Memorable experience studies in wellness tourism: systematic review & bibliometric analysis
Shakila Dahanayake, W.M.C.B. Wanninayake, Ruwan Ranasinghe
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate, summarize, and synthesize existing reviews of evidence relevant to memorable tourism experiences (MTE) and wellness tourism phenomena. An existing review of evidence and the contributions of publications from numerous scientific domains, extracted using Web of Science and Google Scholar databases, extending from 2010 to 2022, on memorable tourism experiences and wellness tourism phenomena, were comprehensively examined, summarised, and synthesised through systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis, employing VOSviewer software. Findings revealed key phrases in scientific publications predominantly on MTE in determining its antecedents, behavioral intentions, attachment to destinations, modelling MTE, and experiences associated with different niche tourism forms; yet, wellness tourism was not outlined among the key phrases. Though recent scholars have meticulously explored MTE, focusing diverse niche tourism forms, being an emergent niche tourist form, wellness tourism shows no evidence in MTE studies, indicating literature and empirical gap. Numerous standard and distinctive dimensions to measure MTE in diverse niche tourism forms, particularly the forms identified as sub-sections of wellness tourism, were identified that would be useful to develop MTE scale on wellness in future. Thus, identifying specific constructs to develop a scale on memorable wellness tourism experiences is suggested while recommending a separate scale.