Tourism Management Studies

Memorable Tourism Experience Using Gamification Based On The Memorable Experience Desgin (MED) Model: Case of The Sa'd abad Cultural Complex

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Fatemeh Yavarigohar 1
Mohammad Zavaran Hosseyni 2

1 Associate Professor at the Tourism Management Department Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Masters Graduate in Tourism Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22054/tms.2025.83354.3010
Abstract
The tourism industry is facing many challenges, including rapid economic and social changes, and by entering the experience economy, tourists are looking for deep and meaningful experiences. In the meantime, the use of innovations such as gamification as a tool to respond to these challenges and create a lasting tourism experience has become particularly important. This research investigates the possibility of using gamification in Saad Abad complex of Tehran in order increase the memorability of the tourism experience. Based on the memorable Experience Design model, a game was designed that aimed to increase visitor engagement and participation. Afterwards, the impact of the game on the visitors' experience was measured through a questionnaire designed based on the MED model, in two stages before and after the game, using the within-subject method. In the end, the results of the research showed that gamification can help increase the memorability of a tourism experience.

Keywords

Gamification
MED Model
Memorable Experience
Subjects
  1. Abou-Shouk, M., & Soliman, M. (2021). The impact of gamification adoption intention on brand awareness and loyalty in tourism: The mediating effect of customer engagement. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 20, 100559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2021.100559.
  2. Çeltek, E. (Ed.). (2020). Handbook of research on smart technology applications in the tourism industry. Business Science Reference.
  3. Charness, G., Gneezy, U., & Kuhn, M. A. (2012). Experimental methods: Between-subject and within-subject design. Journal of economic behavior & organization, 81(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2011.08.009.
  4. Chen, H., & Rahman, I. (2018). Cultural tourism: An analysis of engagement, cultural contact, memorable tourism experience and destination loyalty. Tourism management perspectives, 26, 153-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2017.10.006.
  5. Coudounaris, D. N., & Sthapit, E. (2017). Antecedents of memorable tourism experience related to behavioral intentions. Psychology & Marketing, 34(12), 1084-1093. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21048.
  6. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper & Row.
  7. Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: defining" gamification". In Proceedings of the 15th international academic MindTrek conference: Envisioning future media environments (pp. 9-15). http://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181040.
  8. Dias, C., & Dias, V. (2019). Memorable tourism experience design: An effective destination marketing tool. Anatolia, 30(4), 626-628. http://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2019.1668727.
  9. Egger, R., & Bulencea, P. (2015). Gamification in tourism: Designing memorable experiences. BoD–Books on Demand.
  10. Epstein, Z. (2013). Enterprise gamification for employee engagement. Ithaca College. https://doksi.net/en/get.php?lid=29219.
  11. Hosany, S., Sthapit, E., & Björk, P. (2022). Memorable tourism experience: A review and research agenda. Psychology & Marketing, 39(8), 1467-1486. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21665.
  12. Hunicke, R., LeBlanc, M., & Zubek, R. (2004). MDA: A formal approach to game design and game research. In Proceedings of the AAAI Workshop on Challenges in Game AI. https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf.
  13. Joshi, A., Kale, S., Chandel, S., & Pal, D. K. (2015). Likert scale: Explored and explained. British Journal of Applied Science & Technology, 7(4), 396-403. http://doi.org/10.9734/BJAST/2015/14975.
  14. Kim, J. H., Ritchie, J. B., & McCormick, B. (2012). Development of a scale to measure memorable tourism experiences. Journal of Travel Research, 51(1), 12-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287510385467.
  15. Kim, J. H. (2018). The impact of memorable tourism experiences on loyalty behaviors: The mediating effects of destination image and satisfaction. Journal of travel research, 57(7), 856-870. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287517721369.
  16. Kim, Y. N., Lee, Y., Suh, Y. K., & Kim, D. Y. (2021). The effects of gamification on tourist psychological outcomes: An application of letterboxing and external rewards to maze park. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 38(4), 341-355. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2021.1921095.
  17. OECD (2020), OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2020. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/6b47b985-en.
