Nowadays, many tourists are in search of active holidays and engaging, emotionally, physically, socially, psychologically and/or spiritually authentic experiences, rejecting mass tourism and standardised packages. In addition, tourists increasingly devise their holidays with the aim of learning, self-development and making contact with the local population. Due to the postmodern commodi?cation of culture, visitorsâ experiences with cultural heritage require innovation and adaptation in order to order them unique and meaningful personal events rather than the former passive activities. All around the world, numerous museums, heritage sites and cultural venues are now working in this direction, introducing new visitor models. Memorable visiting experiences can be designed in museums and at heritage sites, not only for the segments of traditional demand but also for new ones which, in general, include younger guests. It is a way to transform cultural heritage into an âexperiencescapeâ (OâDell and Billing 2005) - a place of enjoyment, socialisation, pleasure, emotions and amusement, offering visitors different kinds of valuable tourism, educational, cultural and entertainment experiences. In post-modern society, consumers, who are continuously in search of emotions and subjective and personalised consumption, do not demand goods and services, but memorable, unique, holistic and engaging experiences with a high symbolic content (Holbrook and Hirschman 1982; Addis and Holbrook 2001). The customer is not only buying a good, but also services and information, experiences and culture (Rifkin 2000), and wishes to have an active role during their consumption (Prentice 2001). This means that ffrms must be increasingly dedicated to trying to order experience-based products, which can engage the customer emotionally, physically, mentally, socially and/or spiritually (OâSullivan and Spangler 1998; Pine and Gilmore 1999; Fabris 2003: 203; Argano and Dalla Sega 2009). Therefore, there is now much more emphasis than in the past on sounds and music, scentsand fragrances, atmospheres, colours and images, tastes and interactivity to enrich goods and services. For example, it is common practice to use music in locations to make the visit more pleasant and more memorable (Krishna 2010: 149). Colours, fragrances and lights can have a similar impact. Sometimes the deprivation of one sense is used to exalt others. This is the case of Dialogo al Buio, an exhibition held using routes to be followed in complete darkness, accompanied by expert non-sighted guides, to experience new and unexpected emotions that amplify the perceptions of touch, smell and taste. Pine and Gilmore (1999) have identified four different experience spheres on the basis of two parameters, the (active or passive) involvement of the guest and the type of relationship between the customer and the experience (which involves absorption, in other words physical or virtual involvement, and immersion, in other words mental involvement). These four spheres, which are called entertainment, education, escapism and the aesthetic experience, are not opposed to one another, but on the contrary are often mixed and lead to global, subjective, unique and tailored experiences. The best experiences are, in any case, those in which the visitor, by taking an active part, is completely immersed in the situation that they are experiencing. This requires the involvement of the five senses or the order of something memorable (Smith 2009: 188). Generally, providers tend to order a mixture of experiences that are judged more complete if enhanced by all four components. An example of this is Emozioni da Museo, an initiative at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, which is described in the case study in this chapter (Box 48.1). Therefore, experiences that mix entertainment and education (âedutainmentâ), shopping (âshoppertainmentâ), or eating (âeatertainmentâ) are increasingly common. Tourism agencies, private and public bodies and destinations are also making an effort to offer events, packaging and atmosphere, involving physical settings, extravaganzas (Ritzer 1999), sensory designs and other differentiating elements, which allow tourists to enjoy meaningful experiences and create positive attitudes in them. Continuous âre-enchantmentâ processes (Baudrillard 1993; Bauman 1993: 33) aim to make the âcathedrals of consumptionâ even more magical, fascinating or fantastic. These are places where processes related to the purchase, supply, consumption and/or use of goods and services are undertaken, and are often important tourist attractions, destinations or infrastructure, such as retail centres, theme parks, museums and archaeological sites, etc. (Ritzer 2005: 68). Frequently they become multipurpose containers which simultaneously satisfy different needs (entertainment, socialising, shopping, education, eating, etc.). For example, museums often have an increasing range of support and auxiliary services that offer highly engaging experiences, which are sometimes unique and unforgettable, thanks to themed settings, events, atmospheres, tactile sensations, colours and images, sounds, fragrances, virtual realities, multi-sensory stimuli, theatre pieces, workshops and operators performing as actors in the setting. In some cases the âcathedrals of consumptionâ are symbols of Western culture that have been exported and sold in other countries, as has been happening for some years with museums and art galleries, which are reproduced in multiple locations (such as the Guggenheim Museum which is now present, besides New York, in Bilbao, Berlin, Las Vegas, Venice and Abu Dhabi). All this entails risks of mass reproduction of culture and art and the search for perfect imitation - in other words, the âMcDisneyisationâ of culture, which is feared by experts in the sector, who are afraid that museums and cultural heritage are becoming the new theme parks (Swarbrooke 2000). Nowadays, the field of museums and cultural heritage is greatly affected by shifts in demand and supply. In particular, there is increased competition to access ever-shrinking funds. Moreover, there has been an increase in consumersâ attention towards the quality of their leisure enjoyment. Furthermore, museums and heritage sites are frequently considered as institutions that can trigger virtuous processes of urban renewal. All this has fostered the development of cultural consumption, but, at the same time, has increased visitorsâ expectations and needs. In fact, consumers today are not only interested in satisfying their need for learning, but also wish to have more engaging types of experiences. In particular, there appears to be a strong demand for experiences providing inner growth and self-development in social, cultural, intellectual and emotional terms (Doering 1999). Thus, the role of these institutions is changing, also due to the commodification of culture and to the merging of high and low culture in