The Interplay of Context, Experience, and Emotion at World Heritage Sites: a Qualitative and Machine Learning Approach

Abstract

This study illustrates how user-generated content, posted in the form of heritage site reviews on social media, can serve to reveal the relationship between the cocreated interpretation of World Heritage Sites (WHSs)—in terms of values, tangible and intangible attributes, as well as site visit logistics—and the emotional experience of the site. Two WHSs are taken as a case study. More than 2,000 reviews were retrieved from TripAdvisor and analyzed through the application of a mixed method that integrates qualitative digital ethnography and machine learning. Results show that TripAdvisor reviews capture tourists' emotional reactions from personal encounters with heritage and provide insights into the range of values—including the social, historic, and aesthetical values—that visitors experience when engaging with aspects of the past to associate meanings for the present. Results also show that the relation between experiences gained at WHSs and contextual aspects is not linear; instead, it is a complex one that results from the interaction of different factors and their associated sentiments. We discuss our results by reflecting on their theoretical and practical implications.