Colombo

Business
Journal
Faculty of International Journal of
Management & Finance Theory & Practice
University of Colombo Vol. 12, No. 01, June, 2021

Chain of Reflective Experiences: How Tourists Give Meaning to

Intangible Cultural Heritage Experiences

Thilini Alahakoon
Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayawardenepura, Sri Lanka
Abstract
Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is a tourist offer that is embedded within the people
of a destination and their lifestyles. Given this nature of ICH, this paper aims to explore how
tourists give meaning to ICH experiences especially in the absence of formal sources of
information. It employs a qualitative phenomenological stance with a sample of 21 European
tourists. The Appropriation Theory was used for theoretical support. Findings indicate that
recollections and reflections of past travel experiences contribute to the interpretation of ICH
experiences. Specifically, such recollections and reflections create a sense of familiarity with
new ICH experiences allowing tourists to connect with them more, resulting in subjective
meaning assignment which may or may not be the meaning envisioned by destination
marketers and the host community. This study also initiates a discussion on ‘chain of reflective
experiences’, through which further exploration of the effects of past travel experiences on
new experiences are encouraged.
Keywords: Intangible Cultural Heritage, Past Travel Experiences, Appropriation Theory,
Heritage Tourism, Tourist Experience

Received: Accepted revised version: Published:

15 August 2020 28 January 2021 30 June 2021
Suggested citation: Alahakoon, T. (2021). Chain of reflective experiences: How tourists
give meaning to intangible cultural heritage experiences. Colombo Business Journal,
12(1), 29-53.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/cbj.v12i1.70
© 2021 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

[email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7060-6276
 Colombo Business Journal 12(1), 2021

Introduction
Postmodern tourists use the power of their intellect and imagination to receive
and communicate messages, constructing their own sense of historic places to create
their individual journeys of self-discovery (Nuryanti, 1996). In such situations,
familiarity with a context and/or theme of an event or situation helps consumers dive
straight into the relevant experience and immediately become immersed in it (Caru
& Cova, 2006). This notion indicates that tourists’ memories and imagination play a
vital role in their understanding of and engagement in new experiences. However,
research focusing on such memory dimensions and their impacts on travel
experiences are limited, resulting in calls for comprehensive explorations of aspects
such as recollections (Manthiou et al., 2014), past experiences (Loureiro, 2014) and
more specifically, how past experiences affect individuals’ evaluation of new
experiences (Hwang & Seo, 2016).

Complementing the aforementioned concerns in experience literature, heritage

literature highlights that meaning generation (Freeman, 2010) and memory creation
(Kim, 2010) associated with heritage assets including Intangible Cultural Heritage
(ICH) need further academic focus. ICH refers to “practices, representations,
expressions, knowledge, skills, instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces
associated with communities, groups and individuals” (United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2003, p. 3) which are embedded
within people and their lifestyles. More specifically, ICH includes handicrafts and
visual arts, gastronomy and culinary practices, social practices, rituals and festive
events, music and the performing arts, oral traditions and expressions and knowledge
and practices concerning nature and the universe (World Tourism Organization,
2012). Making it a valuable tourism resource, ICH is now recognised as a vital
economic tool that allows income generation when included in tourism (Lenzerini,
2011). Despite this importance, studies focusing on ICH as a travel experience is still
in its infancy.

Combining the concerns highlighted above, this paper explores how tourists give
meaning to ICH experiences. Therein, it uses a psychological perspective to explore
the process tourists go through when interpreting new travel experiences through the
recollection and reflection of past travel experiences taking ICH as the specific travel
context. In particular, this paper uses the Appropriation Theory to explain this
phenomenon leading to the idea of ‘the chain of reflective experiences’ which
suggests that discrete travel experiences have synergistic effects on each other.
Within this scope, the significance of the study is two-fold. Firstly, it contributes to

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experience literature by introducing a holistic approach of comprehending the

connection between discrete travel experiences separated geographically and
temporally. Secondly, it contributes to heritage literature by providing a more in-
depth understanding of tourists’ interpretation of ICH.

The rest of the paper is structured as follows: the proceeding section discusses
existing literature related to ICH, past travel experiences and the relevant theoretical
lens. The next section details the methodology adopted in the study. This is followed
by the analysis and discussion leading on to the conclusion, limitations, and
suggestions for further research.

Literature Review
Heritage Tourism and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Experiences
Heritage tourism is one of the most notable and widespread types of tourism
(Timothy & Boyd, 2006) for which the main motivation for visiting would be a
destination’s heritage characteristics (Poria et al., 2003). In spite of its sustained
popularity, cultural heritage traditionally included only tangible elements such as
monuments, groups of buildings and sites (UNESCO, 1972) with intangible elements
such as handicrafts, visual arts, gastronomy, social practices, rituals, festivals, music,
performing arts, oral traditions, expressions and know-how being acknowledged only
in year 2003 (Ahmad, 2006). Since then, ICH has received much academic attention
evolving to be an emerging tourist attraction (Björk & Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2016;
Cetin & Bilgihan, 2016; Lopez-Guzman & Gonzalez Santa-Cruz, 2016).

