Maja Nešić
Marina Vesić
Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
DOI:
UDC: [338.488.3-057.68:688.3]:159.952.13:303.6/.7(497.11)
Published: August 2026
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Keywords: memorable tourism experience, souvenirs, gift, revisit intention, authenticity
Abstract:
Ensuring memorable tourist experiences represents a key factor of competitiveness in tourism. In modern tourism, souvenirs go beyond the role of simple objects and become symbols of personal experience and traveler identity. They serve as material traces of a journey that connect people, places, and memories. Studying the role and significance of souvenirs is highly important for adequate tourism planning and development. From the perspective of tourism demand, tourists’ satisfaction with souvenir purchases influences their loyalty to a destination. The research was conducted with the intention of pointing out the role that souvenirs play as a gift, a memory, and tangible evidence of the tourist experience. Accordingly, a survey was designed and carried out among tourists who, within the past year, traveled at least once and purchased a souvenir. The goal is to determine, based on the collected responses and their analysis in the statistical software SPSS, whether souvenirs strengthen tourists’ emotional connection to a destination and to what extent their authenticity affects repeat visits.
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