Tourists' memories, sensory impressions and loyalty: In loco and post-visit study in Southwest Portugal

Abstract

HIGHLIGHTS: Conducts a two-step study, in loco and post-visit, with the managerial perspective to facilitate positive destination experiences.  Suggests that diversified sensory impressions as perceived by tourists impact the long-term memory of destination experiences.  More diversified sensory impressions recalled in the post-visit phase enhance favorable tourist behavior towards destinations.  Reveals a link between richer sensory tourist experiences and destination loyalty. *HighlightsTourists' memories, sensory impressions, and loyalty: In loco and post-visit study in Southwest Portugal AbstractThis study aims to offer some insights on the contribution of sensory diversity as perceived by tourists to memorable destination experiences and to explore the connection between longterm memory of sensory impressions and destination loyalty. The vital role of the sensory dimension of tourist experiences is stressed by current tourism research and supported by a multidisciplinary view on the role of the five external senses in human perception, memory, and behavior. While the marketing management approach highlights the importance of considering multisensory information in the process of facilitating positive and memorable destination experiences, there is a lack of empirical research to validate the theoretical literature. A two-step exploratory study was conducted in loco and six months after tourists' visits to Southwest Portugal. The findings suggest that perceived richer sensory tourist experiences may have a significant role in the long-term memory of individuals' experiences, encouraging favorable tourist behavior towards destinations.

Exploring multisensory place experiences through cruise blog analysis

“…The findings suggest that multisensory engagement during a destination visit influences later‐reported impressions, which verifies the role of sensory stimulation in tourist experience evaluation. This result is consistent with the nascent literature on sensory tourism experiences, which maintains that sensory impressions leave a lasting memory in tourists’ mind (Agapito et al, ; Santos, Caldeira, Santos, Oliveira, & Ramos, ) and affect future behavioral intentions toward the destination (Barnes, Mattsson, & Sørensen, ; Jiménez Barreto, Rubio, & Campo Martínez, ).…”

“…Tourists hear diverse sounds during their visit depending on the characteristics of the location. Thus, rural destination's soundscape is composed of more natural sounds, such as birdsongs, tree leaves, sea weaves, and so forth (Agapito et al, ). In contrast, Aletta, Brambilla, Maffei, and Masullo () found that visitors to an urban setting experienced three groups of sounds: Traffic noise, nature sounds, and voices of human crowds.…”

“…Extant literature acknowledges the crucial role of sensorial stimulation on tourists' destination appraisal (Agapito et al, 2013;Pan & Ryan, 2009;Xiong et al, 2015). Destination sensory impressions affect not only destination image (Son & Pearce, 2005;Xiong et al, 2015), but also subsequent tourist behavior (e.g., rich sensory experiences increase destination loyalty; Agapito et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2018;Qiu et al, 2018). Multisensory interactions add value to the tourist experience and enhance visitors' perception of place authenticity (Ferrari, 2015).…”

“…The extant literature has established the positive influence of multisensory stimuli on tourist experience (Agapito, Mendes, & Valle, ; Agapito, Valle, & Mendes, ; Medway, ; Pan & Ryan, ; Qiu, Zhang, Zhang, & Zheng, ) and the need to adopt a holistic approach to its inquiry, examining all the five senses comprising the destination sensescape (Agapito, Pinto, & Mendes, ; Kirillova, Fu, Lehto, & Cai, ; Pawaskar & Goel, ). However, the majority of studies have either focused on the visual dimension of the tourist experience (Denstadli & Jacobsen, ; Jutla, ; Pearce, Wu, & Chen, ; Prestholdt & Nordbø, ), referred to as “the tourist gaze” (Urry, ) or have examined one sense in particular, i.e., soundscape (e.g., Liu, Wang, Liu, Yao, & Deng, ), tastescape (e.g., Kivela & Crotts, ), and smellscape (e.g., Dann & Jacobsen, ).…”

“…By doing so, the results of the study contribute to the nascent sensory tourism literature by providing empirical evidence for the role of senses in destination evaluation. Second, unlike past research which has used open-end questions (e.g., Agapito et al, 2017;Son & Pearce, 2005;Xiong et al, 2015) or already designed scales (e.g., Liu et al, 2018;Qiu et al, 2018) to inquire tourists about their sensory impressions, the present study uncovers the sensory components of the place experience by examining tourists' narratives about the visit in general. Thus, only those sensory perceptions that impressed tourists and made the visit memorable are considered.…”