African Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2023 Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.37284/ajthm.2.1.1204 1 | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. African Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management ajthm.eanso.org Volume 2, Issue 1, 2023 Print ISSN: 2790-9603 | Online ISSN: 2790-9611 Title DOI: https://doi.org/10.37284/2790-9611 EAST AFRICAN NATURE & SCIENCE ORGANIZATION Original Article Escapism Experience an Avenue for Tourism Development: Mapping the Test of Tanzania: Evidence from Arusha Region Greyson Agapity 1* & Thereza Mugobi 1 1 National College of Tourism, P. O. Box 6127 Arusha, Tanzania. 2 Open University of Tanzania, P. O. Box 23409 Dar es Salaam Tanzania * Author for Correspondence ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8707-6782; Email: greysonagapity2016@gmail.com Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.37284/ajthm.2.1.1204 Date Published: 05 May 2023 Keywords: Escapism Experience, Arousing Experience, Memory Experience, Perceived Quality, Tourism Development. ABSTRACT The study’s aim is to examine the mediation effect of consumer perceived value on the relationship between escapism experience components and tourism development. A purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from various hotels in Arusha. One hundred twenty-three questionnaires were distributed, and only 78 were retained for analysis throughout the study. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 27) through descriptive statistics was used to analyse respondent profiles and the normality test of the data. Structural Equation Modelling through AMOS software was used to analyse the relationship of the variable and to test the mediation effect of customer perceived value on the relationship between arousal experience, memory experience, perceived quality, and tourism development. The main findings reveal that customer-perceived value fully mediates the relationship between memory experience and tourism development while partially mediates the relationship between arousal experience and perceived quality in tourism development. With the guide of the experience economy theory, the study’s novelty lies in the mediation effect of customer perceived value on the relationship between the escapism components and tourism development. With these findings, tourism stakeholders, including the hotel industry, are advised to focus on satisfying customers in the whole customer travel experience value chain, which includes before experience, during the experience, and post-experience. APA CITATION Agapity, G. & Mugobi, T. (2023). Escapism Experience an Avenue for Tourism Development: Mapping the Test of Tanzania: Evidence from Arusha Region African Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management, 2(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.37284/ajthm.2.1.1204. CHICAGO CITATION Agapity, Greyson and Thereza Mugobi. 2023. “Escapism Experience an Avenue for Tourism Development: Mapping the Test of Tanzania: Evidence from Arusha Region”. African Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management 2 (1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.37284/ajthm.2.1.1204.