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A study of unconscious emotional and cognitive responses to tourism images

using a neuroscience method

Article  in  Journal of Islamic Marketing · January 2019

DOI: 10.1108/JIMA-09-2017-0098

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 Journal of Islamic Marketing
A study of unconscious emotional and cognitive responses to tourism images using
a neuroscience method
Ian Michael, Thomas Ramsoy, Melodena Stephens, Filareti Kotsi,
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Emotional and
A study of unconscious emotional cognitive
and cognitive responses to responses

tourism images using a

neuroscience method
Ian Michael Received 22 September 2017
Downloaded by eFADA of Ankabut UAE, Professor Ian Michael At 08:05 14 January 2019 (PT)

Revised 25 July 2018

College of Business, Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Graduate 20 August 2018
School of Business, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of South Pacific, Accepted 29 August 2018

Suva, Fiji
Thomas Ramsoy
Neurons Inc, Copenhagen, Denmark
Melodena Stephens
Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and
Filareti Kotsi
College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University, Dubai,
United Arab Emirates

Abstract
Purpose – This applied neuroscience study aims to understand how direct and unconscious emotional and
cognitive responses underlie travel destination preferences. State-of-the-art neuroscience tools and methods
were used, including stationary eye tracking and brain scanning electroencephalography (EEG) to assess
emotional and cognitive responses to destination images and assets. To the researchers’ knowledge, this
study is the first applied neuroscience study in tourism research and thus opens a new path of research and
enquiry to this area. This paper is an attempt to understand specific mental processes in human tourism
behaviours, and it is suggest that unconscious emotional and cognitive responses are natural processes that
need to be studied and understood, not as special cases, but embedded as natural parts of tourism research.
Design/methodology/approach – To better understand consumers’ unconscious responses to possible
travel destinations, a 3  5 factorial design was run with the factors being stimulus type (images, printed
names and videos) and travel destination (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, New York and London). Eye-
tracking calibration was done with a nine-point fixation test and the EEG calibration was done using
functional localizer tests based on the ABM B-ALERT calibration process. This calibration procedure allows
reliable tracking of emotional and cognitive responses over time. Thirty Emirati (nationals of the UAE)
participants, consisting of equal numbers of males and females (15) were recruited from the UAE and signed
informed consent. Each participant was positioned in front of an eye tracker and computer screen, and brain-
scanning equipment was mounted; then, each participant underwent eye-tracking and neuroimaging
calibration procedures. A Tobii T60XL eye tracker and an ABM X-10 EEG brain scanner, both running
iMotions v5.1 in a Windows 7 environment, were used.
Findings – General emotional and cognitive differences were identified between the channels through
which travel destinations are presented. Words about and names of travel destinations cause higher cognitive

This study was supported by the Research Incentive Fund (RIF) Grant R14067 ‘Destination Journal of Islamic Marketing
Branding: Perception Mapping Elements of Visual and Auditory Communication Elements’ provided © Emerald Publishing Limited
1759-0833
by Zayed University, UAE. DOI 10.1108/JIMA-09-2017-0098
 JIMA loads, which may not be surprising, given the greater associative load that words have than images. Of
particular interest is the hypothesis that images evoke stronger affective responses than verbal
representations. However, as previously noted (Holmes and Mathews, 2005), empirical evidence for this
assumption seems surprisingly sparse. The present study and the context provided here suggest that
decisions on travel destination have an unconscious component and a direct component that may drive or
affect overt preference and actual choice.
Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this paper is that first, neuromarketing is not
dependent on sample sizes; however, future studies could build on this paper to understand why there is a
preference for cities. It is suggested that unconscious emotional and cognitive responses are natural processes
that need to be studied and understood, not as special cases, but embedded as natural parts of tourism
research.
Downloaded by eFADA of Ankabut UAE, Professor Ian Michael At 08:05 14 January 2019 (PT)