Despite this growing interest, the ways in which tourists experience ICH remains
to be an under researched phenomenon (Lopez-Guzman & Gonzalez Santa-Cruz,
2016). One reason for this is the gravitation of ICH literature towards the
industry/destination perspective, where areas such as power conflicts in ICH
management (Beardslee, 2016; Swensen et al., 2013), and preservation of ICH
(Mitsche et al., 2013; Yelmi, 2016) have received extensive attention. A second
reason is that ICH resides within the processes, phrases, know-how, and abilities of
communities (Petronela, 2016) making it difficult to separate it from the people of a
destination and their lifestyles. Regardless of these apprehensions, few research
studies explore ICH as a tourist experience focusing on areas such as ICH and
authenticity of experiences (Nguyen & Cheung, 2016; Wesener, 2017); visitor
perceptions (Lopez-Guzman & Gonzalez Santa-Cruz, 2016); and meaning-making of
ICH in online platforms (Freeman, 2010). Thus, owing to such limited research on

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ICH experiences from the tourists’ point of view, this study draws from general
heritage literature as well.

Tourism is inherently a marketplace of experiences (Volo, 2009) and heritage

tourism is an experiential consumption (Chen & Chen, 2010). However, as
highlighted before, within heritage literature, only a few studies focus on tourists’
experience of cultural heritage with even lesser focus on ICH. These studies show
that experiences associated with cultural heritage create experiential benefits such as
knowledge and narrative connect (Chronis, 2005), generate educational, entertaining,
escapist and esthetic experiences (Alahakoon & Udunuwara, 2018) and are nostalgic
to tourists (Ali, 2015). Further, cultural encounters are known to positively affect the
autobiographical memory of recollection and vividness of past experiences of tourists
(Kim, 2010). Overall, these studies indicate that cultural heritage experiences provide
valuable learning opportunities to tourists. Such learning opportunities appear to have
long-term applications because when consuming cultural heritage experiences,
tourists use their past knowledge and imagination to interpret those encounters
(Chronis, 2005). This idea is further expanded by Freeman (2010) who reports that
tourists use images shared in online platforms to make meaning of such experiences
as a collective. Thus, studies suggest that tourists’ memories that include recollection
and reflection of past travel experiences serve as useful input when experiencing
cultural heritage including ICH. This idea also ties back to experience literature which
recognises that storing, reflecting and enriching an experience are important
contributions for analysis of other experiences (Aho, 2001) as the tourist experience
is often narrated by the tourists themselves (Bendix, 2002). Thus, inferring from these
notions it is established that past travel encounters influence how tourists experience
new travel experiences specially in the context of cultural heritage.

Past Travel Experiences

A tourist experience is “a past personal travel-related event strong enough to have
entered his/her long-term memory” (Larsen, 2007, p. 15). Larsen (2007) further
explains that episodic memory, which refers to an individual’s store of factual
memories concerning personal experiences, is the most relevant to travel. Such travel
related memories are recognised to be unique and subjective (Ritchie & Hudson,
2009). As such, tourists’ memories of past travel experiences are a useful information
source (Braun-La Tour et al., 2006) and recollection of such experiences can even
prompt actions such as repetition of travel experiences (Li, 2000). Further, from a
marketing perspective, past experiences are an important determinant of customer
satisfaction of new experiences (Hwang & Seo, 2016). Drawing from these

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explanations, for the purpose of this study, past travel experiences are identified as
tourists’ memories of travel experiences that serve as information for new
experiences.

The limited yet growing literature on past travel experiences largely focuses on
factors affecting the memorability of past travel experiences and constituents of
memorable experiences (Park & Santos, 2017; Tung & Ritchie, 2011) or impacts of
past travel experiences (Kim et al., 2010; Loureiro, 2014). However, Kim (2010)
highlights that even though studies on memorability of travel experiences are
‘worthwhile and commendable’, a clear gap exists in terms of whether tourists really
recall and reflect on those memories after the actual event, triggering the need to study
this phenomenon expansively.

Interestingly, the consumption of heritage assets generally requires the use of

tourists’ past knowledge, imagination and creativity (Chronis, 2005) indicating a need
to immerse in the experience and actively participate in it. This means that tourists
often engage in the experience mentally and physically (Pine & Gilmore, 1999)
playing the role of both the consumer and producer (Toffler, 1980). Particularly, when
consuming ICH experiences, tourists employ immersive and active techniques such
as socialising with locals, and mirroring locals (Alahakoon & Udunuwara, 2018).
Such immersion and active participation are necessary for ICH because tourists
generally encounter it in the everyday lives of locals with no or little exposure to
formal sources of information at the time of consumption.

Immersion in Consumption Experiences

Immersion is a concept that surfaces as topical in discussions on postmodern
consumption because contemporary consumers seek varied experiences that they can
immerse in (Firat, 2001). Caru and Cova (2006, p. 5) define immersion as “becoming
one with the experience” identifying it as “a total elimination of the distance between
consumers and the situation”. Complementing this definition, Hansen and Mossberg
(2017, p. 2) describes immersion as “total and deep involvement in the present” which
in turn determines whether an experience is extraordinary. Extant studies on
immersion related to tourism focus on areas such as consuming experiences through
immersion (Caru & Cova, 2006; St. James et al., 2018), and factors that facilitate
immersion (Hansen & Mossberg, 2017; Lunardo & Ponsignon, 2020). All these
studies portray immersion as a popular practice that consumers use to connect with
experiences and give meaning to them. Further, within tourism, immersion is
identified as a factor that enhances the memorability of tourist experiences

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(Chandralal & Valenzuela, 2015; Tung & Ritchie, 2011). Yet, its effects on visitor
evaluations of experiences remain to be unexplored within tourism (Lunardo &
Ponsignon, 2020).

