Emotion In Tourism Research Articles

Playing away from home: a qualitative sentiment analysis of online viewers’ non-social emotions on sex tourism vlogs

ABSTRACT Popular yet so controversial, sex tourism remains a significant attraction in Southeast Asia, generating an abundance of scholarly explorations. However, little is known about the emotions expressed by viewers on user-generated content regarding this contentious form of tourism. Thus, this qualitative sentiment analysis, which aims to dilate non-social emotions found in comments expressed by online viewers on video content featuring sex tourism in Southeast Asia, is conducted. Through Data Miner, online comments (n = 10,864) were gathered and extracted from purposively selected sex tourism vlogs on YouTube, which were then subjected to Phronetic Iterative Qualitative Data Analysis (PIQDA) (Tracy, 2013). A member-checking procedure was performed further to establish the validity of the study’s findings. Interestingly, a model dubbed YouTube online viewers’ non-social emotions on sex tourism as a magnetic field consisting of labelled emotions known as enabling and disabling has emerged in this qualitative study. Notably, enabling emotions capture distinct emotions of interest, admiration, joy, amusement, satisfaction, sexual desire, excitement, awe, and romance. The second notion, disabling emotions, encapsulates patent emotions of dislike, anger, boredom, sadness, confusion, emphatic pain, disappointment, disgust, fear, anxiety, and awkwardness. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and recommendations on non-social emotions in tourism were discussed in this paper.

Meaningful body talk: Emotional experiences with music-based group interactions

Music-based group interaction (MGI) is a complex social phenomenon that is important for individuals' emotional experiences. However, research on emotion in tourism lacks a focus on group interaction integrating the mind and body. Guided by Damasio's neurocognitive-evolutionary theory, this study used an adapted go-along method at Midi Festivals to analyze festivalgoers' emotional experiences during MGI. Meanings of the body and its agency-related roles were captured between emotions, music, and group interaction. Results revealed three patterns of MGI—dissociative, reflective, and immersive—based on the extent of congruence between social and bodily rhythms. MGI allows participants to achieve a clear sense of self and shared belonging thanks to the unity between body and mind. The findings provide insights into contemplating emotions, the body, and group interaction within a musical context. Results suggest that music tourism holds value for enhancing individuals' emotion regulation and well-being, offering implications for practitioners in event management.

Nature-inspired awe toward tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior intention

Purpose Awe is an important yet largely overlooked emotion in tourism. This paper aims to reveal the underlying mechanism of the effects of nature-inspired awe on stimulating tourists' environmentally responsible behavior (TERB) intention by delving into the serial mediation effect of state construal level, small-self perception and state connectedness to nature (CNT). Design/methodology/approach This research was built upon the appraisal theory of emotion. Study 1 was a scenario-induced quasi-experimental study to test the proposed model linking awe, small-self perception, state CNT and TERB intention. A total of 271 valid questionnaires were collected via an online questionnaire platform. Study 2 was a field study designed to replicate the findings of Study 1 and further uncover the mediating role of the state construal level. Study 2 was conducted in Baiyun Mountain Scenic Area, China. A total of 229 valid questionnaires were used for analysis. Findings This research deepens our understanding of the effects of nature-inspired awe in the tourism and travel fields. This research uncovers the underlying mechanism by which awe increases TERB intention through serial mediation. Specifically, awe inspires tourists to apply a higher level of construal, which makes tourists perceive a smaller self, making them feel more connected to nature and exert more intention to adopt ERB. Originality/value This research linked tourists' mindset (i.e. state construal level), internal (i.e. small-self perception) and external (i.e. state CNT) cognition in an integrated model, explaining how nature-inspired awe contributes to eliciting TERB intention. The findings add critical theoretical contributions to the travel and tourism literature and provide important implications for the tourism industry to inspire awe and benefit from such emotion.

Re-theorizing social emotions in tourism: applying the theory of interaction ritual in tourism research

Although social emotions can serve as an effective analytic lens through which to study residents’ reactions to tourists and tourism, limited theoretical discussion exists examining how social emotions are related to perceptions or behaviors. Extant literature instead has knitted together empirical support in postulating the relationships among social emotions, perceptions, and behaviors. While such an approach is also considered theoretical in a broad sense, resultant findings can be disjointed across research, making replication more difficult. In response, this article introduces the interaction ritual theory and discusses how the theory can strengthen the theoretical connection between social emotions and other constructs. In so doing, this article suggests that the notions of emotional energy and social marketplace are useful in explaining how residents’ perceptions and behaviors change as they respond to tourists and tourism. This article also discusses limitations of the theory and how they can be addressed by considering the theory in tandem with the emotional solidarity theory.

