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

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.