Experiential & Entertainment
(We WERE #1...)
Funworld photo from IAAPA. No endorsement implied.
A brief primer before jumping into WHY this is important...
This also impacts the businesses themselves. For example, you may have a world class experience, but if your guest/clients don't understand...the lost revenue can add up to closure.
I have defined, to the best of my ability, experiential terms .The definitions are related to what I've heard used most often by industry professionals. At least it gives us a starting point to talk about how we foster and support this economy. I will make updates, additions and clarifications as they are submitted.
This is literally the fist step in becoming a creative hub in this space, holding on the projects we currently have and attracting innovation.
You can find a link to the glossary HERE and also in the footer.
Museums
Water Parks
Interactive Concerts
Arcades
2.5D Plays
LARP
Escape Rooms
3D Sound Scapes
Scare Attractions
- Haunts
- Hayrides
- Temporary Overlays
- Trails
- Mazes
- Escape Rooms
(Themed)
Examples of Experiential
Entertainment
Theme Parks
ARGs
Projection Installations
Micro Attractions
Interactive Theater
Cinematic Domes
Historical Site Overlays
Audience Participation
XR is Extended Reality, and covers all the other categories.
- VR (Virtual Reality)
- AR (Augmented Reality)
- MR (Mixed Reality)
- IR (Intereality)
- Location Based AR
The Experiential Economy is not something new and untested. It covers categories you've probably heard of like theme parks, escape rooms, haunted mazes... and it's a huge component of advertising / marketing / public relations, conventions /trade shows, and dining.
However, the growing demand for in person and group entertainment experiences has pushed those industries together to create a joint economy that shares a similar consumer base.
You'll generally hear "experiential" used in relation to 4 categories: entertainment, marketing, dining and education (but it applies to all of the above).
In fact, the industry is currently growing at such a pace, there are no agreed upon definitions for almost anything.
A lack of common language makes it difficult for industry members to even collaborate, since they may be using the same wording, but discussing two different things entirely.
Watching Rocky Horror isn't experiential. Audience participation makes it experiential. This has been happening since 1976.
Immersive/Immersion: Sometime Immersive and Experiential are used interchangeably. It's easiest to think of immersive as under the experiential umbrella.
An immersive space involves creating the illusion of being someplace other than your current location. This can be achieved via VR headsets, projection mapping overlays, scent and soundscapes, visual and animation elements, sensory and haptic feedback, lighting, temperature, props and set pieces, actors, visual effects / optical illusions and architecture. It usually involves elements of visual storytelling as part of the total setting.
*NOTE: This term can be VERY confusing. XR companies previously only used the term immersive when referring to XR programming. The advertising industry has also started using immersive as a buzz word to define products such as home goods, clothing, and other non-industry related items (diluting the meaning and messaging to consumers). Now, more XR companies are using the term experiential instead.
So, what was your answer? If you said Nevada, I wouldn't blame you for thinking that.
In fact, last year Nevada was the worldwide leader in experiential entertainment.
But now, it's 2026. If you guessed these images were from Dubai, you would be correct. Dubai has pulled ahead not just in the offerings they have, but in creation and development as well.
One of their newest project is taking over the space previously housing Illuminarium in Area 15 by the AYA company.
Nevada tourism is slowly recovering post Super Bowl, and after the closing of Spirit airlines.
Because of the lower number of tourists, larger corporate hotels and casinos are repositioning Vegas as a luxury destination to attract conventions and higher income tourists. Fewer tourists overall mean fewer hospitality jobs. It's also putting the state in direct competition with Dubai, who is using the same strategy. I suggest you run your own comparison on the cost of a Dubai 7 day vacation against Vegas (and don't forget all the extra fees). How do we stack up, apples to apples? It's not great.
QUIZ TIME!
Which tourism board are these images from?
Experiential
Immersive
All Immersive installations are experiential
Not all Experiential spaces are immersive
Experiential: refers to an entertainment, marketing, dining or educational activity that includes a component that is themed, multisensory or participatory. (i.e. It is something you experience, not just observe or listen to passively.)
It usually contains components from traditional entertainment forms including live action, animation, music, traditional fabrication, costuming, live performance / fight choreography, motion graphics, static images and more.
Example: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a movie. Most movies are consumed passively either in a traditional theater or on a tv/device. However, midnight matiness include audience participation, which makes those showings experiential.