The best tourism island destination in the world and meaningful experiences: a systematic literature review

• Autor(a) principal: Garcês, Soraia
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Pocinho, Margarida, Jesus, Saul Neves de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/3616
• topic: Culture/Heritage; Madeira (Portugal); Meaningful experiences; Nature; Porto Santo, Madeira (Portugal); Tourism; Experiências significativas; Natureza; Património cultural; Turismo; .; Faculdade de Artes e Humanidades

Madeira Island is the World’ Leading Island Destination for the last four years. As a winning destination it is vital to understand how the new “economy experience” is being acknowledged, since tourism is seeing a shift where meaningful experiences are crucial. The goal was to identify the variables being studied in Madeira tourism and if ‘experience’ is part of product offers. A systematic literature review was used with the terms: ‘Madeira’, ‘Porto Santo’ and ‘Tourism’. Application of inclusion/exclusion criteria led to a final sample of 30 references. Three major themes being empathized in Madeira tourism were found: a) nature; b) culture/heritage and c) economy/marketing. Experience is being intro duced on tourism product offers, however a lack of research focused on ‘meaningful experiences’ linked to personal growth and tourists’ personal characteristics was discovered. Implications to theory and practice are discussed.