Co-creation of experiences in tourism: A conceptual perspective through a meta-review and thematic mapping

Abstract

Co-creation of experiences can be defined as the process through which customers and organisations collaborate to create experiences. There has been a notable lack of knowledge regarding tourism experiences and their interrelationship with the co-creation process. This article aims to systematically review the scientific literature on the co-creation of tourism experiences and to delve deeper into the discussion of the different perspectives on tourism experiences, seeking to understand their connection to the co-creation process. To this end, a meta-review, including thematic mapping and content analysis, is applied to 82 articles published between 2009 and 2021, a year that marked the end of a particularly challenging period for the tourism industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main contributions of this study are the presentation of new definitions of tourism experiences and the systematisation of the co-creation process, considering the supply-side dimensions, given that much of the existing literature predominantly focuses on the tourist perspective. Furthermore, the study identifies existing gaps and proposes a future research agenda.