Cultural influences on memorable tourism experiences

he aim of this study was to investigate the role of culture on the memorability of tourism experiences. Such understanding sheds light on memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) research. The study employed Iranian culture as its context. Participants were asked to write a narrative text of their memorable experiences detailing why that experience was special for them. A grounded theory approach was adopted to extract themes from data. Results indicated that there were four unique themes related to the Iranian culture that made tourism experiences memorable: togetherness, independence and control, spontaneity and flexibility as well as distinctiveness. The paper initiates discussion for culture as a neglected influence on the memorability of travel experiences.