Dimensões da experiência turística memorável no conteúdo gerado pelos usuários: um estudo com turistas argentinos que visitaram o destino Natal (Brasil)

Abstract

In the eagerness to understand the tourist experience, that construct emerges as a key concept for the Field of Tourism Studies, immersed in the middle of incessant academic debates between the perspectives of the Human and Social Sciences and those from Marketing and Management. The search for a consensus on the dimensions and phases of the mentioned construct becomes complex due to its subjective load and the diversity of gazes. On the other hand, besides influencing tourists’ decision-making process, user-generated content on the Internet (UGC) is also a pathway to reconstruct the memorable tourist experience (MTE). Since 2013, Argentina has represented the main international outbound tourists’ market for the destination Natal. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the dimensions of the MTE of Argentines who visited the destination Natal (Brazil) reflected in the UGC published by those visitors. To achieve that, an exploratory and descriptive research is presented from the argentine tourist’s perspective reflected in UGC published in the virtual community TripAdvisor, complemented with a systematized review of international literature. Data analysis is based on a hermeneutic-interpretive mixed-methods approach, both quantitative and qualitative, about the MTE dimensions in a general way and focusing on four specific aspects during the tourist trip: displacement, accommodation, gastronomy and on-site activities. Both content and discourse analyses were applied, with the support of research software, on a total sample of 1.450 online travel reviews. Among the results of the analysis, there is a predominance of perceived quality as an emerging dimension, and of the aesthetic dimension. Contemplation of the landscape and the environment is a relevant element. The trend in the perception of experience presents a high polarization among tourists among Argentine tourists, who are interested in participating in the processes of co-creation of the tourist experience with other tourists. The gastronomic experience presents the best evaluation among Argentine tourists, as opposed to the experience of displacement. Buenos Aires stands out as the main outbound region of Argentine tourists who publish their experience about destination Natal. We conclude that it is possible to identify cognitiveaffective dimensions of the MTE in UGC, and that the MTE of argentine tourists who visited destination Natal is emotionally positive and with a passive participation, based mainly on aesthetic, hedonist and consumption-based values. Regarding the theoretical contributions, the present dissertation offers an enhanced comprehension of the nature of the tourist experience and the cognitive-affective dimensions of the MTE throughout the tourist journey. The study also epistemologically explores different theoretical perspectives about the tourist experience, co-created among the actors of the tourism system. A theoretical-methodological framework is proposed from an aspect-based Small Data perspective, with practical implications for the destination in order to obtain a thick and deep knowledge about the Argentine tourists experience and, thus, to improve the international incoming tourism politics, planning and management.