Social Construction of Tourism Experience: An Analysis of Systematic Theory

In contrast to the positivist paradigm, constructionism insists on the ontology of multiple realities that the reality is not established but is constructed through constant interactions and practice.Based on the social construction of reality(SCOR) theory, this research analyzes the social construction of the tourism experience at three stages: pre-, during, and post- travel experience. The major conclusions are as follows.(1) The tourism experience is the result of the social construction of multiple subjects. Tourists construct their own experience when they interact with media, with local residents and with tourism practitioners. The paper distinguishes between the subject of the tourism experience and the subject of the construction of the tourism experience. The paper argues that the subject of the tourism experience is the tourist. However, the construction subjects of the tourism experience include the tourists themselves and the relevant tourism production and operation departments including government departments relating to tourism, tour guides, local residents, and other organizations and individuals. Different construction subjects play different roles in the different tourism experience phases. Before the onsite tourism experience takes place, the tourism developers and operators construct a destination image for the potential tourists with the help of tools such as tourism advertisements and tourism brochures. The government both markets its national tourism and regulates the leisure time of its inhabitants. Moreover, the cultural products that are produced by other organizations and individuals have a cumulative impact on tourists. Dean Mac Cannell considers that this phase is anoff- sight marker experiencewhere tourism markers are various tourism reference points. During the onsite tourism experience stage, the tourists construct their own tourism reality through their interactions with local residents and tour guides. After the tourism experience has taken place, some tourists record their experiences online via text content and images using memory and associations that might influence the tourism expectation of other potential tourists.(2) There are two experience construction types: initial construction and revised construction. Initial construction refers to the reality as narrated directly by the subject of the construction of the tourism experience. Revised construction refers to the reality as narrated by the subject of the construction of the tourism experience on the basis of initial construction.(3) The tourism experience focuses on the scenery experience and marker experience. The tourism experience is characterized by social construction because all of the scenery markers are the results of social construction. At the same time, the tourism experience is a process from the marker experience to the scenery experience.(4) The tourism attraction as the object of the tourism experience is the result of landscape sanctification and the tourists' ritualization attitudes. Based on the model of construction and consumption of literary places proposed by Herbert,the paper proposes that further research is needed on the social construction and consumption of the tourism attraction model.(5) A country's tourism practice is formed by economic developments and government policies; therefore, it is the result of social construction. Tourism is now an accepted norm within most countries.