Geographies of Personalisation and Immersion in Tourism Experiencescape
Guest Editors
Dr. Eleni Michopoulou, University of Derby, UK
Prof. Nikolaos Pappas, University of Northumbria, UK
Dr Maria Manuela Guerreiro, University of Algarve, Portugal
Professor Patricia Pinto, University of Algarve, Portugal
Dr. Eleni Michopoulou, University of Derby, UK
Prof. Nikolaos Pappas, University of Northumbria, UK
Dr Maria Manuela Guerreiro, University of Algarve, Portugal
Professor Patricia Pinto, University of Algarve, Portugal
This Special Issue is linked to THE INC 2026, the official international conference of ATHENA (Association of Tourism Hospitality and Events Networks in Academia), on the theme “Personalisation and Immersive Experiences in Tourism, Hospitality and Events.” The conference will be held from 17–19 June 2026, in the Algarve, Portugal. Submissions are welcome from conference participants and authors beyond the event.
Themes and Scope
The geographies of contemporary tourism are increasingly oriented toward experiences that are emotionally resonant, personally tailored, and rich in meaning (Chan et al., 2025; Skinner, 2025; Zheng et al., 2019). This transition reflects broader socio-cultural transformations in tourist expectations, which are challenging conventional paradigms of experience design and delivery. Tourism providers face increasingly complex and often competing demands to deliver bespoke, value-driven experiences, frequently within the constraints of limited financial and human resources. These challenges are especially evident in liminal or transitional tourism landscapes—such as post-industrial sites, seasonal destinations, or peripheral rural regions—where spatial and temporal instabilities complicate the delivery of consistent, high-quality services (Bristow & Jenkins, 2020).
Within such diverse geographical contexts, the tension between the pursuit of highly personalised, immersive experiences and the structural limitations of tourism systems becomes especially pronounced (Weaver, 2018; Butler, 2025). The recent special issue in Tourism Geographies, Dark Tourism and Spectral Geographies, evinces how personalisation and immersion in places of horror, pain, shame and atrocity, underlie the development of tourist experiences and associated placemaking (Martini et al, 2025).
Simultaneously, the notion of immersion, and its corollary, immersivity, have become central to the articulation and consumption of memorable tourism experiences (Iliev, 2020; Park et al., 2021). Immersive practices—ranging from participatory cultural engagement and narrative-based interpretation to the application of augmented and virtual reality technologies—serve to intensify tourists’ affective and cognitive connections to place and meaning (Griffin & Muldoon, 2020; Liu et al., 2023). Emerging scholarship suggests that immersive experiences significantly shape tourist behaviour, influencing both destination choice and levels of engagement throughout the travel process (Rauf & Pasha, 2024; Zhu, 2025). Immersive geographies and immersivity are central tenets of the tourist experience, for as Drozdewski et al (2016) argue, “Memories are powerful forces encountered via experiences, emotions, places, and things”.
Importantly, personalisation and immersion are not discrete phenomena but intersect in ways that mutually reinforce their impact. Personalised encounters often attain greater depth through immersive modalities, while immersive moments acquire heightened salience when aligned with individual identities, preferences, and narratives (Cheng, 2024; Hardy & Shoval, 2025), and atmospheres (Volgger, 2025). This convergence presents a series of critical challenges and opportunities for scholars and practitioners alike, inviting renewed inquiry into the geographies of immersivity, the politics of experience design, questions of equity and accessibility, and the governance of resources in the crafting of affective, place-based encounters and (Diaz-Soria, 2016; González-Reverté, 2022), placemaking (Lew, 2017). This alludes to questions of immersivity, that, as Freitag et al (2020) opine, in cultural geography terms, “helps us focus on the mechanisms that produce the cultural spaces responsible for immersivity: the theme park with its spatial arrangement that guides the visitor into an immersive experience”,
This special issue seeks interdisciplinary contributions—spanning theoretical, empirical, methodological, and practice-based perspectives—that interrogate the role of personalisation and immersion in contemporary tourism geographies. In bridging academic inquiry and industry application, the issue aims to advance a nuanced understanding of experience design and immersivity within the evolving global tourism geography landscapes.
We welcome submissions from scholars steeped in tourism studies, with allied interdisciplinary interests in geography, anthropology, sociology, digital media, cultural studies, human-computer interaction, psychology, architecture, urban studies, experience design, and other related discipline interventions that engage with space, place, and the experiential and immersive dimensions of tourism and its geographical entanglements.
