‘Moments to be Had’: Understanding The Experience of Memorable Tourism Moments

Memory research in cognitive science indicates people will come to remember a few fleeting moments from a past tourism experience, but not the entire trip. Accordingly, the goal of this research is to understand the experience of travelers' most ‘Memorable Tourism Moments’. The results from a qualitative inquiry helped develop a conceptualization of the Memorable Tourism Moment as a fleeting temporally short experience which emerges unsuspectedly and is highly intriguing. Four types of Memorable Tourism Moments were also identified. The existence of the Memorable Tourism Moment proved to have direct positive impacts on present and future trips. This study also helps showcase how important the experience of a few standout moments is for the overall memorability of our past trips. Accordingly, there are several implications for destination marketing practices.