Developing the Quality of a Tourist Experience Product in the Case of Nature‐Based Activity Services

The purpose of this paper is to discuss development of the quality of nature‐based tourist products in the light of a case study in Finland. The paper first conceptualizes the nature‐based tourist product by suggesting a descriptive model of the prerequisites for the customer‐oriented tourist product. The quality of the tourist product is briefly discussed in the framework of seven criteria of good perceived service quality. A case description about a tourism development project called the MONO is then presented and discussed in the light of the theory. The MONO case shows that tourist product quality is in practice (and in theory as well) often seen as a key to customer value. Several researchers, nevertheless, suggest that service quality is only one of a number of factors that influence value for the customer. In relation to tourist experience products, it may be that social and emotional aspects play more important roles than the technical and functional dimensions of service quality, which still seem to have a remarkable role in service quality models and theory, and especially in practice.