Exploring entertainment tourism experience in integrated resorts: a process-based perspective

ABSTRACT Entertainment tourism experience is an emerging but largely overlooked phenomenon. The current study, adopting a qualitative approach, explored travel motivation and entertainment tourism experience from tourists’ and industry professionals’ perspectives. A total of 33 tourists and 18 industry professionals in Macao were interviewed. Three layers of entertainment tourism experience were identified, namely, behavioural, functional and affective aspects of experience. Furthermore, the three layers of experience were reported to be interrelated and played different roles in creating tourists’ entertainment experience. The study accordingly established an integrated flow of entertainment tourism experience. Moreover, the study offered practical implications to destination marketing organizations, industry practitioners, and tourists on cultivating a desired entertainment tourism experience for the tourists.