Emotional Analysis in Designing Tourism Experiences Through Neuromarketing Methods: The Role of Uncontrollable Variables and Atmosphere: A Preliminarily Study

Abstract

The role of emotions in the tourist experience is becoming increasingly important in designing experiences to guarantee maximum involvement and satisfaction for tourists/customers. Previous literature has shown how atmosphere (e.g., visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile variables) may influence consumers’ satisfaction toward the proposed tourist experience. However, in some offers (e.g., theatrical performances, theme parks, outdoor experiences), such a relationship may be influenced by the role of “uncontrollable” variables, as for those variables related to the weather condition. Though an experimental research design based on a neuromarketing tool (face-coding), this paper is aimed to shed light on those variables in influencing consumers’ emotions, and thus their satisfaction regarding their experience. More specifically, the study has been conducted by testing a non-invasive emotional analysis tool able to associate in real-time the facial expressions of the participants with the emotions captured during the performance (e.g., as for disgust, fright, anger, boredom, neutral, surprise, happiness), as well as the emotional valence such as positivity or negativity of the emotion experienced. Results enlighten the role of tourism atmosphere in positively influencing consumers’ emotions, and thus their satisfaction also explaining the role of uncontrollable variable in magnifying such effect. Essential insights for marketers and managers in designing tourism experiences are discussed.

Modern-day marketing concepts based on face recognition and neuro-marketing: a review and future research directions

“…Besides, they also consider the uncontrollable factors that significantly affect consumer satisfaction levels. The environment mediates the relationship between a customer’s emotions and level of satisfaction (Giraldi et al. , 2022).…”

The use of neuromarketing tools in the field of tourism: Discussion of available methodological approaches to understanding the emotions and decision-making process of consumers

“…Although, Pícha et al (2018) did not directly examine the effect of neuromarketing on local food, their article gave rise to the idea of our next focus, for the support of local food is important for the destinations and, for example, the use of sensory marketing could help this. Giraldi et al (2022) investigated multi-sensory stimuli (sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch) to achieve a greater intensity of the tourist experience of the visited destination.…”