The geographies of contemporary tourism are increasingly oriented toward experiences that are emotionally resonant, personally tailored, and rich in meaning (Chan et al., 2025; Skinner, 2025; Zheng et al., 2019). This transition reflects broader socio-cultural transformations in tourist expectations, which are challenging conventional paradigms of experience design and delivery. Tourism providers face increasingly complex and often competing demands to deliver bespoke, value-driven experiences, frequently within the constraints of limited financial and human resources. These challenges are especially evident in liminal or transitional tourism landscapes—such as post-industrial sites, seasonal destinations, or peripheral rural regions—where spatial and temporal instabilities complicate the delivery of consistent, high-quality services (Bristow & Jenkins, 2020).
Within such diverse geographical contexts, the tension between the pursuit of highly personalised, immersive experiences and the structural limitations of tourism systems becomes especially pronounced (Weaver, 2018; Butler, 2025). The recent special issue in Tourism Geographies, Dark Tourism and Spectral Geographies, evinces how personalisation and immersion in places of horror, pain, shame and atrocity, underlie the development of tourist experiences and associated placemaking (Martini et al, 2025).
Simultaneously, the notion of immersion, and its corollary, immersivity, have become central to the articulation and consumption of memorable tourism experiences (Iliev, 2020; Park et al., 2021). Immersive practices—ranging from participatory cultural engagement and narrative-based interpretation to the application of augmented and virtual reality technologies—serve to intensify tourists’ affective and cognitive connections to place and meaning (Griffin & Muldoon, 2020; Liu et al., 2023). Emerging scholarship suggests that immersive experiences significantly shape tourist behaviour, influencing both destination choice and levels of engagement throughout the travel process (Rauf & Pasha, 2024; Zhu, 2025). Immersive geographies and immersivity are central tenets of the tourist experience, for as Drozdewski et al (2016) argue, “Memories are powerful forces encountered via experiences, emotions, places, and things”.
Importantly, personalisation and immersion are not discrete phenomena but intersect in ways that mutually reinforce their impact. Personalised encounters often attain greater depth through immersive modalities, while immersive moments acquire heightened salience when aligned with individual identities, preferences, and narratives (Cheng, 2024; Hardy & Shoval, 2025), and atmospheres (Volgger, 2025). This convergence presents a series of critical challenges and opportunities for scholars and practitioners alike, inviting renewed inquiry into the geographies of immersivity, the politics of experience design, questions of equity and accessibility, and the governance of resources in the crafting of affective, place-based encounters and (Diaz-Soria, 2016; González-Reverté, 2022), placemaking (Lew, 2017). This alludes to questions of immersivity, that, as Freitag et al (2020) opine, in cultural geography terms, “helps us focus on the mechanisms that produce the cultural spaces responsible for immersivity: the theme park with its spatial arrangement that guides the visitor into an immersive experience”,
This special issue seeks interdisciplinary contributions—spanning theoretical, empirical, methodological, and practice-based perspectives—that interrogate the role of personalisation and immersion in contemporary tourism geographies. In bridging academic inquiry and industry application, the issue aims to advance a nuanced understanding of experience design and immersivity within the evolving global tourism geography landscapes.
We welcome submissions from scholars steeped in tourism studies, with allied interdisciplinary interests in geography, anthropology, sociology, digital media, cultural studies, human-computer interaction, psychology, architecture, urban studies, experience design, and other related discipline interventions that engage with space, place, and the experiential and immersive dimensions of tourism and its geographical entanglements.
Topics and Approaches
Suitable topics and approaches may include, but are not limited to:
Suitable topics and approaches may include, but are not limited to:
- Affective, Emotional, and Sensory Geographies of Tourism
- Immersion and Immersivity
- Governance, Policy, and Strategic Planning for Experience-Centric Tourism
- Personalised Tourism Encounters and Consumer Behaviour
- Cultural Immersion, Local Hospitality, and Community-Based Engagement
- Co-Creation and Experiential Design in Tourism
- Immersive Technologies and Digital Storytelling in Tourism Landscapes
- Operational Constraints and Organisational Tensions in Personalised Service Delivery
- Ethics, Sustainability, and Inclusion in Personalised and Immersive Tourism
- Experience Innovation, Branding, and Destination Competitiveness
- Traveller Typologies and the Geographies of Guest Personalisation
- Narrative, Memory, and Identity in Tourism Contexts
- Pilgrimage, Wellness, and Transformational Travel as Immersive Tourism Practices
- Evaluating Immersion and Personalisation in Tourism Systems
- Front-Line Work, Service Culture, and Experiential Labour Geographies
Submission of Manuscripts
- The Call for Papers is open to a global audience
- Full Papers should be submitted via the Tourism Geographies Scholar One portal https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rtxg20.
