Customizing Deeper Transformational Tourism Experiences for Vulnerable Tourists

Abstract

Transformational tourism experiences can lead to acquiring life-changing knowledge, practices or beliefs. However, tourism scholars and suppliers have not fully exploited the concepts and opportunities that deeper transformational tourism brings to support mentally vulnerable tourists (with mental health conditions) since most studies focus on tourist experiences of typical travellers; there exists a knowledge gap on tourism service suppliers’ adequacy and preparedness to facilitate the provision and design of deeper transformational experiences. This article contributes to existing studies on transformational tourism and transformative experience design by shifting focus to a specialized community of unconventional travel suppliers as key contributors for deeper transformational travel experiences. It also considers the relationship of key stakeholders necessary for effective intervention in forming deeper transformational experiences. The latter calls for further studies to operationalize a conceptual framework and future study to assess the outcome of the transformation post-trip. This study also supports the need for collaboration beyond travel service suppliers to facilitate transformational tourism services.