The role of emotions in destination visitation intentions: a cross cultural perspective

The role of emotions in consumer attitudes and behaviour has become the focus of much recent research, and no doubt this trend will continue as new findings bring benefits. Within the tourism literature, emotions or affect have been investigated in conjunction with destination image, and a number of studies in the area have provided a direction for the present study. A sample of Italian and American individuals were surveyed to determine the role emotions played in influencing destination visitation intentions, the relationship between emotions and the physical characteristics of a destination, and to determine whether emotions van/across nationalities. The results indicated that emotions were the strongest predictor of visitation intention, that the tourism attraction of a destination stimulate the strongest emotional responses and that there are only minor differences in the intensity of emotional responses between nationalities.