- Papers should be submitted directly to the special issue - Geographies of Personalisation and Immersion in Tourism Experiencescapes
- Once papers are accepted, they will be published online
Important Dates
- Tourism Geographies submission portal open for submissions 5 January 2026
- Deadline for Full Paper Submission in the journal portal 31 March 2026
- Finalisation of Special Issue Late 2026/Early 2027
Author Guidelines
Authors must be cognisant of the specific author guidelines for Tourism Geographies and ensure that manuscripts submitted pay particular attention to the journal’s publication criteria.
Authors must be cognisant of the specific author guidelines for Tourism Geographies and ensure that manuscripts submitted pay particular attention to the journal’s publication criteria.
- Is the research question relevant to tourism geographies?
- Is the research design sound?
- Are the claims made by the author well supported by the data provided?
- Are the research questions, methods, and analysis well integrated?
- Does the paper have broader relevance to tourism geographies scholarship beyond the case study at hand?
- Does the author engage with relevant scholarship, including previously published work in Tourism Geographies?
- Is the structure of the paper appropriate?
- Is the paper well written?
Author Queries
For questions regarding the special issue, please contact lead editors, Dr. Eleni Michopoulou [email protected] and Prof. Nikolaos Pappas [email protected].
For questions regarding the special issue, please contact lead editors, Dr. Eleni Michopoulou [email protected] and Prof. Nikolaos Pappas [email protected].
References
Bristow, R. S., & Jenkins, I. S. (2020). Spatial and temporal tourism considerations in liminal landscapes. Tourism Geographies, 22(2), 219–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1725618
Butler, R. (2024). Tourism destination development: the tourism area life cycle model. Tourism Geographies, 27(3–4), 599–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2325932
Chan, C. S., Wong, S. Y., Tam, V., & Agapito, D. (2025). Sensory experience of visitors with hearing impairment on a rural island destination. Tourism Geographies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2462785
Cheng, M. (2024). Social media and tourism geographies: mapping future research agenda. Tourism Geographies, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2304782
Diaz-Soria, I. (2016). Being a tourist as a chosen experience in a proximity destination. Tourism Geographies, 19(1), 96–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2016.1214976
Drozdzewski, D., De Nardi, S., & Waterton, E. (2016). Geographies of memory, place and identity: Intersections in remembering war and conflict. Geography Compass, 10(11), 447-456.
Freitag, F., Molter, C., Mücke, L. K., Rapp, H., Schlarb, D. B., Sommerlad, E., ... & Zerhoch, D. (2020). Immersivity: An interdisciplinary approach to spaces of immersion. Ambiances. Environnement sensible, architecture et espace urbain. https://doi.org/10.4000/ambiances.3233
González-Reverté, F., Gomis-López, J. M., & Díaz-Luque, P. (2022). Airbnb as a hotel competitor in touristified cities. Perceptions among upscale hoteliers in Barcelona. Tourism Geographies, 25(4), 1204–1223. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2022.2131898
Griffin, T., & Muldoon, M. (2020). Exploring virtual reality experiences of slum tourism. Tourism Geographies, 24(6–7), 934–953. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1713881
Hardy, A., & Shoval, N. (2025). 25 years of tourist tracking: a geographical perspective. Tourism Geographies, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2462222
Iliev, D. (2020). Consumption, motivation and experience in dark tourism: a conceptual and critical analysis. Tourism Geographies, 23(5–6), 963–984. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1722215
Lew, A. A. (2017). Tourism planning and place making: place-making or placemaking? Tourism Geographies, 19(3), 448–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2017.1282007
Martini, A., Sharma, N., & Timothy, D. J. (2025). Dark tourism and spectral geographies: ghosts, memories, and the rupturing of absence and presence. Tourism Geographies, 27(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2502997
Liu, P., Yang, L., & Su, X. (2023). Tourism, feelings, and the consumption of heritage. Tourism Geographies, 25(5), 1483–1503. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2023.2235573
Park, E., Muangasame, K., & Kim, S. (2021). ‘We and our stories’: constructing food experiences in a UNESCO gastronomy city. Tourism Geographies, 25(2–3), 572–593. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2021.1943701
Rauf, A. A., & Pasha, F. M. (2024). Vlogging gastronomic tourism: understanding Global North-South dynamics in YouTube videos and their audiences’ feedback. Tourism Geographies, 26(3), 407–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2325933
Skinner, J. (2025). Haunted by Horace? Twilight tours, guides and the revival of the Gothic. Tourism Geographies, 27(1), 120–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2462780
