Intensifying Factors of the Tourism Experience: The Case of the Medieval Market of Óbidos, Portugal

Abstract

This study is dedicated to the Medieval Market of Óbidos (MMO), Portugal, aiming to highlight strategies adopted by event managers and local actors in order to offer meaningful experiences to visitors. Taking into account a review of the literature on central concepts and through observation of interactions within the organization of the event, it was prepared a management model of experiences in historical reenactment events, serving as reading grid to process co-creation of the event as a whole. It was adopted as analytical instrument the Pyramid of Tourism Experience (Tarssanen e Kylänen, 2005) in order to examine factors of intensification of the experience that lead to the incorporation of community values on visitors. In this case study it was assumed that the main factors of increasing the tourism experience is the involvement, the lack of authenticity and the playful and educational senses.