How Does Tourist Experience Affect Environmentally Responsible Behavior?

Mountain tourism is an important part of China’s tourism market. Tourist behavior is essential to environmental protection and the sustainability of destinations. This paper takes environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) as an important tourist behavior. It breaks down the dimensions of the traditional tourism experience, such as hedonism, participation, novelty; or hedonism, involvement, novelty, local culture; and analyzes the influence of entertainment, education, aesthetics, and escape on place attachment from the nature of the tourism experience. It then incorporates nature bonding into the system of place attachment and analyzes the relationship with place attachment, tourist experiences, and ERBs in Qianshan Mountain, a 5A scenic spot in China. Partial least squares structural (PLS) equation modeling is used to analyze the data of 410 valid questionnaires. The results found that tourist experiences affect ERBs through place attachment. Nature bonding is the key factor of ERBs. The results are as follows: escape and aesthetics influence ERB through nature bonding; entertainment influences general ERB through place identity and nature bonding; education has a positive impact on general ERB through place identity and place dependence. Entertainment and education experiences partially affect place attachment. Place identity and nature bonding affect general ERB, but particular ERB is related only to nature bonding. The internal psychological mechanism of ERB is identified. In addition, mountain landscapes can be designed from the perspective of entertainment experiences, landscape aesthetic, leisure atmosphere and educational functions, so that tourists can spontaneously pay attention to environmental issues and engage in the practical activities of environmental protection.

Impact of multisensory extended reality on tourism experience journey

Purpose The use of extended reality (XR) to create memorable experiences has attracted considerable attention, especially in tourism. Multisensory XR offers a new way of virtually previewing a destination before physical holidays. This study aims to explore how multisensory XR can be used at each stage of the tourism experience journey. This study established a model for how destination-image formation is affected by multisensory XR in each phase of tourism experience. Design/methodology/approach The authors followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines to review studies published between 2013 and 2020, gathered from four research databases. The authors identified the predominant XR technology and sensory stimuli based on the characteristics of various tourism domains. The authors synthesized the previous studies to explain destination-image formation by using multisensory XR. Findings This study summarized the XR study distribution among the three stages of the tourism experience journey. The authors identified the predominant sensory stimuli and dominant XR application and developed a destination-image formation model by using multisensory XR. Originality/value This study highlights the holistic approach of multisensory XR in the tourism experience journey in relation to various tourism domains. It also contributes to destination-image formation in the virtual environment by providing multisensory experiences of predominant sensory stimuli at each stage.

Segmentation of wine tourism experience in Mexican wine regions using netnography

Purpose This paper aims to offer an experiential segmentation based on the analysis of comments from wine tourists from different Mexican wine regions, using netnography as a data collection and analysis tool. Design/methodology/approach The netnography methodology was applied in three steps: first, collecting consumer opinions (TripAdvisor 1,240 opinions, 2017–2019) from their visits to 20 wineries in four Mexican wine regions. Second, organizing of the data by classifying the various experiences. Third, by the application of multiple correspondence and cluster analysis to consolidate four segments taking as reference the 4Es Model. Findings The results show that of the four Mexican wine regions, Baja California is divided between the aesthetic and wine focus segments, Coahuila is more associated to the educational segment, while tourist who visit Queretaro tend to relate to the activities of the entertainment segment. Research limitations/implications The scarce literature that exists regarding wine tourism in Mexico made certain comparisons and relationships to the results difficult to establish. Practical implications The results provide stakeholders (wineries, state tourism departments, wine tourism marketers and wine tourism researchers) a segmentation proposal focused on tourist experiences to improve marketing programs and wine tourism offerings. Originality/value The use of netnography as a tool for wine tourism research in Mexico is one that has not been previously explored. In addition, this study considers different Mexican wine regions, which allows for comparisons and relationships between them that can contribute to greater market differentiation.

Cognitive Science of Tourism Experiences

While other disciplinary approaches such as sociology and anthropology are important, this chapter introduces a cognitivist psychology approach to experience research. Such theoretical discussion may seem of little practical use, but the chapter argues that it is fundamental to understanding how and why experiences are created. The chapter applies theory and concepts from cognitive science (cognitive psychology and neuroscience) in the study of tourism experiences. This provides a different psychological paradigm to the behavioural approach currently in use in much research. The chapter describes the scope of cognitive psychology and neuroscience, its main concepts of cognitive psychology (perception, attention, emotion, memory, consciousness, learning), and their neuronal basis (neuroscience). These concepts are then applied in three topic areas related to tourism experiences: decision making, emotion, and attention. Several applications to tourism experience research are noted. Finally, the chapter discusses the way cognitive psychology concepts can be used in tourism research.

An Empirical Study on the Impact of Prior Information Provision Methods on Participants’ Perceptions in Tasting Marketing

Tasting events are a typical example of a tourism experience that utilizes alcohol. However, it has not been sufficiently demonstrated how the prior information given to customers at tasting events affects their perception of the tasting and its marketing effects. In this study, we conducted a tasting experiment of a new Japanese sake product in California, the USA to clarify how information given to participants in advance can affect their perception of the tasting, satisfaction, and word-of-mouth intention related to the new sake product, and compared the effects of the following types of prior information: 1) no information, 2) written information, 3) video explained by a man, and 4) video explained by a woman. The results show that presenting information makes a difference in its impact as opposed to providing no information. When prior information was presented in written form, various perspectives significantly influenced the satisfaction and recommended intention more than in the cases of video. On the other hand, in the cases of video, the number of significant paths was reduced, but the influence on word-of-mouth intention was greater than in the case of written information. This study contributes to the development of a theory and empirical evidence that takes into account prior information in tasting marketing in tourism.