Emotions in Tourism: Theoretical Designs, Measurements, Analytics, and Interpretations

The theorization of emotion receives considerable attention in contemporary tourism literature. Remarkably, existing studies largely ignore the operationalization of emotion in tourism research. Drawing on extant knowledge from psychology, marketing, and tourism literatures, this article describes methodological and theoretical concerns and provides guidance for selecting highly useful-for-the-context (HUFTC) emotion measures. To help researchers choose HUFTC measures, this study proposes a new model: Emotionapps. The article here highlights the need for tourism researchers to account for the complexities in measuring emotions and how such measurement impacts theory construction.

THE ROLE OF TOURIST EMOTION IN DESTINATION LOYALTY

Dominant role of tourist emotions as an inescapable element in tourism experience has been widely acknowledged. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual idea on tourist emotion to address inadequacy of the past studies to incorporate characteristic of marketing to determine destination loyalty. Emotion and destination loyalty is an important concept in destination marketing being capable to address switching behavior and variety seeking nature among tourist. This paper discussed various theoretical elements regarding the use of emotion which was originally borrowed from the field of psychology and the need for context specific emotion to accurately capture tourist related emotions. This discussion denotes the key differences in the use of emotion in psychology and tourism. It further proposed a set of direction for future research employing emotion in tourism should be heading in order to better position to predict destination loyalty. This paper also discussed various underpinning theories, limitation and practical implication for academia and policy makers. KEYWORDS: Tourist emotion, loyalty, experience, destination.

Physiological and self-report methods to the measurement of emotion in tourism

ABSTRACTThere is strong growth in research on tourist emotion, with a substantial scholarly debate emerging, surrounding approaches to measurement. Recently objective physiological methods for measurement of emotion have been applied in the tourism field. However, there are few studies which explore the benefits and limitations of applying physiological and self-report methods to measure emotions. This research aims to compare and contrast physiological and self-report methods to assess emotional responses to tourism marketing stimuli where music was manipulated. This research assessed emotional responses from 37 participants to three tourism advertisements of Iran using four key methods; specifically, FaceReader™, skin conductance, self-report surveys and post hoc interviews. This research found that the light rhythmic music tends to evoke positive emotions and a higher level of emotional arousal in participants than does the traditional Iranian music or a video without music. Physiological and self-report measures of emotional arousal were inconsistent, but both techniques found similar results for assessing the valence of emotions. Thus, results highlight the importance of applying physiological techniques in combination with self-report surveys and post hoc interviews to provide a better and more accurate understanding of emotional experiences.

Gender and Emotion in Tourism: Do Men and Women Tour Leaders Differ in Their Performance of Emotional Labor?

ABSTRACTEmotional dimensions of hospitality and tourism service providers constitute an essential research topic, as the provision of high-quality services has clear effects on a destination’s competitive advantage. Past studies on gender and emotions have been limited. Currently, little is known about the extent of gender differences in Chinese tour leaders’ roles and the relationship between such differences and emotional labor. This study aims to investigate whether men and women tour leaders perform emotional labor differently. A survey of 309 Chinese tour leaders revealed that surface acting and deep acting were the two most used emotional labor strategies. Men and women tour leaders neither differed significantly in their emotional labor performance nor in their role performance. Women and men tour leaders displayed similar levels of deep acting. However, men put more effort into surface acting than women. Moreover, men and women were motivated by different types of organizational and supervisor support to perform their roles. These findings provide important implications for travel agency managers regarding employee selection, staff training and organizational support.

Negative emotions in tourism: a meaningful analysis

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we critically examine the use of (negative) emotions in psychology, consumer behaviour and tourism. We find that (1) negative emotions form an integral part of the tourist experience in certain tourism contexts, particularly in dark tourism and types of travel that involve transformation of the self, (2) negative emotions can have multiple positive outcomes and (3) these positive outcomes are present in hedonic and non-hedonic tourism contexts, yet they occur occasionally in hedonic and more systematically in non-hedonic tourism contexts. We conclude that negative emotions contribute to eudaimonic experiences by affecting different types of meaning in life.