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More is not better: The emotional dynamics of an excellent experience
Mitas,Ondrej Mitasova,H. Millar,G Boode,Wilco Neveu,V Hover,Moniek van den Eijnden,F. Bastiaansen,Marcel
Mitas,Ondrej
Mitasova,H.
Millar,G
Boode,Wilco
Neveu,V
Hover,Moniek
van den Eijnden,F.
Bastiaansen,Marcel
Abstract
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.
Description
Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
PEAK, emotions, experience, heritage tourism, psychology, skin conductance, SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
Citation
Mitas, O, Mitasova, H, Millar, G, Boode, W, Neveu, V, Hover, M, van den Eijnden, F & Bastiaansen, M 2022, 'More is not better : The emotional dynamics of an excellent experience', Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 78-99. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348020957075