Experience is a distinct economic offering and it is uniquely different from service and goods whereas it results from co-creation between the firm and the customer (Pine and Gilmore 1999). Experience is perceived to be a current economic offering as from time to time every economy has been defined by its predominant economic output and different economies have elapsed from commodities, to goods, then to services and currently in the experience economy whereby experience is basically what a customer obtains from a seller in exchange for money (Pine and Gilmore, 1999) Destinations need to be branded in way to attract tourists’ experiential visitation. Branding a destination for experiential visitation can be challenging as Franzen & Bouwman, (2001) stated destinations are both physical space and the attraction of the site whereas these are interpreted and valued differently by the tourist either positively or negatively. Tanzania conservations' efforts have led to The World Economic Forum Insight Report (2024) to rank Tanzania third in Travel and Tourism Development Index in Africa regarding quality of its nature-based tourism resources, enabling environment, openness and price competitiveness. Apart from the success of the sector, still it faces challenges such as lack of awareness, attention, support and negative attitude of the local citizens and the government towards domestic tourism (Bakari, 2021). In order for destinations to improve tourism experience and enhancing local experiential visitation there is a need for developing strategy; and the Theory of experience by Pine and Gilmore (1999) introduced elements of experience namely entertainment, education, escapism and esthetic; of which this study will explore to see how the elements can be used as bases of influence for formulating destination branding strategy targeting the local millennials for experiential tourism visitation.

Research findings show domestic tourism is facing less local visitations due to lack of destination awareness and negative mentality and attitude towards tourism in general (Mariki et al, 2012). Besides, a critical gap has been reported in the branding of Tanzania tourism destination also reported that Tanzania Destination Management Organizations branding efforts are biased as they don’t encourage locals’ visitations (Bakari, 2021). Empirical research on local millennials’ preferences and interaction with destination brands is limited, emphasizing the need for more research on the importance of understanding their unique preferences as well as the way they can participate in creating their visitation experiences as it’s key as revealed in Gonzales et al (2018), and Hueiju and Wenchang (2009). This research intends to evaluate effectiveness of Northern Circuit destination branding strategies for experiential tourist visitation among Tanzanian millennials. The focus is on assessing the currently used destination branding strategy’ challenges and efficiency in enhancing experiential visitation as well as how the millennial destination’s visitation preferences can be incorporated to enable development of a model for tourism experience co-creation that can be useful for experiential visitation initiatives.

Assessment of effective destination branding strategy for experiential visitation of the local millennials; A Case of Tanzania Northern Tourism Circuit