Originality/value – Thus, tourism research may indeed be a suitable field for understanding the brain
bases of complex preference formation and choice. Various researchers have found that a destination image is
typically measured using cognitive, affective and behavioural components, and further stated that the
cognitive image component of a destination was found to have a significant positive effect on the affective
image component and overall destination image (Stylidis et al., 2017). Therefore, this research which has
introduced brain scanning can be used to better understand the underlying unconscious emotional and
cognitive processes that affect consumer thought and action. An understanding of what goes on in the human
unconscious mind is very important for destination marketers, this can help in the integrated marketing
communication process to create a destination image and brand.
Keywords Motivation, Neuroscience, Neuromarketing, Cognitive, Destination image, Emotional
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Tourism is a major contributor to GDP – $7.6 tn (10.2 per cent of GDP in 2017), 6.6 per cent
of exports and responsible for one in 10 jobs (WTTC, 2017). Muslims are approximately one
in seven of the world population and hence a significant sector bound by a common religion.
It is estimated that the global Islamic economy is valued at $1.9 tn. However, Muslims do not
always pick destinations based on whether it fulfils the halal tourism criteria. Islamic
tourism at the broader level embraces concepts at the economic, cultural and religious
(conservative) level, though the field is not without some dispute or overlap between terms
(El-Gohary, 2016). In fact, Shakiry (2006) defines Islamic Tourism as all forms of tourism
except those that go against Islamic values. Muslims also look for popular destinations
though being halal-friendly is a competitive advantage (Henderson, 2016), and they may
settle for destinations that are Muslim-friendly (Cetin and Dincer, 2016). In fact, previous
studies on Middle East nationals show the key motivations to go to the west were
socialization, novelty, prestige, shopping, rest and relaxation (Ladki et al., 2002; Michael
et al., 2011).
Sandıkcı (2011) mentions that there is a need to understand how Islam and marketing
inform each other and manage the stereotypes that exist between the east and west in
relating to images associated with Islam. The term “Islamic Marketing” is new and there is
still much academic debate on what it means (Wilson, 2012). Further, Wilson and Grant
(2013) state that Islamic marketing should not just be considered a truism, a phenomenon, a
noumenon, an ideology or even a paradigm, but it should be a new focal phase torchbearer,
in the same fashion as “Green” and “Digital” marketing have previously and continue to do
so. Therefore, the study and research in Islamic marketing should become another new
strain of marketing (Wilson and Grant, 2012).
This is one of the first studies to use neuromarketing to research Muslim customers’
unconscious emotional responses. Li et al. (2015, p. 805) review methods to assess tourist
emotions and conclude “psychophysiological measurement techniques have been reported
 in the marketing, advertising and media literature”; however, to the best knowledge of the Emotional and
authors, no studies are reported in the tourism literature. Instead, studies of emotion in the cognitive
tourism literature invariably use self-report questionnaire methods which capture only
tourists' high-order emotions and are subject to a variety of forms of bias. The unconscious
responses
emotional responses can provide unbiased portrayal of individuals' initial emotional
reactions when exposed to a stimulus have been largely ignored. Hence, this paper
contributes to the growing field of tourism and consumer behaviour by extending the
methodology, by using neuroscience to understand consumer behaviours. The findings can
be used by destination marketers to tap into the unconscious bias that exists in consumer
minds. We add to the growing literature on Islamic marketing by understanding the comfort
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level of places (indicated by cognitive load), the preference of media (word, print and video)
and emotional response.
This paper is structured as follows: it begins with the abstract and introduction (see
above), followed by a discussion of the literature which includes, destination image,
destination image and media, destination image research and non-conscious research on
images, then moves on to the research methods discussion which includes, bridging the gap
in studying tourism using novel neuroscience methods, then onto a discussion on
unconscious emotional and cognitive responses to destination images (a discussion from a
research methods perspective) and finally onto the main methodology section. Next, the
results are discussed, followed by the summary and discussion of the research paper and
finally the list of references used.

