How to Create "High Added Value"? How to Create "Experiences That Leave a Lasting Impression." Instructional Design × Adventure Tourism × Experience Design

Target Audience and Specific Challenges
Target Audience: Outdoor guides, experiential tourism operators, and regional tourism content managers
Specific Challenges:Even though tour satisfaction surveys are not bad, repeat customers and word-of-mouth recommendations are not increasing. I receive feedback that it was "fun," but it doesn't lead to "I want to come back" or "I want to recommend this to others." Even when told to increase added value, I don't know specifically what to change or how. I am polishing my guide skills, but I lacked the perspective of "designing" the entire program. I have heard the terms interpretation and ID (Instructional Design), but I cannot imagine how to use them in the field.

What do participants remember the morning after the tour ends?

What do participants take home with them after the tour ends?

The feeling that it was "fun." Memories of beautiful scenery. One of the guide's stories.

But to be honest, most of that fades within a few days. Memories of a trip dissolve into daily life surprisingly quickly.

This is not a problem of the guide's ability. No matter how carefully you guide or how much knowledge you convey, without the perspective of "experience design," the impression remains only as a point and does not become a line within the participant.

Experiences that you remember in a fleeting moment the next morning, or the next week. Experiences you want to tell someone about after you return home. Such experiences have intentional "mechanisms," not coincidences.

"Impression" is not a coincidence, it can be designed

If you have been a guide for a long time, have you ever had an experience like this?

Even though I guide the same course, that day's group was exceptionally lively. Participants asked questions on their own, and at the end, they said, "This is my first time having an experience like this." What was different that day?

Conversely, there are days when the preparation was sufficient and the weather was good, but the response felt somewhat thin.

This difference cannot be explained solely by the guide's "condition that day." There is a big difference in how the participants' feelings moved and how the flow of the experience was designed.

In fact, there is a certain law to the psychological process when people are "deeply moved." The design philosophy that intentionally incorporates that law into the experience is called Instructional Design (ID).

ID is a concept originally born in the field of educational technology, and it is the accumulation of scientific research on "how people can learn effectively and change their behavior." In the world of tourism, this can be applied to the question of "how participants can be deeply moved and how the experience can be brought back into daily life."

Point: Impressions are not the product of coincidence, but can be created through "design" that understands the participant's psychological process. ID becomes the map for that design.

What does it mean to connect "point" experiences into a "line"?

Many conventional tourism contents have a structure of "go here, see this, eat this." Even if each experience is attractive, they often remain as scattered "points" within the participant.

In experience design that incorporates ID, these points are intentionally connected as a "line." Specifically, it starts with the following two steps.

Step 1: Get to know the participants deeply (Analysis)

• What expectations do the participants have?

• How much knowledge or experience do they have regarding nature or local culture?

• How much of a physical or psychological challenge are they seeking?

• What kind of cultural background or values do they hold?

This is not just a "pre-tour survey." This analysis begins the moment the guide first exchanges words with the participants.

Step 2: Design by working backward from the goal

Decide first what you want to have happened to the participants when the tour ends.

• I want them to take home one thing they didn't know about the local ecosystem.

• I want them to become slightly more conscious of the connection between their daily lives and nature.

• I want them to think not just "I want to come back," but "I want to bring someone here."

By clearly setting this goal as a "learning objective," you create a standard for judging what to include in the experience and what to omit.

Point: Decide "how the participants will be when it's over" before deciding "what to do." This reversal of order is the starting point of experience design.

Four mechanisms to keep participants' motivation high

Assuming the experience is designed, the next challenge is "how to maintain the participants' motivation."

No matter how good the program is, the moment participants feel "I'm kind of bored" or "this has nothing to do with me," the quality of the experience plummets.

The "ARCS model" was born from research into the mechanisms of how human motivation is generated and maintained. This framework, proposed by educational psychologist John Keller, consists of four elements.

When applied to the tourism field, it can be used like this:

A: Attention (Attracting interest)

At the beginning of the tour, pose a surprise or a question that makes people think, "Oh, really?" For example, starting with a single sentence like, "The trees in this forest are actually all connected," will immediately perk up the participants' ears. The key is to start with a "question" rather than an explanation.

R: Relevance (Making it personal)

"The water source for this region is in the same basin as the coffee you drank this morning." In this way, intentionally create moments that connect the nature right in front of them to the participants' own daily lives. The moment a topic changes from "something that has nothing to do with me" to "my own story," people's concentration shifts to a different dimension.

C: Confidence (Building up confidence)

Whether it's canyoning or SUP, the first step must always be set at a difficulty level where participants feel they "can do it." By accumulating small successful experiences, participants will voluntarily move toward the next challenge. The feeling of "I could do it too" is a powerful adhesive that makes the memory of the experience vivid.

