Adopting a customer-dominant logic perspective, the purpose of this paper is to understand how some tourists decide on unusual trips and how they associate meanings to transform their experience into an event.
This research is exploratory and involves three qualitative data collection techniques. The authors conducted individual interviews complemented by travel narratives with tourists that decided to undertake off-track travel. The third method is ethnographic and focuses on tourists participating in a singular ritualistic festival.
Several factors explained how off-track travelers associate meanings to turn their real-life experience into a successful event. These factors cover three main concepts: discovery, social link and identity.
The authors propose managerial implications for ordinary service providers in the tourism sector. Managers should attempt to provide tourists with a framework within which they can create their own events and take initiatives. They must be supportive of tourists re-enhancing their experience and making efforts to create their own event.
This research explains how services must be less standardized to satisfy tourists looking for immersion, exoticism and authenticity and to support their initiatives.
