Experiential marketing has evolved as a response to a perceived transition from a
service economy to one personified by the experiences we participate in. In such a
perception experiences are as economically different from services as services are from
goods. Pine and Gilmore (2004) explain that experiences have emerged as the next step,
in what they refer to as the progression of economic value. If we accept such a position;
that modern economies are seen as making a transition from the marketing of services
to the marketing of experiences, all tourism and hospitality offers are acts of “theatre”
that stage these experiences. The experience economy has been summarised by Petkus
(2002) as follows: