Tourists' memories, sensory impressions and loyalty: in loco and post-visit study in Southwest Portugal

By Dora Agapito, Patrícia Pinto, Júlio da Costa Mendes. 2017

221 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study aims to offer some insights on the contribution of sensory diversity as perceived by tourists to memorable destination experiences and to explore the connection between long-term memory of sensory impressions and destination loyalty. The vital role of the sensory dimension of tourist experiences is stressed by current tourism research and supported by a multidisciplinary view on the role of the five external senses in human perception, memory, and behavior. While the marketing management approach highlights the importance of considering multisensory information in the process of facilitating positive and memorable destination experiences, there is a lack of empirical research to validate the theoretical literature. A two-step exploratory study was conducted in loco and six months after tourists' visits to Southwest Portugal. The findings suggest that perceived richer sensory tourist experiences may have a significant role in the long-term memory of individuals’ experiences, encouraging favorable tourist behavior towards destinations.

Subfields: Food Science, Geography, Planning and Development, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/79c96b3a390a90bc977a1329e514b862eee84dcb

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Citations in the corpus

Tourism Memory Characteristics Scale: Development and Validation (2021, background): “Lastly, the TMCS can serve as a foundational resource to promote product-related storytelling and positive WOM that customers can trust when choosing future travel destinations.”
The role of natural soundscape in nature-based tourism experience: an extension of the stimulus–organism–response model (2020, background): “It seems to be important to widely apply the multisensory information in designing tourism and leisure experience (Agapito et al., 2017).”
Expanding theory of tourists’ destination loyalty: The role of sensory impressions (2020, background): “Compared with questionnaires used in a previous study (Agapito et al., 2017), online destination reviews are characterized by openness and autonomy, as tourists do not have to follow a prescribed format and can fully express their feelings.”