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Title: Theory of Relationship Cultivation: A Point of View to Design of Experience

Authors: Antti Haahti

Addresses: Author address listing can be found in the "About the Authors" section at the end of the article.

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to outline a theory of relationship cultivation as a marketing management model for small and medium tourism enterprises. Secondarily, it attempts to contextualize the proposed model for more efficient grounding of experience design to the entrepreneurial needs and reality of tourism enterprising in difficult arctic conditions through a case study. As a marketing management model, the theory of relationship cultivation puts forward a hierarchical model that consists of the following sub-models: 1) bonding to create customer capital and trust capital (i.e., a model of relational ethics); 2) enabling and direction: a model of co-creation of values; 3) dramaturgy for experience design: a process of scripting, role playing, and staging the experience; a model of tourism drama. Some of the central conceptual issues are illustrated with a case study in village tourism where a contextually grounded tourism drama model was developed and applied to create authentic coulisses. The ideas for the manuscript and for the staged experiences were sought in the myths, stories, anecdotes, and social and cultural history of the community and events having taken place there.

Keywords: Relationship cultivation; experience design; tourism enterprises; marketing management; tourism drama.

DOI: 10.1504/JBM.2003.141114

Journal of Business and Management, 2003 Vol.9 No.3, pp.303 - 321

Published online: 05 Sep 2024 *