Volgger, M., Pfister, D., & Dirksmeier, P. (2023). Quo vadis research on spatial atmospheres? Tourism Geographies, 27(3–4), 503–516. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2023.2270980
Weaver, A. (2018). Selling bubbles at sea: pleasurable enclosure or unwanted confinement? Tourism Geographies, 21(5), 785–800. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2018.143776
Zheng, C., Zhang, J., Qiu, M., Guo, Y., & Zhang, H. (2019). From mixed emotional experience to spiritual meaning: learning in dark tourism places. Tourism Geographies, 22(1), 105–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2019.1618903
Zhu, Y. (2025). Contested sacred space: state power, spatial politics, and heritage tourism. Tourism Geographies, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2495192
Bristow, R. S., & Jenkins, I. S. (2020). Spatial and temporal tourism considerations in liminal landscapes. Tourism Geographies, 22(2), 219–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1725618
Butler, R. (2024). Tourism destination development: the tourism area life cycle model. Tourism Geographies, 27(3–4), 599–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2325932
Chan, C. S., Wong, S. Y., Tam, V., & Agapito, D. (2025). Sensory experience of visitors with hearing impairment on a rural island destination. Tourism Geographies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2462785
Cheng, M. (2024). Social media and tourism geographies: mapping future research agenda. Tourism Geographies, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2304782
Diaz-Soria, I. (2016). Being a tourist as a chosen experience in a proximity destination. Tourism Geographies, 19(1), 96–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2016.1214976
Drozdzewski, D., De Nardi, S., & Waterton, E. (2016). Geographies of memory, place and identity: Intersections in remembering war and conflict. Geography Compass, 10(11), 447-456.
Freitag, F., Molter, C., Mücke, L. K., Rapp, H., Schlarb, D. B., Sommerlad, E., ... & Zerhoch, D. (2020). Immersivity: An interdisciplinary approach to spaces of immersion. Ambiances. Environnement sensible, architecture et espace urbain. https://doi.org/10.4000/ambiances.3233
González-Reverté, F., Gomis-López, J. M., & Díaz-Luque, P. (2022). Airbnb as a hotel competitor in touristified cities. Perceptions among upscale hoteliers in Barcelona. Tourism Geographies, 25(4), 1204–1223. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2022.2131898
Griffin, T., & Muldoon, M. (2020). Exploring virtual reality experiences of slum tourism. Tourism Geographies, 24(6–7), 934–953. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1713881
Hardy, A., & Shoval, N. (2025). 25 years of tourist tracking: a geographical perspective. Tourism Geographies, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2462222
Iliev, D. (2020). Consumption, motivation and experience in dark tourism: a conceptual and critical analysis. Tourism Geographies, 23(5–6), 963–984. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1722215
Lew, A. A. (2017). Tourism planning and place making: place-making or placemaking? Tourism Geographies, 19(3), 448–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2017.1282007
Martini, A., Sharma, N., & Timothy, D. J. (2025). Dark tourism and spectral geographies: ghosts, memories, and the rupturing of absence and presence. Tourism Geographies, 27(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2502997
Liu, P., Yang, L., & Su, X. (2023). Tourism, feelings, and the consumption of heritage. Tourism Geographies, 25(5), 1483–1503. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2023.2235573
Park, E., Muangasame, K., & Kim, S. (2021). ‘We and our stories’: constructing food experiences in a UNESCO gastronomy city. Tourism Geographies, 25(2–3), 572–593. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2021.1943701
Rauf, A. A., & Pasha, F. M. (2024). Vlogging gastronomic tourism: understanding Global North-South dynamics in YouTube videos and their audiences’ feedback. Tourism Geographies, 26(3), 407–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2325933
Skinner, J. (2025). Haunted by Horace? Twilight tours, guides and the revival of the Gothic. Tourism Geographies, 27(1), 120–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2462780
Volgger, M., Pfister, D., & Dirksmeier, P. (2023). Quo vadis research on spatial atmospheres? Tourism Geographies, 27(3–4), 503–516. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2023.2270980
Weaver, A. (2018). Selling bubbles at sea: pleasurable enclosure or unwanted confinement? Tourism Geographies, 21(5), 785–800. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2018.143776
Zheng, C., Zhang, J., Qiu, M., Guo, Y., & Zhang, H. (2019). From mixed emotional experience to spiritual meaning: learning in dark tourism places. Tourism Geographies, 22(1), 105–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2019.1618903
Zhu, Y. (2025). Contested sacred space: state power, spatial politics, and heritage tourism. Tourism Geographies, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2025.2495192