S: Satisfaction (Ensuring a sense of satisfaction)

At the end of the tour, provide a scene where participants can feel that "this experience has changed something in me." It doesn't need to be an exaggerated production; a question like, "If you had to sum up what you noticed today in one word, what would it be?" is enough. The moment they give meaning to the experience in their own words, that memory will last for a long time.

Point: The four elements of ARCS function in order. Draw attention, make it personal, build confidence, and conclude with satisfaction. If this flow breaks down, the participants' interest will drift away at some point.

Between "fear" and "boredom" lies the door to immersion

Adventure-based content has a unique difficulty.

The moment participants feel "scared," both learning and emotional impact stop. Conversely, if they feel it is "too easy," they become bored. Avoiding both of these while keeping participants in a state of "just the right amount of tension" is where a guide's skill truly shines.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called the state in which people can be most deeply immersed "flow." A flow state is a state of concentration so intense that one forgets the time, which occurs when one's skills and the difficulty of the task are perfectly balanced.

Adventure guides can intentionally create this flow state. By assessing the participants' skills, they can dynamically adjust the difficulty level. In ID terminology, this is called "scaffolding."

However, there is one more essential condition for entering a flow state. That is "psychological safety."

Without the peace of mind that "I won't be laughed at if I fail" or "it's okay to ask strange questions," people cannot take the step toward a challenge. Much of a guide's facilitation is actually spent on creating this psychological safety.

When the flow state and psychological safety overlap, participants become able to take on "challenges that surprise even themselves." The experience of that moment will not fade even after many years.

Point: A guide's job is not to "make people do difficult things," but to "create an environment where participants want to challenge themselves." Flow theory serves as the blueprint for this.

More about "when and how to convey" than "what to convey"

Many tour guides spend a lot of energy on "what to convey." Knowledge of local history, ecosystems, and cultural backgrounds. These are certainly important.

However, even with the same information, how it resonates with the participants' hearts differs completely depending on "when, at what timing, and in what form it is conveyed."

The method for thinking about this systematically is "Interpretation (IP)." Interpretation is an activity that conveys the "meaning" of nature and culture, triggers inspiration within participants, and encourages self-transformation.

ID designs this interpretation as a strategy of "when, to whom, and using which media (words, tools, experiences) to deliver it."

For example, talking about an ecosystem in front of a waterfall versus talking about the same thing after walking through a stream while wet results in a completely different reception by the participants. When the body remembers the sensation, people receive information with their "whole body" rather than just their "head."

By designing both the "content to be conveyed" and the "timing and method of delivery," interpretation transforms into "emotion" for the first time.

Point: It is not just the quality and quantity of information, but the "design of delivery" that is the core of interpretation. ID is a thinking tool for strategically constructing that delivery.

Practical for the field. Practical steps for experience design incorporating ID

I understand the theory. But where should I actually start?

Here, I will show you concrete steps you can use starting tomorrow.

Step 1: Verbalize the "goal" of the tour

Choose one tour you are currently offering and ask yourself this:

"When this tour is over, what do I want to have happened to the participants?"

"I want them to have fun" is not the answer. Write it down in concrete words, such as "I want them to take home one new perspective on XX in this region" or "I want them to feel the connection between their daily lives and nature."

Step 2: Review the "flow" of the experience using ARCS

Write down the current flow of the program on paper and check where the four elements of ARCS are placed.

• Is there an "attention-grabbing question" at the beginning of the tour?

• Is there a scene that "makes it personal" by connecting it to the participants' daily lives?

• Is it structured to accumulate "small success experiences"?

• Is there a moment at the end where participants can 'give meaning in their own words'?

If any of these are missing, either add something there or change the order.

Step 3: Change how you deliver 'what you want to convey'

Choose one piece of interpretation content and rethink 'at what timing and to what kind of participants you deliver it'.

For example, try moving content that you previously explained before departure to the middle of the experience. Just delivering it right after the participant feels 'Why is that?' changes how the information resonates.

Step 4: Try it on a small scale and get feedback

You don't have to change everything at once. Try one change in one tour and observe the participants' reactions. Recording 'where the participants' eyes lit up' and 'where their concentration lapsed' will lead to the next design improvement.

Point: Introducing ID does not start with a large-scale renewal, but with a small 're-questioning'. First, putting your goal into words is the starting point for everything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. I want to change the tour design, but the veteran guides don't want to change their current methods.If you flatly deny the veteran guides' methods, you will inevitably face resistance. First, use ID theories (such as the ARCS model or Flow theory) to put the wonderful responses they perform unconsciously into words, and start by acknowledging them, saying, 'The XX you are doing is scientifically sound.' Instead of forcing theory on them, an approach that supports and organizes their experience with theory is effective.

