers' attachment to and

identification with such brands. In addition, Risitano et al. (2020) argue that customers' sense of

identity is strengthened via interactions with travel companies. This strengthens the bond

between the brand and the consumer's sense of who they are. According to the notion of social

exchange, people will only put their money into a trade if they feel like they are getting anything

out of it. In light of these considerations, enthusiastic visitors are likelier to adopt a sense of

brand loyalty to a particular site.

Customer identification and intentions

An individual definition of behavioral intention is a "stated propensity to participate in a

behavior" one defke & Zengeni, 2022). Rather (2020) classifies customer loyalty into four

dimensions: advocacy, desire to buy, price consciousness, and complaints. Foresight into how

brands affect consumer behavior intention toward the brand is crucial since it predicts actual

subsequent consumption behavior. One of the critical results of identifying with a brand or

organization is a persistent and long-lasting preference for the company's goods (Chipotereke &

Zengeni, 2022). Customers who have a solid connection to a brand are more inclined to make

repeat purchases and spread the word about that business, according to research cited by Chang

(2020). An essential part of building lasting bonds with customers is fostering high brand loyalty

by influencing repurchase decisions.

Furthermore, Rather & Hollebeek (2020) suggests that consumers' attachment to brands

makes them reluctant to switch. Richards (2020) applies this concept to a country as a brand and

finds that those who identify more strongly with the nation are more inclined to go there in the

future. As a result, we hypothesize that visitors who establish a long-term, formal connection

with a location are more likely to return there in the future.

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Methodology

A systematic literature search was performed across many databases to identify relevant

information. By employing a keyword filter, we could only find publications published between

2010 and 2021. The whole set of scholarly articles uncovered by the first search was then used to

identify more relevant research. Phrases like "Destination competition in Spain," "Customer

engagement among Spain visitors," and "Customer experience in Spain's tourism business."

Exclusion and inclusion criteria were established to whittle down the pool of studies to just those

that would be useful for the final analysis. To be included, a publication needed to analyze how

experiential marketing affected the competitiveness of Spanish cities as tourist destinations.

Discussion and Findings

According to Capocchi et al. (2019), Spain's tourism industry demonstrates the

experience economy well. In other words, the tourist industry's competitive advantage and

continued viability depend heavily on the satisfaction of its customers. As a result, from the

perspective of the tourism sector, tourist attractions must create an appropriate experiential

surrounding by using experiential marketing. This study suggested a theoretical framework to

examine how customer engagement dimensions affect the impact of experiential marketing and

consumer identification on the subsequent actions of site visitors (Wang et al., 2020). To

improve visitors' in-person encounters with a tourist attraction and cement their loyalty to it,

marketers and executives can employ strategies such as site inspections, a variety of holiday

packages, bespoke packages, media attention programs, advertising or marketing campaigns, and

the provision of leisure, recreational, educational, ethnic, and cultural tourism-related exercises

(Tolkach & King, 2015). Creating programs encouraging visitors to get involved in the local

community and visit off-the-beaten-path attractions and locales is also essential. Tourists will
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have a better time and feel more connected to their destination due to these programs. Therefore,

boosting participation can improve tourists' experiences, identities, and ultimate.

The results also imply that administrators of tourist destinations may increase consumer

loyalty by providing a memorable and good experience (Xiao et al., 2020). From this vantage

point, destination managers must work tirelessly to establish a strong brand identity among their

target audience. Branding a resort this way strikes a chord with visitors and highlights what sets

it apart from similar offerings. As a result, identity uniqueness may be used to separate the

products and services sustainably. In addition, it aids in raising patronage by making the

company more relatable to the public (Capocchi et al., 2019).

Similarly, consumers' decision-making is influenced by creating and sharingtination tales

on social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Using technologies

that activate the visual senses may improve the dissemination of product/service information

similar to that of destination brand image. Thus, leading businesses are moving toward

technology that enables sensory experiences, which provide sensory inputs in the digital space

(Rocha et al., 2020). Additionally, fostering Customer Experience by creating online brand

communities may boost consumers' intellectual experiences at the brand place (Garcia Henche,

2018). Tourism businesses might use big data to personalize services for their clients to boost

consumer engagement and satisfaction. Site services, environments, advertising, and vacation

packages may all benefit from analyzing client behavior. For instance, customers of Spanish-

language online travel companies like TripAdvisor.com may leave comments and ratings on

their experiences with specific hotels, restaurants, and attractions. By illuminating the connection

between marketing initiatives, customer experience, customer identity, and customer intent, this

trove of (huge) data may pave the way for brand-new understandings to be gleaned.
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Conclusion

The customer experience benefits both consumers and companies and will grow in

prominence in the coming years. Destinations provide a suitable product and service to visitors

by fusing physical goods with intangibles. Similarly, Schneider (2004) describes experience

travel as "travel that improves the spirit while widening the intellect." Because of this, modern

visitors want more than the standard fare when they travel. In order to remain competitive in

today's tourism industry, service providers and destinations must now offer visitors unique and

memorable experiences in addition to the usual array of conveniences (Rather & Hollebeek,

2020). Relationship marketing and experience marketing are given top priority because of the

unique characteristics of the tourist industry. Tourism businesses may stand out from the crowd,

increase revenue, and retain consumers by developing and maintaining strong connections with

those clients before, during, and after each service contact. Businesses may increase product

appeal by appealing to customers' senses of smell, taste, touch, and sight. Consumer interest in a

product or service may be boosted by making the product or service the focus of attention or by

creating a feeling around the product or service (Risitano et al., 2017). Marketers strive to create

a "supreme sensory experience" by appealing to a customer's senses in a domino effect. People's

inner feelings, desires, and curiosity towards the individualization, differentiation, and

specialization are elicited and stimulated by the hundreds of factors that go into creating tourist

experiences catering to psychological needs. These factors include but are not limited to:

feelings, emotions, smells, colors, sounds, human relationships, symbolic values, decorations,

physical contents, differentiated spaces, time; marketing activities. Due to the nature of the

tourism industry, it encompasses various endeavors, advantages, and relationships. Tourists,

service providers, and other persons receiving the same service engage in dynamic interactions

with the surrounding environment throughout a tourism event.

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