the post-modern era. They are trying to increase visitor attendance also by attracting new segments (especially families and young people). It can be claimed that for all these reasons, heritage venues and cultural sites now ought to modify their image and their offer to become more market-oriented and to create more engaging visits. In fact, cultural heritage and âmuseums are essentially experiential productsâ (Prentice 1996), and smells, colours, sounds, animations and interactions are potentially part of this product (Prentice 2001). Currently, significant efforts in this sense have been made above all by science museums, in which âedutainmentâ and the need to make the visit engaging and fun, as well as instructive, for the youngest visitors and for school groups as well, has already seen a significant effort in this direction for a number of years. The role of cultural heritage today is broader, and safeguarding it requires growth in demand and adequate management to enable the public to perceive its value and the need to protect it. There are numerous tools now available to management to achieve the above aims, by guaranteeing visitors not only learning experiences, but also entertainment, excitement and time for contemplation (Kotler and Kotler 1999: 187). In this regard, it is interesting to note that in recent years a growing number of experts have been addressing the issue of multi-sensoriality in tourism, which in the past was overlooked in favour of the sole sense of sight. In particular, the latest edition of the book The Tourist Gaze (Urry 2002: 146), which previously concentrated on the use of sight, now also talks about other types of panoramas and perceptions beyond visual landscapes, such as âsoundscapesâ, âsmellscapesâ, âtastescapesâ and âgeographies of touchâ. Examples are olfactory-based routes, touch and sound stimuli, and multimedia installations. Thus the importance of âsensescapesâ (Quan and Wang 2004) is growing, being the settings that stimulate visitorsâ senses and manage to offer sensations other than the routine and everyday environment (Urry 2002: 155). Moreover, the supply system should be flexible and encourage some discretion in the use of the setting by various customers, in order to be able to allow them to undergo unique personal experiences, based on their own use of the âservicescapeâ (Bitner 1992). In addition, in order to enhance the experiences offered, often complementary or auxiliary components are added to the core product, such as restaurants, bars, shops, e-commerce, meeting areas, guided tours, conferences, concerts, programmes for teachers, workshops, etc. The new technologies enable traditional services to be accompanied by innovative services, thanks to interactive multimedia resources, multi-sensory techniques and IT support; examples are audio guides with palm-tops, also for children, multimedia kiosks, digital archives of art works, virtual and audio-visual visits, and three-dimensional reconstructions of monuments (Falk and Dierking 1992; Bourgeon-Renault et al. 2006). Given this background, locations use new means, other than information boards and traditional guided visits, to present the objects displayed in relation to other objects and to the visitor, for example through the reconstruction of an environment to mirror the original context of a work or historic moment or through particularly striking displays. One example is the Statue Room of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, in which the lighting and soundscape have been designed by Dante Ferretti, a famous set designer, to recreate the atmosphere of the inside of the pyramids and make the works displayed even more powerful and striking, thus emotionally involving the visitor (Xanthoudaki 2003). In some locations it is possible to relive past eras thanks to historic re-enactments in period costume and reconstructions of environments and lifestyles of far-off places and times. An excellent example is the Butser Ancient Farm, in England, a real open-air workshop in which it is possible to experience aspects of everyday prehistoric life by tasting the meals of the age and taking part in celebrations, such as that for the start of the summer, building a hut using ancient techniques, etc. Other innovations concern the introduction of new communication methods that guide and accompany the visit, such as animation or the use of actors who tell stories associated with the collection or the locations (Jackson et al. 2002), the offer of workshops where visitors can fashion objects using ancient techniques or can experience new sensations (for example, a short walk in a gravity-free environment), and the use of games to involve the youngest visitors who, while visiting an archaeological museum, as happens in Milan, can play the games that their ancestors used to play. Finally, it is now common for cultural sites to use storytelling (Kotler 2003), thanks to new, professional roles (for example, actors, set designers, costume designers), or people normally responsible for back-office work (for example restorers), who increasingly work in the public gaze. All the tools set out so far can increase the value of the experience, by enhancing its âtheatricalâ aspect and ensuring that the place visited becomes a setting that offers a show (Falk and Dierking 1992; Bourgeon-Renault et al. 2006). They are transforming the enjoyment of culture by increasingly involving visitors, who are becoming the co-creators of their own experience. The aim is to shift the visitorâs attention to playful elements, entertainment, emotional pull, thus stimulating their creativity, imagination, emotions and not only the traditional conflicting sentiments that are felt before an artwork: emotion or boredom, curiosity or lack of involvement (Zorzi 2004). In designing the routes to enjoy the cultural resources of a location, it is therefore necessary always to take account of the fact that visitors are the co-designers and co-producers of their own experiences (Simonsen et al. 2010: 187). Therefore, they see and assess attractions, places and cultural events through their own personal way of interpreting them, linked to social, cultural and personal values that are highly varied. The expectations can also change markedly depending on whether the tourist is looking for the authentic or just an experience (Smith 2009: 189). In conclusion, cultural heritage should be considered as places of interpretation, in which percep-tions are sharply influenced for each consumer by imaginary and real representations of the past provided by the social, material and cultural environment of the place being visited and by the social, temporal and spatial dimensions (Sundbo and Darmer 2008: 181; Simonsen et al. 2010: 187). In designing an experience and in assessing it, it is necessary to take account of these dimensions, of space-time links, and of imaginary worlds and personal fights of fancy. © 2013 Melanie Smith and Greg Richards.