Neurophysiological Measures in Hospitality and Tourism: Review, Critique, and Research Agenda

Abstract

This paper provides a critical review of studies using neurophysiological measures in tourism and hospitality. Among 145 articles covering 20 years of research, 16 studies applied either electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), or skin conductance (SC) measures in tourism and hospitality settings. Results show that, in general, (1) EEG studies investigated the relationships between EEG components and attention/emotion induced by destination advertisements; (2) fMRI studies examined the correlation between brain area activation and behavior (e.g., visit intention); and (3) SC studies focused on emotional responses to tourism stimuli. Neurophysiological techniques are theoretically and practically useful in tourism and hospitality: these tools uncover subjects’ objective, unbiased, and real-time responses to provide academic insight and guide industry practitioners’ decisions. Directions for future research are proposed along with solutions to address the current limitations of neuroscience measures in tourism and hospitality applications.

Systematic Review and Future Direction of Neuro-Tourism Research

“…Moreover, De-Frutos-Arranz and López [ 7 ] looked at the application of neuroscience in tourism research. Finally, Lei et al [ 10 ] covered the use of EEG, fMRI, and SC neurophysiological measures in hospitality and tourism research.…”

“…Each neuromarketing technique gathers different neural activity measurements. For example, fMRI assesses metabolic brain processes through variations in blood flow, while EEG records electrical changes in brain signals on the scalp [ 7 ]; ET measures eye attention toward a stimulus [ 8 ]; galvanic skin response gauges electrodermal activities through sweat production [ 9 ]; FAC measures feelings as expressions appear on the face; and HT counts the number of heartbeats in a time and can be used to determine stress [ 10 , 11 ].…”

“…Due to the enormous amount of data and ongoing increase in computing capacity, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques have the potential to create business processes and improve their management in a variety of industry sectors, and the tourist industry is not an exception. The uncovering of the patterns of concealed relevant information from collected tourist data to improve tourism sector services and applications can be achieved with AI techniques [ 10 ]. Various modern AI technologies have been widely used in tourism and hospitality such as virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, chatbots, and natural language processing [ 4 ].…”

“…Neuro-tourism can improve the research theories of tourism and hospitality. The same neuroscience techniques used in neuromarketing can be applied to neuro-tourism [ 10 ]. Additionally, high-dimensional data compiled from neuro-tourism investigations, including BCI recordings and psychobiological recordings, e.g., ET, can be fed to machines to build cutting-edge AI systems that anticipate traveler preferences or desires and thus generate individualized travel experiences [ 4 ].…”

Exploring the contribution of neuroscientific approach to sustainable smart tourism

“…Each neuromarketing technique gathers different neural activity measurements. For example, fMRI specifies metabolic brain processes through variations in blood flow, while EEG records electrical changes in brain signals [46]; ET measures eye attention toward a stimulus [47]; and HT counts the number of heartbeats in a time and can be used to determine stress [48]. Neuromarketing differs from traditional marketing techniques, such as audio advertisements, television advertising, surveys, and questionnaires, where the customer's input is based on their thoughts and beliefs (subjective responses); this approach has an impact on gathering accurate emotional assessment which will be used to improve customer experience and enhance products and services based on their objective judgments, (Figure 6).…”