An introduction 3
more experience we gain, and we want to further develop our skills and
get answers to our questions (Savener, 2013). The experience logic, with
its emotional approach, is also considered to have replaced the product and
service logic, which rather satisfies material, logical and functional needs.
Experiences are, for example, based on stories, rituals, symbolism, interac-
tion and presence. Experiences that make us engage our senses and that
create personal meaning therefore have greater potential to contribute to
learning, simply because the experience inputs reach and are consumed on
a deeper personal level (
Falk et al., ). In tourism research, the experi-
ential learning models of Kolb (1984) have been applied, for example, to understanding how augmented reality can enhance learning in cultural her-
itage tourism (
Moorhouse et al., 2017), how to use virtual reality to enhance
tourism students’ learning in relation to the climate crisis (Schott, 2017) and how eco-tourism and wildlife tourism can use experience-based learning to make visitors adapt or change behaviours upon their return back home (
Ballantyne & Packer, 2011).
Another central theoretical concept is transformative learning, which
also comes from the educational sciences. Learning takes place in an “ongo-
ing knowledge building process” (Gipps, 1999 , p. 372) and the learning
process therefore often has the ability to change thoughts, opinions, actions and worldviews (Mezirow, 1990; Reisinger, 2013). Knowledge also gives
self-confidence, controls our actions and choices and helps us understand our own identity and role in society (Reisinger, 2015). According to Mezi-
row (2009), critical reflection is required for us to confront and begin to renegotiate our beliefs and assumptions, which in turn may cause us to change our actions and behaviours when we are reintegrated into society (i.e. back from our vacation, in the case of tourism). This transformative learning process has been adapted in tourism research to some extent, nota-
bly in relation to volunteer tourism (
Coghlan & ; Müller et al.,
2020) and ecotourism (Walter, 2016; Sen & Walter, 2020). Räikkönen et al.
(2021) also argues for the possibility of transformative learning experiences in the context of nature-based tourism.
In this book, and in accordance with Kolb’s (1984) and Mezirow’s (1990)
theories, we assume that tourism experiences can contribute to transform-
ative learning and ultimately lead to sustainable development as a result of increased personal and world awareness acquired by confrontation with and immersion in new knowledge as a result of travelling. Sustain-
able tourism as a concept has in recent decades developed to include not only ecological but also economic, cultural, social and political sustainable development through changes in behaviour and social systems (Bramwell
et al., ). When different interests meet, goal conflicts are created, for
example between conservation and development. Knowledge provides