Emotions are a key component of tourism experiences, as emotions make experiences more valued and more memorable. Peak-and-end-theory states that overall experience evaluations are best predicted by the emotions at the most intense and final moments of an experience. Peak-and-end-theory has mostly been studied for relatively simple experiences. Recent insights suggest that peak-and-end-theory does not necessarily hold for tourism experiences, which tend to be more heterogeneous and multi-episodic in nature. Through the novel approach of using electrophysiological measures in combination with experience reconstruction, the applicability of the peak-and-end-theory to the field of tourism is addressed by studying a musical theatre show in a theme park resort. Findings indicate that for a multi-episodic tourism experience, hypotheses from the peak-and-end-theory are rejected for the experience as a whole, but supported for individual episodes within the experience. Furthermore, it is shown that electrophysiology sheds a new light on the temporal dynamics of experience
The leisure industry is an economy of experiences. As a leisure or tourism organisation you want the experience you are offering to be remembered, so visitors share the experience with friends or want to relive it once again. In other words, the experience should be memorable.During an experience (a holiday, a visit to an attraction park or museum), all sorts of emotions are being experienced. The flux of these emotions (strong to weak) is a contributing factor as to how people remember an experience. If there is no emotion involved in an experience, it is likely be forgotten soon.This PhD research explores how exactly emotions contribute to the memorability of experiences, and what pattern of emotions influences it. To be able to measure emotions, state-of-the-art research methods are used from the Experience Lab, such as brain research (EEG) and skin conductance.
