Memorable experiences in rural tourism : Study of Rural areas from Cluj Napoca County, Romania

Sammanfattning: With the shift nowadays towards an experience economy, the increased attention placed on memorable experiences and how to stage them can be viewed as a major trend which can act as a source of information regarding the stories that people share about themselves and their self-perceptions, as well as helping businesses make a step towards their guests. In this vein, rural tourism is highly consumed by people searching for these unique and memorable experiences, but the knowledge on tourists’ experiences in a rural setting are very limited. Therefore, this paper seeks to examine what memorable experiences tourists encounter in the rural setting, and more importantly, why were they memorable. In order to answer these questions, the researcher undertook a qualitative approach and in depth semi structured interviews were conducted with people who travelled in the Cluj Napoca County from Romania. The findings revealed an amalgam of experiences that people encounter in the rural setting, combined with various reasons why the experiences were considered memorable in the eyes of respondents. The main findings show how the optimal memorable tourism experience is usually comprised of several factors involving multiple experiential dimensions, and an important influence is represented by social interactions alongside positive emotions.