For immersion to take place, a consumer should become a participant in

customisation of his/her world by engaging him/herself as an object into the world of
objects (Firat et al., 1995). Such engagement could be mental or physical; either way,
a total immersion in the experience is needed to connect with the environment (Caru
& Cova, 2003). This idea of mental immersion is recognised as absorption by Pine
and Gilmore (1999) when referring to the Experience Economy. Further, as a
consumption experience, immersion takes a more progressive nature and is often “a
moment of intensity that a consumer lives through” (Caru & Cova, 2006, p.10). Given
that past travel experiences are tourists’ memories of travel experiences that serve as
information for new experiences, the recollection and reflection of such experiences
during travel can be considered a mental immersion.

In terms of theories that explain such immersive experiences, the theoretical lens
of the Appropriation Theory surfaces as popular (Caru & Cova, 2006; St. James et
al., 2018). This theory posits that consumers use a sequential process to immerse in
an experience and give meaning to it. As the recollection and reflection of past travel
experiences to interpret new experiences is a form of mental immersion, this study
also considers the Appropriation Theory as a suitable lens to explain the process
tourists go through when interpreting new travel experiences.

Appropriation Theory
The Appropriation Theory is a comprehensive theoretical lens that explains the
process of immersion. In the sphere of marketing, appropriation is a concept that has
been applied to study services (Misfud et al., 2015) and experiences (Caru & Cova,
2006; St. James et al., 2018). Literature endorse the idea that the goal of appropriation
is to connect to an experience by making it one’s own by reducing or eliminating the
physical, mental, or emotional distance between the consumer and the product in
concern (Caru & Cova, 2003, 2006). The process of appropriation involves three
operations: nesting, investigating, and stamping (Aubert-Gamet, 1997; Fischer, as
cited in Caru & Cova, 2006).

The first stage, nesting is where an individual “feels at home because part of the
experience being faced has been isolated, a part that is already familiar because of
one’s accumulated experience and existing foothold in it” (Caru & Cova, 2006, p. 6).

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This means that when experiencing something new, consumers will try to isolate a
familiar element creating a comfortable ‘nest’ from which they can then explore the
rest of the experience (St James et al., 2018). During this stage, consumers feel
comfortable with the new experience based on the mental and physical sensations and
points of anchorage they recognise (Caru & Cova, 2006). Accordingly, nesting is
associated with familiarity, comfort, group membership and control (Hansen &
Mossberg, 2017).

The second stage, investigating, is where “starting from the nest that has been
built up in this fashion, the individual explores and identifies new products or
activities so as to develop points of anchorage and control (i.e., signposts)” enhancing
knowledge of the context of the experience and progressively extending one’s
territory (Caru & Cova, 2006, p. 6). This means that investigating is a progressive
exploration of elements of an experience that are not so familiar to the consumer
going beyond familiar elements (Hansen & Mossberg, 2017; St James et al., 2018).
To do this, consumers often engage in various investigating operations such as
mirroring actions (St James et al., 2018) and observations (Caru & Cova, 2006).

The third and final stage, stamping, is where “individuals use creativity to play
around with the experience’s context subjectively and to imbue it with their own
personal meaning” (Caru & Cova, 2006, p. 6). That is, it is in this stage that consumers
will engage in meaning making (Hansen & Mossberg, 2017). Thus, during stamping
consumers attach a subjective and unique meaning to the experience informed by
their own ‘personal story’ (St James et al., 2018). Through this, the consumer will
interpret the final experience or a part of it making their own meaning attachments
which could even be different to the commonly accepted meaning. Thus, as illustrated
in Figure 1 below, the Appropriation Theory identifies that individuals’ meaning
assignment to new experiences are attributable to the process of immersion, where
they first find a comfort zone through familiar elements, then progressively go beyond
that comfort zone to finally use their own memories and creativity to interpret those
experiences.

Figure 1: Visual Representation of the Appropriation Theory

Nesting Investigating Stamping

Source: Based on explanations by Caru and Cova (2006)

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Methodology
This paper set out to explore how tourists construct meaning of ICH experiences.
Given the newness of the research focus, a qualitative methodological approach was
employed. Accordingly, narrations of tourists who visited Sri Lanka, which were
collected through one-to-one semi-structured interviews were used.

