ePortfolio Hammertinger Lisa

It is all about the emotional state: Managing tourists experiences

To understand the emotional experience of a customer during the consumption of a service is
highly important for the providing company, as it is an important determinant for the
consumers satisfaction with the service. A lot of research already exists about measuring
customer satisfaction, many of them comparing consumers prior expectations and subjective
perceptions of the service. Also well-known are theories about consumer behavior, like the S-
O-R Model developed by Mehrabian and Russel in 1972, which shows how to measure
emotions and reactions of customers in a holistic context. The model illustrates that certain
environmental Stimuli have an effect on the Organism of people, which finally leads to a
certain Response. Simply spoken, the setting of a service influences consumers emotions and
because of that, their behavioral response. Although there is a lot of existing research on
customer satisfaction and consumer behavior, there is still a lack of empirical research
concerning the question of how the environment of a service influences the customers emotions.
Furthermore, as existing research already suggests that emotion is one of the most important
components of customer satisfaction, the question of the time emotions should be measured at
the retrospective level or during the consumption represents another research gap and is also
addressed in this study.

The first research question this study aims to answer is which factors concerning the service
setting influence customers emotions, satisfaction and behavior. Furthermore, the question of at
what time consumers emotions should be measured is included in this study. To answer these
questions properly a theoretical framework is provided. Reviewed in the study is literature
about the influence of physical environments on customers reactions like the already mentioned
S-O-R Model and other prominent research about what effects emotions and consumer
behavior. The empirical research of this study was based a conceptualization of the S-O-R
Model adapted to hotel services and activities. This model is based on different dimensions
concerning the service setting that is creating stimuli: the service environment, social
surroundings, the leisure experience and situational variables. Concerning the service
environment the study integrates software and hardware variables more precisely design,
lightning, color, scent and sound, the behavior of the service customers and the perception of
the hotels image. To assess the social surrounding of a service, empathy, expertise and
responsiveness of employees are factors integrated in the study. The dimension of leisure
experience includes different flow items, such as feel to be in good hands, forget everything
around, do not realize how time is passing, enjoy the activity, being lost in what I am doing,
sense of potential control and being happy. Furthermore, there are situational variables
ePortfolio Hammertinger Lisa
included in the study like age, duration of stay, gender or how many times the customer has
visited the hotel before. Between the service stimuli and the response consumers show lays a
persons organism; his or her emotional state. Finally, concerning the response guests show
towards the service setting of a hotel, this study uses satisfaction as a variable that directly
affects approach-avoidance behavior.

The research method used for the study is a questionnaire. Included in the survey are eight 4
and 5 star hotels in Austria, Southern Germany and Italy that all provide a typical alpine
and/or spa oriented service. In total there were 720 questionnaires distributed and the
response rate was 33.2% - consequently 239 filled out questionnaires are used for the
statistical analysis. All the questions included used a five-point Likert-scale. The hotels that
participated asked guests to fill out the questionnaire during their stay, handling it like a well-
feeling diary. In this manner hotel guests assessed different activities including the variables
mentioned above and finally the effect the different situations had on their emotional state.

The questionnaire includes a large number of variables and for that reason, a factors analysis
was conducted before the testing of the hypotheses stated. The three factors hardware,
human-ware and leisure experience were identified by the analysis factors that are almost
identical to the ones mentioned by the literature that is presented in the paper. The statistical
analysis furthermore included linear regressions to investigate the hypothesis, the enter method
and the stepwise method all of them strengthen the prior results. The factors with the
strongest influence on the emotional state of the consumers are the leisure experience, the
human ware and the hard ware. Furthermore, a Spearmans Rho test showed a strong
significance between the customer satisfaction and the emotional state. These results implicate
on the one hand an optimization of the service encounter for hotel managers. Besides creating
a desirable atmosphere within the tangible service encounter like the reception, it is also highly
important that managers are aware of the high influence employees have on the customers
emotional states. Furthermore, a focus should lie on the so-called moment of truth, which
describes the intangible interpersonal interaction that consumers seek to enjoy. Hotel managers
should also recognize that traditional quality measurement often isnt enough to really explain
customer satisfaction or loyalty and that emotional aspects should be included in the analysis to
get more profound results. For the creation of the right mood in a hotel a focus on customers
emotional dimensions might be of high relevance.


Brunner-Sperdin, A./Peters, M./Strobl, A. (2011): It is all about the emotional state: Managing
tourists experiences. International Journal of Hospitality Management 31(2012), p. 23-30