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Abstract
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to integrate some concepts of the Experience Economy and transformational offerings into a conceptual framework of transmodern experience production within tourist destination development.
Methodology - We explain the relevance of a tourist experience and sensation, with the DMC space split into three components: the resource space, the activity space and the experience space. Such space gets a sociological connotation as the destination milieu and becomes a 'meta' level, whose complexity is illustrated as the kaleidoscopic structure of a tourist milieu.
Approach - Experiences are more than additional benefits and offered supplementary to the basic services. In order to design memorable experiences, DMC have to analyzed tourists 'needs, all five senses should be engaged and should try to surprise the guests over and over. This allows DMC to achieve high emotionality of services and products but on the other hand they have to put more efforts in the design and maintenance of service experiences.
Findings - Managers in tourist agencies and DMC of the future will need additional skills as well as being critical and analytic, they will need to be creative and innovative; communication skills need to include narrative, story-telling and the use of non-verbal cues to create atmosphere. They will need to develop empathy with their customers and the curiosity to discover and celebrate local distinctiveness.
Originality - Tourism and especially DMC it seems can learn a lot from literature and performance studies as these disciplines provide insight into how meaningful and memorable experiences are structured. The DMC is the animator and the motivator at the tourist destination. That will ensure the quality of tourist offer of a destination and the quality of life of the domicile population.
Keywords DMC, memorable experiences, transmodern experience production, tourist destination development
INTRODUCTION
In the course of years, tourism followed the industrial pattern. Right after it began in its modern form, various tourist activities became subject to their own rules. Although mass tourism continues being the predominant form, current growth of alternative tourism forms indicates that there are different consumers' requirements, which can be met. With respect to this, tourism should again turn towards people, and place an individual in the centre of the tourism system. There...