Refining tourists' place experience through placemaking a case study of Dhaka

Abstract

Tourist Experience is one of the important aspects in tourism. It is comprised of place experiences, services, travel motivations, interactions among other tourists and locals, cultural back grounds, and many more. The experience created usually determines whether a visit is successful or not. By recognizing and managing positive and negative attributes in physical environments, designers can continually update their understanding of tourists’ expectation, and seek new ways of shaping places for visitors that maximize positive experience. Tourist-satisfaction has much to do with how well a place meets visitor expectations and then exceeds them, approaching an ideal state. This research is embarked to form early ground works towards refining tourists’ place experience in Dhaka by enhancing place character through place making. This study is necessary to assist urban designers and tourism planners in determining the most appropriate refinement strategies for tourist attraction spots of the city. It also can influence the policy makers to take initiative to create an enjoyable city of Dhaka both for tourists and its Residents. In this study, evaluation of place experience is conducted on tourists that visit Dhaka. Place characters that have significant roles in creating a quality experience are also identified. Model of Attitude Measurement (MAM) is used to assess the differences and gaps between expectations with actual experience, in relation to the place characters evaluated. The study also analyses tourist segments and typologies as well as tourist routes in Dhaka. Results of this study reveal that Dhaka possesses all of the criteria that can generate a positive place experience if some appropriate measures can be taken. Their overall tourist experiences are also positive. Therefore, from this positive place experience, existing place characters can be enhanced in order to produce a more refined tourist’s place experience in future. Some strategies to refine place characters of Dhaka to refine the experience of tourists have also been recommended in the document.