Urban tourism increasingly focuses on the role of hospitality in cities, evolving from a means to strengthen tourism as a ‘product’, towards a focus on tourism as an opportunity for revitalization and transformation of destinations. In this context, cities are considered dynamic communities in which ‘hosts’ (entrepreneurs, residents, municipalities) and ‘guests’ (visitors, tourists) co-habitate and co-create multisensorial experiences. This shift in focus comes hand in hand with increasing awareness of competitiveness and sustainability of destinations, expressed by a harmonious relationship between city residents and visitors and a balanced usage of the city as a shared resource. This is of great importance, given the intense usage of urban spaces – the city center of Amsterdam being an illustrative example – and the multiple purposes that these spaces represent for different stakeholders. This paper presents the outcome of a review study into city hospitality experience indicators. We integrate these indicators as a basis for the development of a new scale for measuring the effectiveness of hospitality interventions in relation to outcome variables such as satisfaction and net promotor score (NPS). We thereby provide an important means for scholars and practitioners to develop sustainable tourism actions inclusive of local community interests, in support of efforts toward more balanced city experiences among all stakeholders.
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Purpose: This paper aims to stimulate the discussion in the fields of hospitality, tourism and leisure on what exactly constitutes “an experience” and how to measure it; the authors unpack the experience construct into its core constituent elements, namely, emotions. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews insights from psychology and cognitive neuroscience that define experiences as a fine-grained temporal succession of emotions that occur during an experiential episode. Limitations of current methods for measuring experiences are discussed, after which biometric and neuroscientific methods are reviewed that are optimally geared toward measuring emotions, as they occur during an experience with fine temporal detail. Findings: An overview is presented of the available studies within the fields of hospitality, tourism and leisure that use these methodologies. These studies show that using these methodologies provides a fruitful methodological approach to measuring experiences in real time. Practical implications: Companies are constantly seeking to create memorable experiences for their customers. The proposed research methodologies allow companies to get a more fine-grained image of what impacts customers over the course of their experience and to actively integrate the use of emotions into creating experiences, as emotions are key to making them memorable. Originality/value: The paper sketches the contours of a rapidly emerging framework that unpacks memorable experiences into their constituent element – emotions. It is proposed that this will contribute to a deeper understanding of how consumers experience offerings in the hospitality, tourism and leisure industry.
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The tourism industry tries to strategically manage a customer’s experience by carefully designing, staging and managing the customer journey, in order to create a memorable experience. But what if that memory already has its onset during the experience itself? In this article, we introduce the concept of ‘anticipatory nostalgia’ and define it as a moment immediately after a peak moment in the experience, which entails the creation of a mental image of a future moment in time that is accompanied by an emotional response. We present a theoretical model to explicate a process in which anticipatory nostalgia can enhance the meaningfulness and memorability of an experience. We reason that anticipatory nostalgia is characterized by a joyous feeling yet followed by the elicitation of sad emotions. This implies that the tourist already begins to miss aspects of the experience before it is over. This moment results in a reflection which might replace the joy-sadness connection with a joy-calmness connection. Thereby, placing more emphasis on the uniqueness of the total experience. Potential methods for research are discussed in detail and address the explorative content analysis of autobiographical narratives and photo-elicited interviews, complemented by the use of virtual reality vignettes while measuring several physiological signals.
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This paper applies the Event Experiences Scale (EES) to seven cultural events in different countries with the aim of identifying generic dimensions of event experience. Exploratory factor analysis indicated the presence of four experience dimensions: cognitive engagement, affective engagement, physical engagement and novelty. These broadly reflect the four dimensions found in the original EES study [de Geus, S., Richards, G., & Toepoel, V. (2016). Conceptualisation and operationalisation of event and festival experiences: Creation of an event experience scale. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 16(3), 274–296]. In the cultural events analysed here, the cognitive dimension is strongest, followed by affective engagement, novelty and finally physical engagement. The experience dimensions are shown to vary significantly between visitor groups (particularly in terms of age) and by event location or context. Analysis of social media use shows that experiences also vary significantly through the stages of the ‘event journey’, with affective engagement being particularly prominent during and after the event.
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Structured experience (SE) providers continuously evaluate and improve their experiential offerings to make them more memorable. Arguably, the temporal dynamics of the emotions in an experience have a crucial influence on its memorability. Traditional post-experience evaluation procedures tend to ignore these temporal dynamics, thus offering imprecise feedback for providers on exactly when and where to optimize their experiential offerings. In this paper, we use two methods as a tool for evaluating how closely the lived experience of a SE follows the experience as intended by the provider: real-time skin conductance (SC) and experience reconstruction measures (ERMs). We demonstrate that both SC and ERMs are significantly related to intended experience. This link was found to be stronger for later sections of the experience than for earlier sections. In addition, SC and ERMs appear to be useful tools to assess the effectiveness of design interventions, thus providing valuable feedback for SE providers.
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This research concerning the experience and future of zoos was carried out from 2011-2012 and takes regional ideas concerning Zoo Emmen as well as global visions into account. The research focuses partly on Zoo Emmen, its present attractions and visitors while also comparing and contrasting visions on the future in relationship to other international zoos in the world. In this way, remarkable experiences and ideas will be identified and in the light of them, it can serve as inspiration for stakeholders of zoos at large. The main research subject is a look at the future zoos in view of: The Zoo Experience – an international experience benchmark; The Zoo of the Future – a Scenario Planning approach towards the future; The virtual zoo - zoo’s in the internet domain.
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Within large service organizations there are currently two trends visible. These trends seem to be diametrically opposed. On the one hand organizations face increasing price pressure and thus a pressure to cut costs. One of the consequences of this trend is that organizations are increasingly encouraging customers to make more use of digital communication channels. At the same time, companies find it important to know their customers in order to respond adequately to their needs. To do this, organizations must have a certain degree of personal involvement to their customers and they must have regular personal contact. It is assumed that both trends – digitisation and personalisation – will have a strong impact on customer experience and (perhaps) on the relational models customers use. If it is true that relational models - so the way in which people perceive and assess a relationship - play a role in the perception of the customer, it is also interesting to know if it is possible to influence these relational models. During the last fifty years much research has been done into the possibilities to influence customers by using subliminal priming techniques. In these techniques thoughts and feelings are unconsciously activated by showing people certain words or images (eg Bargh, Chen & Burrows, 1996; Dijksterhuis, 2005). In recent years a number of experiments were performed in which customers were unconsciously primed at some type of relationship (eg Aggarwal, 2004; McGraw & Tetlock, 2005; Tuk, Verlegh, Smidts & Wigboldus, 2009). These experiments showed that it is possible to activate a certain type of relationship. The experiments however the researchers used scenario’s based on an interpersonal relationship, and often to a fictitious relationship. The question is whether priming techniques also work for an already existing and more complex relationship between an organization and its customers. From 2010-2013 we conducted research for six large service providers in banking, insurance, utilities and social welfare to discover what the customer experience of these organisations, what role relational models played in customer experience and whether it was possible to influence these relational models. The research project has provided answers to the following questions: - Which relational models are used by customers and what is the influence of these models on customer experience? - What is the influence of digitisation in customer communication on relational models and customer experience? - What is the influence of personalisation in customer communication on relational models and customer experience? And finally, - Is it possible to influence relational models (and customer experience) by using specific words and images that are associated with relational models (relational framing)?
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We designed and held a romantic speed-dating experience at three locations, one in the Netherlands, one in the US, and one in China. We manipulated self-disclosure and tried to predict matches from participants' physiological body reactions.
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