Q. If I create a rigid interpretation scenario, won't I lose the ability to respond flexibly on-site?
The purpose of creating a design (scenario) is not to speak word-for-word. It is to have a strong axis consisting of the 'goal at the end of the tour' and the 'important timing for questions that must not be missed'. Because the axis is solid, it becomes possible to improvise flexibly on-site, such as changing topics according to participants' reactions or incorporating unexpected events (such as encountering animals) into the scenario.

Q. Will introducing ID and redesigning the experience specifically increase sales or average customer spend?
Yes, it will. This is because the quality of the value provided changes from 'a tour to see XX in one hour' to 'an experience that changes your values in three hours'. Experiences where participants take home a 'deep sense of conviction' or 'self-transformation' dramatically change the quality of word-of-mouth, and they will be chosen with conviction even at a high price. This is the true process of 'high value-added'.

Q. I only provide small programs like walking tours, not large-scale outdoor activities, but can I still use the theory?
Of course. Since ID and the ARCS model are based on the mechanisms of human cognition and learning, the scale of the field does not matter. Even for a walking tour, by incorporating designs such as 'solving the mystery of history from a small sign in a back alley (Attention)' or 'comparing it with your current lifestyle (Relevance)', a simple walk turns into a superb exploration program.

Experience Design That Leaves a Memory

Participants who finish a tour continue to talk passionately about the experience even after returning to their daily lives. Tourism content that involves such 'behavioral change' is never a product of chance. The thinking tool called 'Instructional Design (ID)', which understands the participants' psychological processes in advance and intentionally places mechanisms, is the foundation for this.

The ARCS model keeps stimulating participants' intellectual curiosity, and Flow theory is used to create an 'environment of immersion' between anxiety and boredom. And through interpretation, the 'timing of delivery' rather than the content itself is calculated to the limit. When these elements overlap, simple tourism turns into an experience that remains in one's memory for a lifetime.

First, start by putting the 'goal' of the tour you currently provide into concrete words. That small re-questioning will be the first step toward fundamentally changing the experience value of the entire region.

This time, I talked about the overall picture of how to incorporate ID theory into tourism experiences. However, in order to actually operate these in the field and move the hearts of participants, the facilitation skills of each individual guide are called into question. I plan to talk in detail about specific 'questioning techniques' that draw out deep realizations from participants on another occasion. Please follow me so you don't miss it.

Author Information / Supervisor Profile

Tochigi Outdoor Business Promotion Association BERGTOAD
Love (Kazuyuki Yamazaki)

• WEA (Wilderness Education Association) Internationally Certified Outdoor Instructor

• International Environmental Ethics Leave No Trace L2 Instructor

• EFR International Pediatric Emergency Instructor

• ID Expert certified by the Japan Institute for Educational Learning Evaluation

• Certified Trainer, Japan Interpretation Association

• D1 Camp Director, Japan Camping Association

• Junior Sports Instructor, Japan Sports Association

• Nikko National Park Certified Guide

With over 15 years of experience as an outdoor guide training instructor, I have supervised numerous human resource development and content creation projects based on theory. I am an expert who combines the "mechanisms of human psychology and behavioral change" cultivated in the unpredictable field of nature with the scientific approach of instructional design to support sustainable tourism content creation, guide training, and corporate human resource development that applies outdoor guide skills to the business field.

https://bergtoad.net

The training programs provided by us, "Tochigi Outdoor Business Promotion Association BERGTOAD," are clearly different from general training and consulting. The methods used to reliably elicit deep "learning" and concrete "behavioral change" in participants were born from the practices that outdoor guides, who are responsible for lives, have cultivated to reliably provide safety and inspiration in the unpredictable great outdoors. We fuse this with "Flow Theory," which creates human immersion, "Instructional Design (ID)," which scientifically constructs learning processes, and "Interpretation" techniques, which convey meaning and shake up values.

Through "Interpretation," or tourism experience design that deepens understanding, we cultivate local resources into high-value-added tourism content. Furthermore, rather than just guides who explain knowledge, we build a solid human resource foundation in the region through "guide training," which is guide design that draws out the experiential value of realizing high-quality tours.

The ultimate goal is to create "behavioral change" in participants, that is, experiences that remain in their memory and change their subsequent actions and values. It is about performing "experience design" where the other person realizes things for themselves and starts to move, rather than just teaching knowledge. This practical training know-how, polished to the limit in the world of the outdoors, functions powerfully in all business and educational settings, not just for increasing the added value of local tourism content or inbound tourism support.