Sri Lanka is an ideal destination focus for this study because cultural tourism is
acknowledged to be a growth area for Sri Lanka tourism (Liyanag & Jayawardena,
2013). Further, many researchers hold the view that Sri Lanka has a rich cultural
heritage that is part of a tourist’s journey (Alahakoon & Udunuwara, 2018; Blundell,
2013; O’Hare & Barrett, 1993; Wimalaratana, 2016). This cultural heritage includes
components of ICH because it is constructed around religious practices, meditation,
yoga, folk music and dances, festivities, ceremonies and rituals apart from historical
monuments and ancient cities (Wimalaratana, 2016). Even then, studies on ICH in
Sri Lanka are community-specific (Blundell, 2013; Wijetunga & Sung; 2015), where
other areas are not explored, particularly in a holistic way taking Sri Lanka as a tourist
destination, providing a significant contextual opportunity for this study. It is also
noteworthy that only four categories of ICH consisting of 1) gastronomy and culinary
practices, 2) social practices, rituals, and festive events, 3) music and the performing
arts, and 4) practices concerning nature and the universe (simplified as livelihoods of
locals) are considered in this study as these are the categories that are mostly
experienced by tourists in Sri Lanka (Alahakoon & Udunuwara, 2018).

Further, as the study required the researcher to explore the phenomenon of

investigation as felt by the tourists themselves, a phenomenological stance was taken.
This means that this study explored “knowledge as it appears to consciousness, or to
the immediate awareness and experience” focusing on “the living immediacy of
experience as the individual lives it” (Chronis, 2005, p. 215).

As such, a purposive homogeneous sampling technique was employed to recruit

participants based on their ability to provide rich information (Patton, as cited in
Braun & Clarke, 2013). Accordingly, individuals 1) who are European, 2) who visited
Sri Lanka during the year 2017, 3) for the purpose of pleasure/holiday were recruited
with the help of snowballing which commenced with the researcher’s own contacts.
As a result, 21 European tourists who visited Sri Lanka during the months of July to
December 2017 were interviewed by the researcher herself. The sample
characteristics are presented in Table 1. Thirteen of the interviews were conducted
face-to-face in tourist accommodations in Sri Lanka, while 8 interviews were

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conducted through Skype as those tourists had already returned to their home
countries. Data saturation occurred at the 19th interview.

Table 1: Sample Characteristics

Name* Gender Age (in Purpose of travel Travel with Visitor

years) status
Sacha Male 18-30 Pleasure/holiday Alone First time
Lorenzo Male 41-50 Business/pleasure/holiday Alone Repeat
Nayden Male 18-30 Pleasure/holiday With partner First time
Maja Female Over 61 Pleasure/holiday With partner Repeat
Valter Male Over 61 Pleasure/holiday With partner Repeat
Ben Male Over 61 Pleasure/holiday Alone Repeat
Elena Female 51-60 Business/pleasure/holiday Alone Repeat
Simone Female 18-30 Pleasure/holiday Friends First time
Oscar Male 18-30 Pleasure/holiday With partner First time
Ruben Male 51-60 Pleasure/holiday With partner First time
Mila Female Over 61 Pleasure/holiday With partner First time
Leonie Female 18-30 Studies/pleasure/holiday With friends First time
Sophie Female 18-30 Pleasure/holiday With partner First time
Joshua Male 31-40 Pleasure/holiday With partner First time
Hannah Female 18-30 Pleasure/holiday With partner First time
Clara Female 18-30 Studies/pleasure/holiday With friends First time
Felix Male 18-30 Pleasure/holiday With partner First time
Noah Male 31-40 Pleasure/holiday With partner First time
Lina Female 31-40 Pleasure/holiday With partner Repeat
Tess Female 18-30 Research/pleasure/holiday Alone First time
Isaac Male 41-50 Pleasure/holiday With family First time

Note: *All names are pseudonyms

Data analysis followed a thematic analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2013),
while data interpretation was done using the theoretical lens of the Appropriation
Theory, with Caru and Cova’s (2006) study as a reference point. At the start of the
data analysis process, all audio-recorded interviews were transcribed by the author
herself as transcribing was considered as part of the analysis (Kvale, 2007). Then, the
transcripts were read and re-read to immerse in the data (Braun & Clarke, 2013). With
these readings, coding commenced where the researcher noted different actions taken
by participants when interpreting ICH experiences. As presented in Table 2, the
emerging themes mapped on to the three stages of appropriation - nesting,
investigating, and stamping.

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Table 2: Theme Descriptions and Codes

Theme Description Codes

• Reflecting on immediate travel
Nesting Ways in which tourists
experiences at the destination
identify familiar elements in
a new ICH experience • Reflecting on past travel experiences
in culturally similar destinations
• Relating to non-travel cultural
exposures
Investigating Techniques used by tourists • Engagement/conversations with
to explore a new ICH locals
experience • Observation/imitation of locals
• Evaluation of the authenticity of the
experience
• Evaluation of the level of
commodification of the experience by
service and experience providers
Stamping New meanings assigned to • Religion-related interpretations
ICH encounters • Locals’ values-related interpretations
• Locals’ lifestyle-related
interpretations

To establish trustworthiness, Guba’s constructs (Shenton, 2004) which consists

of credibility (i.e., presenting a true picture), transferability (i.e., providing sufficient
details about the context), dependability (i.e., enabling repetition of the study), and
confirmability (i.e., showing that the findings emerge from the data) were considered.
Accordingly, credibility was addressed by establishing ecological validity by
considering tourist encounters in Sri Lanka in their living immediacy (Braun &
Clarke, 2013). This credibility was further strengthened in the data collection stage
by encouraging participants to provide honest opinions, and in the data interpretation
stage by presenting clear think narratives and evidence from past literature (Shenton,
2004). Transferability was ensured by disclosing the specific context in which the
study was conducted, sample characteristics of the participants, and the data analysis
process (Braun & Clarke, 2013; Shenton, 2004). Then, to meet the criteria of
dependability, a clear description of the theoretical lens, data analysis, and theme
descriptions have been given. Finally, for confirmability and to ensure that researcher
bias is minimised, think narratives of the participants are accompanied by engaging
descriptions closely informed by the selected theoretical lens.

