Exploring Transformative Ecotourism Experiences on Italian Pathways Through Online Reviews

Transformative tourism experiences have attracted considerable scholarly interest in the recent past and deserve further attention to advance knowledge on the role of tourism in human transformation. This study aims to advance the understanding of the triggers and dimensions of transformative ecotourism experiences through the analysis of travelers’ online reviews relating to 10 Italian Pathways (Cammini d’Italia). A total of 742 reviews from 2010 to 2022 were collected from TripAdvisor using a web scraping procedure and analyzed by applying text mining techniques. This analysis explored the cognitive, affective, sensory, social and other experiential factors that can trigger tourists’ transformative experiences and their relationship with behavioral, psychological, spiritual and physical dimensions of transformation. The findings provide evidence of the association of cognitive and sensory triggers and the search for unusual, special tourism experiences to transformative experiences, with specific regard to the psychological, spiritual and physical dimensions. Based on the findings, theoretical and managerial implications are provided to improve the understanding and promotion of transformative tourism experiences in this context.