Tourism experience: a review.

et al. 2019

IJCHM

138

121

PurposeTo stimulate the discussion in the fields of hospitality, tourism, and leisure on what exactly constitutes "an experience" and how to measure it, we unpack the experience construct into its core constituent elements, namely, emotions. ApproachThe paper reviews insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience that define experiences as a fine-grained temporal succession of emotions that occur during an experiential episode. Limitations of current methods for measuring experiences are discussed, after which biometric and neuroscientific methods are reviewed that are optimally geared toward measuring emotions as they occur during an experience with fine temporal detail. FindingsAn overview is presented of the available studies within the fields of hospitality, tourism, and leisure that use these methodologies. These studies show that using these methodologies provides a fruitful methodological approach to measuring experiences in real time. Practical implicationsCompanies are constantly seeking to create memorable experiences for their customers. The proposed research methodologies allow companies to get a more fine-grained image of what impacts customers over the course of their experience and to actively integrate the use of emotions into creating experiences, as emotions are key to making them memorable. Originality/valueThe paper sketches the contours of a rapidly emerging framework that unpacks memorable experiences into their constituent element − emotions. It is proposed that this will contribute to a deeper understanding of how consumers experience offerings in the hospitality, tourism, and leisure industry.

Section: Emotions Are the Main Building Blocks Of Memorable Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotions as core building blocks of an experience

Bastiaansen

Lub

et al. 2019

IJCHM

138

121

“…There is an extensive conceptual and empirical literature on the topic of tourist experiences. In a thorough and insightful review, Scott and Le (2017), conclude that theoretical models in this literature are generally constrained by the discipline from which they originate. Thus, there no coherent understanding of tourism experience is possible based on this literature.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

More is Not Better: The Emotional Dynamics of an Excellent Experience

Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research

Mitášová²,

Millar

et al. 2020

Emotions embody the value in tourism experiences and drive essential outcomes such as intent to recommend. Current models do not explain how the ebb and flow of emotional arousal during an experience relate to outcomes, however. We analyzed 15 participants’ experiences at the Vincentre museum and guided village tour in Nuenen, the Netherlands. This Vincent van Gogh-themed experience led to a wide range of intent to recommend and emotional arousal, measured as continuous phasic skin conductance, across participants and exhibits. Mixed-effects analyses modeled emotional arousal as a function of proximity to exhibits and intent to recommend. Experiences with the best outcomes featured moments of both high and low emotional arousal, not one continuous “high,” with more emotion during the middle of the experience. Tourist experience models should account for a complex relationship between emotions experienced and outcomes such as intent to recommend. Simply put, more emotion is not always better.

“…While a comprehensive review of tourist experience is beyond the scope of this article see [ 28 , 29 ], we touch on this construct from two relevant angles: to assert a contemporary psychological view on experience and how it is measured, and to relate experience to tourists’ attraction choices and resulting spatial behavior. In conceptualizing experience, we follow current knowledge in cognitive psychology and neuroscience to define experience as a process wherein the continuous sense of experiencing is selectively recalled and evaluated, sometimes termed “the experiencing self” and “the remembering self” [ 30 ].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tell Me Where to Go: An Experiment in Spreading Visitor Flows in The Netherlands

Badal²,

Verhoeven

et al. 2023

IJERPH

Cities attracting large numbers of tourists increasingly face crowding and public resistance to tourism growth. As a result, governments strive to spread tourists from the best-known attractions to less-visited locations to improve both residents’ and tourists’ quality of life. Evidence of success and best practices herein is largely anecdotal, and the effects on tourist experience are also unknown. Thus, we undertook a randomized 2 × 2 experiment in the province of Overijssel (The Netherlands), wherein tourists staying at vacation parks near small and mid-sized cities were exposed to information which emphasized attractions in either heavily visited or less-visited areas. Participants were also assigned to receive the information in either a passive or a conversational form. Location and daily emotion, as well as experience evaluation on the last day of the vacation, were recorded via mobile platforms. We found that tourists receiving information on attractions in less-visited areas engaged in significantly more movements around these attractions, and significantly less around heavily visited areas. The conversational form of information delivery was more positively evaluated than information delivered passively. Furthermore, vacation experience emotions and evaluations were largely unaffected. Thus, it is clearly possible to direct tourists to less-crowded locations without negatively affecting their vacation experiences.