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Findings and Discussion

Nesting
During the first stage of appropriation - nesting, individuals isolate familiar
elements of an experience using points of anchorage thus becoming comfortable with
it (Caru & Cova, 2006). This isolation is the first step that helps consumers create a
comfortable nest from which they can safely explore other new aspects of the
experience (St James et al., 2018). Demonstrating this phenomenon, participants
expressed that because of their past travel experiences, they “knew about”, “felt
familiar” and “recognised” certain elements of new ICH experiences they
encountered in Sri Lanka. For example, Maja (female, above 61 years, Swedish)
describes how previous conversations with locals (i.e., point of anchorage) helped her
with the experience of going to a Buddhist temple (i.e., ICH category of social
practices, rituals and festive events) creating a sense of familiarity of the expected
behaviour.
When we went on tours before, we have been in a car ourselves but the driver, I mean
we found that he was really good he would tell us when we were going to a temple
what we should wear, how to behave. It was really good. So, when we went to the
temples, we knew what to do and didn’t feel lost.

Another similar instance of how a past travel experience supported the creation
of a comfortable nest is demonstrated in Oscar’s (male, 18-30 years, Danish)
explanation below. He expresses that his food experiences in India (i.e., point of
anchorage) helped him enjoy Sri Lankan cuisine (i.e., ICH category of gastronomy
and culinary practices).
Yeah about the food, I probably compared it to like some of the other countries in
Asia, specially India. It probably looks like the same as India, but I like the Sri
Lankan food more actually than India.

Going beyond travel experiences, for Noah (male, 31-40 years, German), an
experience of cooking with a known Sri Lankan family back at home (i.e., point of
anchorage) created the familiarity needed to learn about new food preparation
techniques (i.e., ICH category of gastronomy and culinary practices) during his trip
in Sri Lanka.
Yeah, we had a chance to do a cooking lesson in our second hotel. The chef did a
cooking lesson to show us how he makes a sambal and a chicken curry. It was very
nice and that is what we did to learn. It was a mixed thing, we could assist the chef.
You know we could assist him when making the chicken curry and also the sambal.
Because we have cooked with that Sri Lankan family before we recognised some
things it was easy for us to catch up and remember it. Yeah, we enjoyed that one.

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Thus, consistent with findings by St James et al. (2018) these excerpts

demonstrate how past travel experiences like in the case of Maja and Oscar and past
non-travel cultural exposures like in the case of Noah served as points of anchorage
to create a ‘nest’ or a sense of familiarity with new ICH experiences helping them
comprehend and enjoy those experiences more. This connection tourists build, and
feel are important in the context of heritage experiences because it is considered as
‘the essence’ of such encounters (Chronis, 2005).

Investigating
During the second stage of appropriation - investigating, individuals explore
elements of an experience that they find unfamiliar using different techniques. For
example, St James et al. (2018) show that film tourists follow two approaches for this:
investigating the plot and characters on-site (i.e., by exploring new areas and re-
enacting certain scenes) and revisiting the film (i.e., by watching the film again or
showing intention of watching). Further, Caru and Cova (2006) identify observing
events and discovering positive or negative aspects of experiences as investigating.
Consistent with these, when experiencing ICH, tourists evidently exhibit six visitor
behaviours that include attending religious rituals, ceremonies, festivals and events;
gathering knowledge; socialising with locals; mirroring locals; observing locals and
their practices and activities; and reliving the local culture (Alahakoon & Udunuwara,
2018). More specifically, engagement and conversations with locals, and observation
and imitation of locals’ behaviour appeared as relevant to the stage of investigating.
The following excerpt from the interview of Isaac (male, 41-50 years, British)
exemplifies how he enjoyed the practice of eating with his hand (i.e., ICH category
of gastronomy and culinary practices) for the first-time using visitor behaviours of
observing locals and mirroring them (i.e., investigating).
When I was at a homestay in Sigiriya [a popular travel destination in Sri Lanka], I
tried eating with my hands. My host said I did a good job [laughs]. That is because
I could remember how the locals ate at the restaurant, I told you about. It was
difficult but I was ok but my friend whom I got to know during the trip struggled. It's
strange how the food actually tasted better like that [laughs].

Apart from such personal investigating techniques, Caru and Cova (2006) and St
James et al. (2018) show that third parties such as a ‘Maestro’ in a concert and a tour
operator in the context of film tourism play important roles in reducing distance with
an experience by providing guidance and knowledge to visitors. A similar finding
manifests from this study where locals such as the tour guides, drivers, staff and the
public consciously or unconsciously, facilitated the stage of investigating by

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providing the required guidance and knowledge for tourists. Such engagement with
locals is considered to have a positive influence on ICH experiences of tourists
(Lopez-Guzman & Gonzalez Santa-Cruz, 2016). This is demonstrated in Hannah’s
(female, 18-30 years, German) comment below showing how the presence of a local
friend facilitated meaning attachment for a new ICH experience: a visit to a Hindu
temple (i.e., ICH category of social practices, rituals and festive events).
Um I think it was the first trip to the Hindu temple with a friend of Janina [referring
to a friend] because they were explaining everything. So, we ask her about everything
about the gods: Why do you clap three times? Why you have to walk around this? It
was really, really interesting.