  18. Pine, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (2011). The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage. Harvard Business Press.
  19. Pine, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (2013). The experience economy: Past, present and future. In Handbook on the experience economy (pp. 21-44). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781004227.00007.
  20. Rigby, S., & Ryan, R. M. (2011). Glued to games: How video games draw us in and hold us spellbound. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. https://doi.org/10.5040/9798400658105.
  21. Rijal, C. P., & Ghimire, S. (2016). Prospects of creating memorable experience in Nepalese tourism and hospitality industry. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Education, 6, 40-66. https://doi.org/10.3126/jthe.v6i0.14767.
  22. Rodrigues, L. F., Oliveira, A., & Rodrigues, H. (2019). Main gamification concepts: A systematic mapping study. Heliyon, 5(7). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01993.
  23. Seaborn, K., & Fels, D. I. (2015). Gamification in theory and action: A survey. International Journal of human-computer studies, 74, 14-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.09.006.
  24. Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5.
  25. Squire, L. R. (1987). Memory and brain. Oxford University Press.
  26. Sthapit, E. (2013). Tourists' perceptions of memorable experiences: Testing the memorable tourism experience scale (MTEs) among tourists to Rovaniemi, Lapland (Master's thesis, University of Lapland|). https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:ula-201304111073.
  27. Toffler, A. (2021). Future shock. Random House.
  28. Tung, V. W. S., & Ritchie, J. B. (2011). Exploring the essence of memorable tourism experiences. Annals of tourism research, 38(4), 1367-1386. https://doi.org/’10.1016/j.annals.2011.03.009.
  29. Volchek, K. (2022). Book Review of "Gamification for Tourism", by F. Xu & D. Buhalis. Information Technology& Tourism. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-021-00209-2.
  30. Williams, H. A., Yuan, J., & Williams Jr., R. L. (2019). Attributes of memorable gastro-tourists’ experiences. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 43(3), 327-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348018804621.
  31. Xu, F., Weber, J., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Gamification in tourism. In Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014: Proceedings of the International Conference in Dublin, Ireland, January 21-24, 2014 (pp. 525-537). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03973-2_38.
  32. Xu, F., Buhalis, D., & Weber, J. (2017). Serious games and the gamification of tourism. Tourism Management, 60, 244-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.11.020.
  33. Xu, M., Fralick, D., Zheng, J. Z., Wang, B., Tu, X. M., & Feng, C. (2017). The Differences and Similarities Between Two-Sample T-Test and Paired T-Test. Shanghai Archives of Psychiatry, 29(3), 184–188. https://doi.org/10.11919/j.issn.1002-0829.217070.
  34. Zichermann, G., & Cunningham, C. (2011). Gamification by design: Implementing game mechanics in web and mobile apps. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media.
  35. Akbari, M., Esmailpour, R., Razavi Chamachai, H., and Hataminejad, M. (2021). Creating loyalty in cultural tourism: The effect of lasting experience of the city. cultural connection and participation of tourists in Masuleh city. Urban Science, 5(2), 113-132. https://civilica.com/doc/815747. [In Persian]
  36. Bolensi, Paul, Eger, Roman (2012). Gamification in Tourism: Designing Memorable Experiences (Translated by: Mohammad Ejazi). Eger Publishing. [In Persian]
  37. D., Amiri, M. J., & Nohagar, A. (2017). investigation of environmental behavior of tourists. in natural-historical places (Case study: Sa’dabad Palace). In International Society and Environment Conference. https://civilica.com/doc/815747. [In Persian]
  38. Farhadi, P., & Tabrizi, N. (2023). Evaluating the benefits of gamification in tourism (Case study: Takht Jamshid site). Tourism Management Studies Quarterly, 18(63). 229-263. https://doi.org/10.22054/tms.2023.75006.2860. [In Persian]
  39. Ghaffari, M., Naseri, S. G., & Khalilipour, G. (2021). Developing a framework for measuring the lasting experience of foreign tourists who have traveled to Tehran. Journal of Urban Tourism, 8(2), 81-96. https://doi.org/10.22059/jut.2021.305794.812 [In Persian]
  40. Tahmasabi, A., Mowahed, A., & Mohabati, A. (2020). Comparing the spatial centrality of Saadabad Palace Museum tourist attractions for domestic and foreign visitors. Journal of Tourism Management Studies, 15(49), 203-232. https://doi.org/10.22054/tms.2020.45344.2188.
  41. Iran Students News Agency (ISNA). (2023, Murch 22). The record of visits to the Sa’dabad Palace has been broken. https://isna.ir/xdNzZJ. [In Persian]
  42. Sa’dabad Historical Cultural Complex. History. (2017). https://sadmu.ir/detail/523[In Persian]
Tourism Management Studies
Volume 20, Issue 70
Summer 2025
Pages 125-170

Main Page

Editorial Boards

Submit Manuscript

Article Processing Charges

Contact Us