The Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research (JHTR) is thrilled to announce the release of the special issue: "Above and Beyond: Advancing the Power of Experiences in Hospitality and Tourism." This special issue presents a fine collection of research dedicated to advancing the theoretical understanding and managerial knowledge around the design and management of hospitality and tourism experiences.

Research featured in this special issue highlights the experience capital of the industry – the unique value derived from cultivating innovative, memorable, and transformative experiences for diverse stakeholders of hospitality and tourism organizations (Lee et al., 2024; Liang et al., 2024; Mitas et al., 2024; Wu et al., 2024). Exploring experience management practices across a diverse array of emerging and classic contexts (Jung et al., 2024; Zhang et al., 2024), research in this special issue offers both researchers and practitioners with valuable insights into how to cultivate stakeholder-resonant, strategy-aligned stakeholder experiences that foster lasting success in today’s dynamic experience economy.

Collectively, research in this special issue explores a diverse array of novel topics, including the transformative potential of shared experiences (Chevtaeva & Guillet, 2024; Heo & Kim, 2024), the unique travel experiences of cancer patients (Xiong et al., 2024), travel experiences in danger zone tourism (Manner-Baldeon & Li, 2024) and synthesis on objective measures of tourism and hospitality experiences (Lin et al., 2024). Other studies examine the role of authenticity in brand loyalty (Kang & Ro, 2024) and luxury experiences (Hanks et al., 2024), the impact of biophilic design on guest satisfaction (Suess et al., 2024), and the power of virtual reality and virtual experiences in engaging today’s diverse customers in the hospitality and tourism industry (Bogicevic et al., 2024; Hwang et al., 2024). From exploring operational transparency’s role in service experience design (Hwang et al., 2024) to investigating the effects of experiential advertising and marketing (Rathjens et al., 2024; Yu & Liu, 2024), each article brings a fresh perspective on how to effectively leverage and harness experience capital in today’s dynamic industry landscape.

We invite readers to join us in this celebration of the experiential turn in the hospitality and tourism literature, hallmarked by the release of this special issue. As we collectively explore how to harness the experience capital of the hospitality and tourism industry, our field will advance above and beyond in guiding industry innovations in cultivating stakeholder resonant, strategically aligned experiences that support long-term success.

Discover the full special issue on JHTR’s website and join us in celebrating the release of this special issue.