Experience Value or Satiety? The Effects of the Amount and Variety of Tourists’ Activities on Perceived Experience

Recently, tourist companies and destinations have moved from designing products to focusing on creating experiences that engage and involve the tourist. Although the intensity (intensiveness) and variety of the experience (extensiveness) leads tourists to feel their experience has been livelier and richer and to appraise it positively, it might also bring unwanted consequences such as a feeling of saturation. The present study seeks to explore the role played by the value of perceived experience and of satiety as mediators between experience intensity and variety as well as future visitor behavior. The empirical study reveals that the variety of activities improves the perceived experience value, whereas investing too much time reduces the value and causes satiety in the tourist. Moreover, while the experience value reinforces the intention to return, the intention to recommend and the intensification of the experience, the feeling of satiety reduces the intention to return and recommend.