Exploring the relationship between emotions and memorable tourism experiences through narratives

The overall purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between emotional involvement and recall of memorable tourism experiences during the four tourists' travel planning categories. The interest of the study lies in exploring how both the temporal evolution of tourists' emotional events and the memorable experiences might help shed light on consumer behaviour. Participants were asked to write a narrative text of their memorable experiences using the six basic emotions. A multi-method research approach was adopted to triangulate the qualitative and quantitative data. The results indicate that only five of the six fundamental emotions support the recall of tourism experiences making the narration well-articulated. Travel planning categories depict how emotions differ for each travel stage, suggesting that emotions are the most relevant component of influence of the tourism industry and of the holiday experience. Finally, this paper discusses practical implications and offers reflections for further research.