Another key discussion regarding investigating is the role of service and

experience providers. As St James et al. (2018) highlight, ‘staged’ references might
lessen the authenticity of tourist experiences, where phrases like “it’s not real
anymore” were expressed by their participants while some even questioned the
ethicality of it. Even though authenticity of tourist experiences takes different
approaches (Wang, 1999) the definition of authenticity as given by Sharpley (1994
as cited in Wang, 1999, p. 350-351), where it stands for “traditional culture and origin,
a sense of the genuine, and the real or the unique” is seen as most appropriate here.
Besides, ICH is often synonymous with authenticity (Wesener, 2017) with ICH
elements such as locals, their customs and presence of religious practitioners
perceived as indicators of authenticity (Nguyen & Cheung, 2016). Complementing
the idea presented by St James et al. (2018), participants of this study also expressed
that they prefer more authentic ICH experiences. For example, Tess’s (female, 18-30
years, Dutch) comment on village experiences given below display both aspects of
how experiences staged during a visit can be viewed as unrealistic and unethical. That
is, she points out that even though a village experience (i.e., ICH category of
knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe) is important to get to
know ways of life of locals, she has ethical concerns regarding this due to the invasion
of privacy and disruption of the villagers’ life.
On the one hand I agree that it’s important to see because it’s nice to see for a tourist
a village and how people live in their day to day. But for me there is - are ethical
issues. Because it shouldn’t become an experience like a zoo because that’s where
they live. You know taking pictures. It’s a very dangerous zone to be in. You don’t
know when it’s real and it’s fake. So, you have to take permission to take photos. So,
there is an ethical issue.

Thus, it is evident that an individual’s beliefs and values about authenticity pulls
them back from further investigating certain experiences. This is an idea that surfaces

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in heritage literature where commodification of heritage assets was found to have a

negative effect on perceptions of authenticity of those assets (Nguyen & Cheung,
2016). Therefore, labelling experiences as ‘fake’ or ‘unethical’ could hinder the
tourist experience as they often result in rejection of the experience or
disappointment. Echoing this idea, some participants expressed a dislike to
experiences they identified as ‘fake’. For example, Clara (female, 18-30 years, Dutch)
feels like the way service and experience providers try to portray certain experiences
as authentic is just a ‘marketing trick’ raising a red flag to staged performances and
events.
I've been seeing quite some places where they say you can have authentic food... it
doesn't seem natural in some way. Of course, you can see some authentic things here
but, sometimes I feel like it's a marketing trick for people to jump into that.

Apart from staged experiences, some environmental factors can act as barriers
for investigating an experience (St James et al., 2018). The excessive
commodification of tourist experiences can be identified as one such barrier,
particularly in the context of heritage sites (Chronis, 2005). This was found to be true
regarding ICH experiences as well. As such, ‘touristy’ sites and experiences
characterised by over pricing and overcrowding negatively affect the stage of
investigating creating a further disconnect from new experiences. This can also result
in negative tourist behaviours and intentions such as negative word of mouth as in the
case of Leonie (female, 18-30 years, German).
So, if I would advise someone to always like if you have the chance then always go
off the main tourist path and try to experience stuff like that because most of the time
they are more authentic…if you have the chance always like take the chance and go
to a family eat rice and curry or go on the Perahara [a parade] with friends or see
a dancing in a concert in small setting where no other foreigners are…

Overall, when tourists are in the stage of investigating, the influence of third
parties evidently facilitates the process of investigating while concerns regarding
authenticity and excessive commercialisation impede the process.

Stamping
In the third and final stage of appropriation - stamping, consumers engage in
meaning making related to the experience. Such meaning is built through the
development of impressions of a situation and the meaning attributed to those
situations (Caru & Cova, 2006). This aligns with the idea that it is not tourist
destinations that are important in creating tourist experiences, but the individual
tourist him/herself (Larsen, 2007). Caru and Cova (2006) identify such meaning

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attachment through statements like ‘it seems to me’, ‘in my opinion’ and other
common meanings referring to feelings of well-being, growth and gratification. They
further add that the consumer’s own history, relationships with family members or
friends, and past aesthetic experiences affect the meaning they give to an experience.
Similar evidence from this study demonstrates this in the context of ICH.

