A senses-based model for experiential tourism

An experience can be defined as the triggered stimulations to the senses, the heart, and the mind. Senses play a central role in our perception of the surrounding world and the experience process. Therefore, the study of sensory dimension of tourist experiences is recently pointed out as pivotal to management in the tourism industry. In particular, recent studies show that there is not a dominant sense but a successful tourism destination should attract tourists by more stimuli and provide for all the senses. In this paper, we present an innovative way to see the experience process and, according to this one, we propose an original model, based on multisensory criteria, for the evaluation and design of the touristic experience. We also show an application to this one: an example of how this model has allowed us to define authentic experiences in project youtooscany.com, focused on the territory of Fiesole and Florence (Italy). This work was written on the basis of what was presented and elaborated after the participation in 1st International Conference on Experiential Tourism, held on 9-11 October 2015 in Santorini (Greece).