Emotions and satisfaction on eco-tourism experience

In past years, literature focused on the role of emotions on tourists' satisfaction, demonstrating that emotions can be considered as a segmentation variable on the tourism market. In particular, recent studies show that... [ view full abstract ]

In past years, literature focused on the role of emotions on tourists' satisfaction, demonstrating that emotions can be considered as a segmentation variable on the tourism market. In particular, recent studies show that positive emotions positively affect tourists' satisfaction and, vice-versa, negative emotions negatively affect tourists' satisfaction (Bigné, Andreu, 2004; Del Chiappa et. al, 2015). Nevertheless, few studies are focused on the field of sport tourism and eco-tourism experiences. The aims of this study are to test, respectively 1) if emotions can be considered as a segmentation variable in eco-tourism experiences, and 2) if the level of the emotions experienced affects the overall satisfaction in the eco-tourism experience. For the purposes of this study, an ad-hoc survey was developed based on prior literature and administered on-line using a snow-ball method. First, respondents were asked to give some general socio-demographic information (gender, age, level of education, etc.). Second, respondents were asked to assess their level of agreement (1=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree) with a list of items used to investigate their emotions during their recent trekking experiences. The third section asked respondents to provide their recent trekking experience overall satisfaction on a 5-point Likert scale (1=not satisfied; 5= very satisfied). A convenience sample of 1322 complete questionnaires were collected and used for a statistical analysis. This study has considered a set of 27 feelings in a cluster analysis (Punj and Stewart, 1983) with a dual process – hierarchical and non-hierarchical methods. A two-cluster solution was selected. The first cluster showed higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions in comparison to the second cluster. Statistical analysis (t-test) showed that cluster one was significantly more satisfied than cluster 2, demonstrating that emotions affect satisfaction levels (t=15.654; p<0.000). A series of chi-square test showed that non-significant differences existed between the segments based on socio-demographic characteristics. Findings prove the relevance of emotions on the development of tourists' satisfaction and their usability as a segmentation variable in the eco-tourism context, in line with state-of-the-art literature. From a managerial point of view, findings evidence the importance to both communicate and position eco-tourism products as an emotionally driven experience.