Accordingly, it is evident that meanings attributed to ICH experiences commonly

revolve around the importance given to religion in local activities, the hardworking
nature of locals, their values, and relaxed lifestyle. One such example is visible in
Mila’s (female, above 61 years, Dutch) observation of a difference in the gender
representation of men vs. women at work in Sri Lanka compared to other Asian
countries she has travelled to. She then attributes the presence of religious diversity
as a reason why it could be so. Such imaginative interpretations are a known
facilitator of tourists’ connection to heritage experiences at travel destinations
(Chronis, 2005).
… if you think about something specially Sri Lankan, you see a lot of men working
and in other Asian countries you see a lot more women working and could be because
there are Hindu people here, Buddhist people here and Christians and Muslims…

Thus, it is apparent that past travel experiences help tourists prepare and make
sense of new experiences related to ICH specially in the absence of formal sources of
information. However, it should be cautioned that such past travel experiences affect
the sense of novelty and uniqueness of new experiences. For example, Leonie
(female, 18-30 years, German) describes how two people (i.e., herself who was not
familiar with the culture of Sri Lanka and a friend who had previous experience with
a similar culture) reacted to the same experience differently.
…a friend of mine she has been to India before so she already knew how the
similarities to the Sri Lankan culture and how it’s going to be and how she
experienced some stuff while I’m so overwhelmed but other stuff because she had
seen it once before and I see it for the first time of my life and I’m just so overwhelmed
and impressed and talk about it for ages…

These evidences illustrate how tourists go through the stages of nesting,

investigating and stamping to construct the meaning of new ICH experiences using
their accumulated past travel and at times non-travel cultural exposures.

The Chain of Reflective Experiences

Apart from illustrating how tourists attach meaning to ICH experiences, findings
show that discrete experiences created in different places and times are connected

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because of tourists’ recollection and reflection of past travel experiences. This is

because of the synergistic effects created when tourists carry forward memories of
one experience to construct meaning of another experience. This idea is apparent in
Ben’s description on how witnessing a ceremonial gathering of locals in Thailand
helped him give meaning to a new ICH experience in Sri Lanka. Specifically, the
recollection of a past travel experience helped Ben create a sense of familiarity with
the new encounter (i.e., nesting), prompting him to observe the event more closely
(i.e., investigating), resulting in an interpretation related to locals’ attitude towards
and treatment of religious clergy (i.e., stamping). A further example is illustrated in
Felix’s explanation of his food experience where he drew parallels between
consumption practices in Sri Lanka and Spanish cuisine (i.e., nesting) to deduce
expected behaviour (i.e., stamping).
The only thing I’d say is the Buddhist monks and how everybody reveres them so
much here. I was out Sunday night in town they must have been quite important
monks, because they had a lot of followers. I don’t know who they were I was just
passing them. They were all lined up in a street which is nice to see that those are
respected by all the local people. I was in Thailand last year when the king died. It
was the same thing there. There was a big outpouring by the local people. I think the
same thing happens here (Ben, male, above 61 years, British)
For me it reminded me of tapas. You know what tapas is like. There were many
several dishes across the table…and you want to try them all so you avoid eating too
much of one thing to make sure you taste all of the foods (Felix, male, 18-30 years,
Danish)

Other than past travel experiences, non-travel cultural exposures also provide
nests on which further investigation of new ICH experiences are done. For example,
Felix further draws from experiences related to his own religious practices to give
meaning to rituals he witnessed at a Buddhist temple. Accordingly, the recollection
and reflection of church practices at home (i.e., nesting), prompted him to critically
observe Buddhist rituals (i.e., investigating), which he then attributed to the ‘serious’
religious values locals hold (i.e., stamping).
…people gathered and they have these rows and everyone was just skipping past you
instead of like having like a normal queue to go watch the tooth [referring to a sacred
relic worshipped by Buddhists]. So, we skipped the line and went straight for the
prayers…But you seemed pretty serious about your religion. Everything just stops
for minute and you start praying. It is different from Denmark because there is no
time for praying except for a marriage or for Christmas.

This phenomenon of interconnected travel experiences also highlights the

scattered nature of tourist experiences across different spaces as opposed to residing

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at a single point where the experience is staged or encountered. Encapsulating this

idea that discrete travel experiences which are geographically and temporally
separated influence each other, ‘the chain of reflective experiences’ is proposed with
theoretical underpinning in the Appropriation Theory. This notion that experiences
are interrelated (Florida, 2002) and have synergistic effects (Laing et al., 2014) exists
in literature but is not explored as a holistic concept using evidence. Thus, the chain
of reflective experiences proposes that through a process of nesting, investigating and
stamping tourists use geographically and temporally separated travel experiences to
make sense of new travel experiences as demonstrated using the specific travel
context of ICH.

Using the Appropriation Theory, the chain of reflective experiences illustrates

that tourists’ recollection of and reflection on past travel experiences create a sense
of familiarity by becoming anchorage points (i.e. nesting), helping them get
comfortable with new elements of a travel experience, which they will investigate
further using techniques such as attending religious rituals, ceremonies, festivals and
events; gathering knowledge; socialising with locals; mirroring locals; and observing
locals and their practices (i.e. investigating), resulting in subjective meaning
assignment (i.e., stamping) specially in the context of ICH. As this cycle of
recollection and reflection seems to be continuous, stamping done on one experience
can become a nest in another, giving rise to the idea of a ‘cycle’. Caru and Cova
(2006) also acknowledges the occurrence of mini cycles of nesting during the
experience of watching a classical music concert. As they point out, this is mainly
because nesting provides a starting point to some experiences and a finishing point to
others. Thus, this phenomenon shows how experiences consumed in different spaces
and times affect each other creating synergistic effects resulting in a ‘chain of
reflective experiences’ that enriches tourist experiences.

