Tourism & The Experience Economy

The Tourism & The Experience Economy module (TOUR07007) examines the tourism sector and its role in the experience economy.  Perspectives on tourism are explored including the inter-relationship with hospitality, recreation, leisure, events and travel.  The tourism marketplace is considered in terms of place, space and virtual experience, types of tourist behaviours, tourist as a consumer, demand, supply and motivation. 

The term ‘experience economy’ was first used by Pine and Gilmore (1999) and famously they said that “all work is theatre and every business a stage” but has been adopted by many business sectors as a short-hand way to understand what customers and visitors need to make their interactions with a business memorable, valuable and worth repeating.  The multi-disciplinary nature of tourism experiences are considered, incorporating brand experience; service experience and consumption experience.  In addition students are guided through exploring the tourism environment; the components of the industry and the touchpoints with the experience economy.

Students will be supported in applying theoretical models illustrating the realms of visitor experience and reviewing current industry practice in tourism-related operations with a view to assessing the experiential offering.

This module will address the following topics:

• Overview of the tourism industry
• The developing experience economy
• The role of experience in visitor behaviour
• Experiences of visitors in specific realms of entertainment; education; aesthetic and escapist
• The business of tourism experience evaluation and management

On successful completion of this module the student will be able to:

• Evaluate and present examples of specific tourism operations serving the experience economy
• Assess the role of aesthetic, escapist, entertainment and educational experiences in tourism
• Discuss the multi-disciplinary nature of Tourism and the Experience Economy

This is an SCQF Level 7 module and upon successful completion, participants will be awarded 20 credits.

To view the module descriptor, please visit Programme Specifications and Module Descriptors

 

Delivery 

This module is delivered on a blended learning basis with some sessions taking place at our Paisley campus on Mondays from 5.30pm to 7pm, scheduled for the following dates (subject to change):

• Monday 26th January 2026
• Monday 9th February 2026
• Monday 23rd February 2026
• Monday 16th March 2026

All other sessions will be pre-recorded videos and all other learning materials will be available on our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

  

Course presenter

This module will be delivered by Professor Sandro Carnicelli.

 

Funding

This course may be available on a fully funded basis to some delegates.  Further details, including regarding eligibility, are available under Funding Support.

If you have any questions, please contact us at cpd@uws.ac.uk  

 

NOTE: This is a university module and upon approval of your application, you will be invited to register and then supported to complete enrolment. To enrol on the university system, the first step involves security set-up using the Microsoft Authenticator app; you will need to ensure that you have a compatible smartphone.

Further enrolment information is available at the Student Information Portal.

To access this module via the CPD route, individuals should be ordinarily resident in Scotland.