A Guide for Creating and Enjoying Inspirational Tourist Experiences

A great tourist experience is characterised by engaging your senses and emotions, by fostering inspiring interactions, and meaningful connections thus creating lasting memories.

It’s about getting personal, immersing oneself in a unique, story-driven, environment that engages with the local culture and traditions. 

For the tourist, this book celebrates great experiences around the world and the amazing people and organisations who have created them. For the next generation of tourism professionals this is the essential guide for planning your own great experiences for your guests and your communities. 

You are encouraged to explore, to be curious, to be emotionally connected with a place and nurture your sense of wonder.

Professor Terry Stevens is an award-winning international tourism consultant who has been lucky to have worked with creators in 55 countries.

He is continually in awe of the creativity, passion and wisdom of these alchemists who are able to inspire, amaze and thrill those who visit their communities and engage with their storytelling. His own memorable experiences include floating with local boatmen down the Dunajec River in Slovakia on hand-made wooden rafts, an impromptu concert by Slovenian favourite musician Andrej Šifer in a wine cellar near Ljubljana and a behind-the-scenes tour at Barcelona’s Camp Nou with his five grandsons, led by Museum Director Jordi Penas Babot. Originally from East Coker in Somerset, his book about the unique heritage of Coker Canvas, Bucked in the Yarn, has been awarded the prestigious Alan Ball Prize as the 2024 local history book of the year.

Dr Alan Sandry is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Strategy, Swansea University. Author of a variety of publications, he recently published Ludwig Wittgenstein in Swansea: Philosophy and Legacy (UWP 2025), in which he wrote on Wittgenstein and the psychogeography of Swansea – Dr Sandry’s home city. As an ageing rambler and flâneur, Alan fondly remembers various experiences such as glimpsing a puma in the Patagonian desert, banging his knee on the Great Wall of China, hitching a lift with a rugby player in Avignon (before playing for his side, as they were ‘one man down’) and having a cold beer with George Michael.

A powerful antidote to today’s always-on digital world.
Terry Stevens groundbreaking new book The Spark and a sense of Wonder, is a must-read for tourism professionals. More than a book, it’s a movement—complete with a manifesto, institute, and playlist. A powerful antidote to today’s always-on digital world, it’s
packed with inspiration and practical wisdom for creating meaningful, memorable experiences that truly connect people and place. Can’t recommend this enough. Dominic Jones Chief Executive Officer The Mary Rose.