The main implication of the chain of reflective experiences is that experiences

that serve as nests for tourists help them prepare for other experiences reducing the
uncertainty associated with such experiences. Rogoff (1995) describes a concept
identified as participatory appropriation, which is similar to this idea. Participatory
appropriation is where, “the personal process by which, through engagement in an
activity, individuals change and handle a later situation in ways prepared by their own
participation in the previous situation” (Rogoff,1995, p. 3). Holt (1995) suggests that
to a large extent, consumers conjure up competencies to become the main builders
and co-creators of the consumption experience. Further, in this process, the autonomy
tourists have during an experience contributes to the degree of immersion (Lunardo

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& Ponsignon, 2020). Aligning with these propositions, this paper suggests that such
preparedness as identified by Rogoff (1995) and competencies as identified by Holt
(1995) are built through past travel experiences of tourists. This is exemplified in
Noah’s (male, 31- 40 years, German) description of a visit to a temple in Sri Lanka.
This description indicates that past experiences and knowledge prepares tourists to
make sense of and behave in a way that they perceive as appropriate during new
cultural encounters.
Then we visited some temples but we didn’t see any special events in these temples.
I think we knew this before and we were prepared for it you know [laughs]. That we
have to take our shoes off, the girls had to wear something over the knees and over
the shoulders. So we knew about it and we had to do this…We tried to not to stand
in front of the Buddha and not to show our back to Buddha you know what I
mean...We wanted to give respect to the people who are living there and meditating.

Theoretical and Practical Implications

The theoretical implications of this paper are two-fold. Firstly, in response to calls
for research to study memory dimensions such as recollections (Manthiou et al.,
2014), past experiences (Loureiro, 2014) and the effect past experiences have on new
experiences (Hwang & Seo, 2016) within experience literature, and meaning
generation (Freeman, 2010) and memory creation (Kim, 2010) of ICH in heritage
literature, this study establishes that tourists go through a process of nesting,
investigating and stamping to construct meaning of ICH experiences, especially in
the absence of formal sources of information. With that, this study puts forward the
Appropriation Theory as a useful tool to explain how tourists construct meaning of
travel experiences. Secondly, this paper initiates a discussion on the chain of
reflective experiences which is a holistic concept that encapsulates the idea that
experiences that are separated geographically and temporally are interrelated with
synergistic effects. This is different to how experiences are currently viewed by some
scholars such as Pine and Gilmore (1999) who focused on experiences generated at a
particular point of time in a specific place. In summary, using the context of ICH
experiences, this paper suggests that the process of recollection and reflection of past
travel experiences, create rich travel experiences even though the resulting meaning
attachments are subjective and different to what might be envisioned by destination
marketers and the host community.

For practitioners, this research has few implications. One is that even though
subjective interpretations of travel experiences by tourists are inevitable, Destination
Management Organisations (DMOs) should take necessary steps to reduce

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misinterpretations of ICH experiences. Provision of sufficient information to tourists

through information boards and educating them about the destination’s people and
livelihoods prior to visitation are some possible solutions. However, in doing so, it is
important to consider the dilemma of whether such a planned approach of presenting
ICH might reduce the authenticity of the encounter which evidently act as a barrier
for tourists to connect with it. Overall, this paper provides useful insights to
practitioners on the overlooked phenomenon of how tourists attach meaning to new
and unfamiliar experiences which will help them better plan and market their offers.

Limitations and Further Research

This research was limited to European tourists to whom ICH experiences in a
destination like Sri Lanka is quite novel and out-of-the-ordinary. Thus, their process
of giving meaning to such experiences might largely differ from tourists representing
other geographic regions such as tourists with South Asian backgrounds, whose
cultures have greater similarities to the Sri Lankan culture, and therefore, could have
closer parallels to their everyday life. This opens new research possibilities of
replicating the study for other tourist demographics. Further a practical constraint of
the chain of reflective experiences is that, as an independent organisation, a DMO or
a tourism service or experience provider will not be able to control or even manage
the interrelatedness and synergistic effects of these temporally and spatially diverse
experiences. However, at higher levels of tourism planning, when defining the overall
tourist experience, this can be considered. In doing so DMOs should be mindful not
to adapt ICH to suit needs and expectations of tourists as they are currently
understood; because that could result in a loss of authenticity (Lenzerini, 2011). In
addition to the above, it should be noted that this paper only provides preliminary
evidence for the chain of reflective experiences and further research is needed to
establish this concept more concretely.

Conclusion
This paper set out to understand how tourists give meaning to ICH experiences
through the recollection and reflection of their own past travel experiences. In line
with this, findings illustrate that when tourists encounter new ICH experiences, past
travel experiences create a sense of familiarity with new experiences supporting
further investigation of those experiences, finally resulting in subjective meaning
assignments. Such meaning assignment was evident to be very personal and unique
and at times different to the meaning attributed by destination marketers and the host
community. This indicates that tourists often create their own interpretations of the

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ICH of a destination. Deriving from these findings, this paper proposes ‘the chain of
reflective experiences’, a holistic concept of viewing how tourists construct meaning
of travel experiences.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and publication of this article.

Acknowledgements
Comments given by Dr UKMI Udunuwara, Professor JASK Jayakody, Dr AKL
Jayawardana, and Professor Twan Huybers to improve this paper are acknowledged
with much appreciation.

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