The turn of the 20th and 21st c. was marked by the development of experience economy, in which the basic commodities are not specific products, but the customers’ emotions, impressions and experiences. Tourism has always been a particular “holiday experience industry”. In recent years, however, the importance of the conscious creation of emotional tourism products has become even greater; we may observe continuous efforts to multiply and intensify tourism experience. The key activities to achieve this goal include transforming tourism infrastructure into unique tourism attractions, enlarging traditional services/service packages by elements providing additional emotions and satisfaction, using modern technologies in order to add virtual entities to real tourism space (augmented reality), as well as to conveniently record tourism experience and share it with the public.

One of the best known economic theories of the early 21st c. is Pine & Gilmore’s of the experience economy (1999). This is nothing new for the tourism industry which has always been selling emotions, dreams and memories involving travel. Recently, however, it has become much more important to provide professionally (consciously and purposefully) prepared tourism products, strongly marked with emotion1. Efforts to create original experiences for tourists include not only various modifications of traditional tourism packages, but also a search for new recreation spaces and new forms of tourism. The aim of this article is to review new tourism-recreational areas (e.g. military areas, new churches, so-called ‘destination centres’, along with ordinary and extreme experience spaces), as well as new forms of travel and recreation (e.g. creative, event, sports, culinary or extreme tourism). The analysis includes those phenomena which above all are currently gaining in popularity as part of the tourist experience triad (WŁODARCZYK 2013).

Escape room is a type of game in which players have to solve several puzzles to leave the room in a limited time. It is a relatively new form of recreation but thanks to the global diffusion of innovations, the game has reached all continents over the decade, gaining unprecedented popularity, especially in large cities. The article aims to identify and characterize the attributes of memorable game experiences (MGEs) of escape room customers in Budapest, Hungary (the eldest in Europe, well-established market for this entertainment). The paper attempts to define the components of MGEs innovatively, using text-mining analysis of big data. This study used mixed methods: quantitative and qualitative. The research material consisted of 6203 opinions on experiences in 29 escape rooms in Budapest posted on TripAdvisor. The main components of positive experiences of users of escape rooms are puzzles as well as the arrangement and decoration. Other key components of the experience include staff, storytelling, the value of service, ambience, and atmosphere. Memorable game experiences are strongly saturated with emotions, resulting from the players’ high involvement in the game and their full immersion in an artificially arranged problem situation. The obtained results indicate both the key areas necessary to create positive experiences and the elements resulting in the formation of negative experiences.

Globalization leaves its footprint on the leisure market contributing to the global popularization of brand new forms of recreation. A perfect example of such instant diffusion of innovation on a global scale is the rapid development of escape rooms. The aim of the article is to try and explain the extraordinary popularity of escape rooms in Poland, mainly through an analysis of what they offer. The author presents the origins and development of this particular form of recreation, discusses the location of nearly 600 facilities functioning in 2016, as well as giving a detailed description of escape rooms in the ten large Polish cities. The study leads to the conclusion that the phenomenon of escape rooms stems from, among other things, the fundamental assumptions of the experience economy.

The article presents the functioning of traditional farming landscapes in Eastern Poland, using the example of Lubelskie Province. This peripheral region, situated on the border of the European Union, demonstrates how the development of tourism, food tourism in particular, based on local crops and regional foodstuffs, helps to protect and promote local heritage and, at the same time, gain additional financial resources for its inhabitants. With a view to the aims set in the paper, the authors investigated the perception of the Lublin Region’s image as regards the predominant features of the natural and socio-economic environment. Moreover, they analysed the recognisability of the regional products and dishes among people from outside the province, who have visited it for tourism purposes. The research material was collected during international and Polish tourism fairs held in five largest Polish cities. The researchers collected 493 questionnaires, 220 of which underwent a detailed analysis. The study shows that the leading functions of Lubelskie Province include agriculture and tourism. The particular form of tourism that should be developed in the region is food tourism and related products due to the natural features and landscape assets. The conclusions drawn from the respondents’answers as well as the query of strategic documents and promotional campaigns allowed the researchers to outline further directions as regards using traditional farming landscapes with the aim of development of the region. It appears that centuries-old forms of farming and methods of food production, resulting from the region’s history and natural conditions, may determine recognisability, build a brand based on the place of origin concept, and influence the socio-economic situation of the area, preserving traditional landscapes at the same time.

The article aims to identify memorable gastronomic experiences reported online and verify their relationships with the type of cuisine served and restaurant location. This study used text mining, LDA, Pearson’s chi-squaredtest and sentiment analysis. All 48,378 English reviews posted by TripAdvisor users concerning 155 restaurants in Krakow were scraped. Eight features that characterise MGEs were identified (service/staff, atmosphere,cuisine/food (taste), drinks, local specialities, location/setting, price & value and table booking). There are statistically significant differences in the frequency of the topic experiences depending on the location of restaurants in the city.