Co-Creation of the Tourist Experience via Internet: Towards Exploring a New Practice

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the potential value added to the concept of value co-creation applied to the tourism sector and to investigate how tourists can conceive their participation through the Internet in the design of their trip with tourist producers. To do so, a survey was conducted on tourists in Morocco who have never used this practice which still does not exist locally. The objective behind this choice is to explore whether this new approach will raise the interest of the tourists and be accepted as an innovative way to live differently the tourist experience. The results of the descriptive analysis showed that Moroccan tourists – by using the Internet – think they can create value by being involved in the process which makes them satisfied. It would be stimulating as a future research to test tourists’ satisfaction after living an experience they really co-created. After all, co-creation is still a new concept in tourism that will be developed through further research and become a real trend. Especially tourists are currently looking for meaning, support, interaction, involvement, participation, authenticity, personalization of offers and unique experience. This article opens up new paths of research and allows tourist producers to know the future trends in this sector.