Real-Time Measurement of Tourists’ Objective and Subjective Emotions in Time and Space

Abstract

The examination of tourists’ experiences is an essential subject in tourism scholarship. This study presents novel methods by which spatio-temporal data can be combined with physiological measures of emotion and semantic contextual information in order to obtain a comprehensive and integrative understanding of tourists’ experience in time and space. Four data collection techniques were combined and applied to a sample of 68 tourists in Jerusalem: high-resolution locational data, real-time surveying techniques using the experience sampling method, physiological measures of emotion (electrodermal activity), and traditional surveying techniques. We present methods for using these techniques in exploring data on the individual level, comparing pairs of individuals, and examining a sample, providing insight both on the individual’s personal experience and, more broadly, on the emotional characteristics of locations and tourist attractions in a city. Theoretical and methodological implications as well as the limitations of these techniques are discussed.