Emotions as core building blocks of an experience

Abstract

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.

The Experience of Novelty and the Novelty of Experience

“…This research found that intense emptions is a consequent condition of novelty in recalled events. Previous studies recognize that emotions related to the memorability of the tourism experiences (Bastiaansen et al, 2019). Findings of the present research indicate that novelty may lead to positive as well as negative emotions in the tourism experiences (Kim J. H et al, 2012;Lin et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2017).…”

“…Novelty in a pleasurable tourism experience is associated with suddenness or unexpectedness and with emotions such delight, surprise, and enjoyment (Ortony et al, 1988;Scherer, 1993;Roseman et al, 1996). Emotions are considered as critical for the delivery of MTEs (Bastiaansen et al, 2019;Skavronskaya et al, 2019b). Strong emotions resulting from a novel experience result in vivid memories, created through the secretion of chemicals including dopamine (Moyle et al, 2019).…”

“…A plausible reason for this discrepancy may be the dominance of behavioral rather than cognitive psychology in previous studies on tourism experiences (Skavronskaya et al, 2017a,b). Studies have found that emotions are related to increased memorability of a tourism experiences (Bastiaansen et al, 2019;Hosany et al, 2019), but do not provide adequate insights into the theoretical mechanisms by which these concepts are connected (Scott, 2020). Cognitive psychology is the field that examines the mechanisms by which our brain experiences and interprets external stimuli and provides insights into the mental processes connecting perception of stimuli with behavior (Neisser, 2014).…”

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

“…It has been broadly recognized that emotions embody the value in tourism experiences (Knobloch, Robertson, & Aitken, 2017), are important mediators of recommendation and other target outcomes (Hosany & Gilbert, 2010;Prayag, Hosany, & Odeh, 2013), and fuel the social meanings of tourism experiences (Mitas, Yarnal, & Chick, 2012). Emotions also give practitioners the best entry point for measuring and managing experiences (Bastiaansen et al, 2019;Li, Scott, & Walters, 2015;Moyle, Moyle, Bec, & Scott, 2017;Skavronskaya et al, 2017).…”

“…In other words, it is not clear if simply more emotion during a tourism experience is better. Furthermore, cross-sectional studies leave the role of temporal dynamics unexplained (Bastiaansen et al, 2019). In the present paper, we report on an experience measurement of a complex tourism experience, comprised of a museum visit and village tour, to address the relationship between temporal and spatial dynamics of experience and overall experience evaluation.…”