María José Viñals Universitat Politècnica de València THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE

6

30

52 Gestión Turística de Áreas Naturales 52

EXPERIENTIAL TOURISM I The Experiential Tourism consists in creating memorable personal experiences to the visitors. This type of tourism is based on the development of activities that could establish physical, emotional and/or spiritual or intellectual links with the site, its resources and with the people.

EXPERIENTIAL TURISM II Authentic experiences in relation to nature, culture, history and people are crucial elements. This is a low impact segment of tourists, also characterised by its high ecomonical impact but being still low-volume flow. The main goal of this tourism type is that visitors have an authentic experience providing knowledge, personal growing, self-relization, motivation and the opening new perspectives.

EXPERIENTIAL TURISM III Services Supplyers

THE TOURISM EXPERIENCE I The concept of “experience” generally refers to the procedimental knowledge (how to do something), instead to the factual knowledge (what the things are). The recreational experiences are the result of living specific situations, then a very special link between the site and the visitor is established. During the experience new things are learnt due to cognitive information received by the brain, and this can be considered as a positive action. Equally important are the emotional reactions that can take place. Experiences bring to visitors sensorial, emotional, cognitive, and behavioural values. Experiences generation are the result of complicated personal brain processes. For this reason, they are personal, subjective and different for each person and also change depending on the circumstances.

COMFORT AND TOURIST EXPERIENCE I Comfort is a determinant part of the quality of the experience because it is in relation to the visitors’ perception about the site, and also to the satisfaction. Comfort is an state of mental relaxing and wellness that allows the visitors to carry out the recreational activities in optimal conditions, in the way that nothing and/or nobody disturbes the normal development of it. Comfort includes physical, physiological and psychological factors.

COMFORT PHYSIC AND PHYSIOLOGIC FACTORS The physic and physiologic factors are related to the environment. They are objective parameters to assess and affect in a similar way to everybody: Bio-climatic: They are important if the activities take place outdoors (climatic safety, human climatic comfort, and climatic enjoyment). Safety: Users must visit the site and develop their activities in safe conditions, and also they must perceive personally this safe conditions for to feel relaxed. Unsafety causes: natural hazards, lack of facilities or bad conditions situations (trails, fences, etc.), lack of signage system, lack of good communications and Emergency plans, etc. Risk perception: each person perceives the risk in different way depending on his/her personality traits, genre, previous experiences, nationality, among others. Bio-climatic and Safety factors

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS I Space or scene where recreational activities take place -Characteristics: open, open with physical barriers, closed spaces (overcrowding and congestion, carrying capacity, etc.). -Available Surface for Recreation (Zonning) Recreational Activities -Typology: ludic or entertainment, educative-interpretative ones, and sport- adventure activities. -To be sure that visitors are developing the right type activity according their profil in order to accomplish their expectations. -Minimal Available Surface for developing the activity in good conditions. -Visitor Spatial Standard (Proxemics): casual-personal distance (1,20-1,50 m 2 ), public space for developing groupal activities (4,00 m 2 ). -Flow pattern, use-level, group size and type are also important factors to analyse. Space, Activities

68 Gestión Turística de Áreas Naturales 68

69

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS II Infrastructures, facilities and services. They must be conceptually and physically harmonic with the recreational activity because they are part of it. Infrastructures: Special attention must be paid to the hotels and restaurants. They must be authentic, tasty, and integrated in the landscape, etc. Facilities: More than the basic ones (wellcome and information, restrooms, signage system, parkings, trails, etc.), it must exist interpretative-educative facilities because they are on the basis of the heritage intellectual access (interpretation ccentres and routes). Services: They are key elements in the tourist experience. Then, it is necessary the existence of actions and programmes in order to develop recreational activities and, first of all specialized personnel, well trained in specific issues and also in inter-personal skills for adequately answer to the visitors needs and expectations. Infrastructures, Facilities, Services