The co-creation/place attachment nexus

Co-creation in tourism has investigated a range of ways in which consumers are becoming increasingly involved in defining and creating services and products. These activities, however, constitute only a small portion of the full range of tourism experiences. The current concentration on co-creation of (mostly service-dominated) tourism products needs to be expanded to accommodate elements such as the physical environment and local social and cultural milieus of tourism. This article appropriates concepts and models from the discourse of place attachment to demonstrate an approach to extending the co-creation concept to include experiences of the physical tourism site, not merely as the setting of a service relation, but as a fundamental dimension of the tourism experience. This approach is tested and demonstrated based on an analysis and discussion of the findings of a survey study of tourists to the Historic Center of Macao.