Senses, emotions and memories in tourism experience: A review

ABSTRACT | Today, memorable experiences are the leading economic value proposition that the tourism industry holds. This article aims to theoretically investigate the relationship between the senses, emotions and memories in the tourist experience and present a conceptual model about the senses, emotions and memories in the tourism experience establishment. Based on the literature review, we concluded that the construction of the tourism experience is the result of multi-sensory stimuli and perception, positive emotions, high emotional states, surprising events, extraordinary moments and pleasant and positive memories. It was also found that the senses, emotions and memories have a sequential relationship in the tourism experience establishment. We also concluded that the senses play a important role in the experiential stimuli perception, the emotional states are vital to the stimuli interpretation and meaning achievement and memories are essential to coding, storage and anticipation the experiential information.

Keywords: tourism experience; senses; emotion; memories; conceptual model

Pedro, R. M. M., Mendes, J., de Matos, N., & Ascenção, M. P. (2021). Senses, emotions and memories in tourism experience: A review. Rosa dos Ventos - Turismo e Hospitalidade, 13(2), 538-563. DOI: 10.18226/21789061.v13i2p538