2. Destination image
Gartner (1994) finds that as competitiveness between destinations increases, the touristic
image, will become an important selection factor. The image of a destination is constantly
being studied in the field of tourism, marketing, communication and branding; further, it is
found to be one of the most investigated topics in the area of marketing in tourism studies
(Sun, et al., 2014). “Destination image is defined as an attitudinal construct that is composed
by the individual’s mental representation of knowledge (beliefs), emotions, and overall
impression of the destination” (Baloglu and McCleary 1999: 870). It (destination image) plays
an important role in tourist behaviour throughout a tourist’s experience: in choosing a
destination (a priori); in comparing expectations with experience, which precedes the state of
satisfaction and perceived quality (in loco) and in revisiting, spreading knowledge of the
destination by word of mouth and recommending it to friends and family (Agapito et al.,
2013).
Destination image is typically measured using cognitive, affective and behavioural
components (Baloglu and Brinberg 1997; Cai, 2002; Lopes 2011; Stepchenkova and Mills,
2010). Over the years, agreement has developed across disciplines and fields that that
cognitive image responses impact affective responses (Holbrook, 1978; Lin et al., 2007;
Anand et al., 1988; Stern and Krakover, 1993; Russel and Prat, 1980). In this context, Stylidis,
et al. (2017) found that the cognitive image component of a destination was found to have a
significant positive effect on the affective image component and overall destination image.
Further, Veasna et al. (2013) found that a positive destination image enhances a stronger
cognitive attachment to a destination; hence, destination image is positively related to
destination attachment.
Pike (2002) reviewed 142 papers from 1973 to 2000 on the topic destination image and
found that papers on the topic that studied Middle East were few, rarely had competing
destinations and mostly looked at countries and only two of the 59 papers looked at local
residents. Tasci and Gartner (2007), using Stabler’s (1998) model, suggested that a
 JIMA destination has three sources of image formation: one source is the “supply-side”, that is, the
destination itself, and shows the influence of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs).
Typically, residents have been categorized in many image studies as part of the supply side
(Alcañiz et al., 2005). The second source is “independent” or “autonomous”; these are
intermediate factors between the destination and receivers, modifying, enhancing and
diminishing the information cues being transmitted, for example, through news articles,
educational materials, movies and popular culture. The third source is the “demand side”, or
image receivers, who can be various stakeholders, including tourists and residents. This
raises interesting questions for this area of research as tourists and locals have different
perception of place images. Agapito et al. (2010) find differences in destination image
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measurement between tourists and locals with respect to the cognitive component while the
affective component between the two groups are similar. There is a need for more studies on
residents’ local perceptions of their own destination image compared to others as they are
key influencers for tourism (Bramwell and Rawding, 1996; Kotsi et al., 2018).
Destination image is a subjective interpretation made by individuals that influences
tourist behaviour (Beerli and Martín, 2004; Tasci and Gartner, 2007; Tapachai and
Waryszak, 2000). Because images can act as mental short-cuts for information processing
used in decision making (Kotler and Gertner 2002), this field is important. A meta-analysis
of 152 articles published between 2000 and 2007 find that new methodologies are being used
to study DI (Stepchenkova and Mills, 2010), but neuroscience was not one of them.

3. Destination image and media

The role of media in brand building has been long recognized, but this has not been
systematically studied in the context of place branding. Franzen and Bouwman (2001)
concluded that brands reside in the brain through a complex neural network of associations
(pieces of information, meanings, experiences, emotions, images, intentions). A destination
choice is influenced by the mental images a tourist forms; such images can be based either
on expected experiences or ones that appear in mass media depicting the destination or both
(Pan and Li, 2011). According to Lee and Gretzel (2012), when tourists form certain
conceptions of a destination in their minds, they may become more likely to consider visiting
the destination. For example, many people imagine Australia as a place with an unspoiled
environment and plenty of nature-based activities, and these images are reinforced by
Tourism Australia in their various advertising campaigns. According to Mackay and
Fesenmaier (2000), pictures not only present the product (destination) but also can
communicate attributes, characteristics, concepts, values and ideas. Mitchell (1986) and
Deighton and Schindler (1988) suggested that the visual component is a key ingredient in
advertising, which creates an image that then becomes an artificially created differentiation,
as product attribute beliefs are formed and influenced.
MacKay and Fesenmaier (2000) showed that before visitation, the destination image is
dependent more on visual input than on the destination’s actual features. Day et al. (2002)
found that the visual aspects of promotional materials receive more attention, as they
represent the actuality of the destination and illustrate the dimensions of the destination.
This means, except for those who actually visit it, the image of a destination is based only on
cues that appear in visual messages. Terzidou et al. (2018) research in the field of religious
tourism found that when the iconic image of the Virgin Mary was shown on television in
Greece it had positive effects on the island of Tinos in Greece, and this can increase the
number of religious tourists to Tinos.
Ramsøy (2015) stated that most brand communication relies on the two senses of sight
and hearing. Babin and Burns (1997) state that advertisers using pictures, words, sound
 effects and, more literally, instructions to imagine, stimulate the mental imagery of viewers. Emotional and
Hence, one of the foremost duties of DMOs is the creation of messages that arouse positive cognitive
destination images in tourists’ minds and motivate them to visit the destination (Huang
et al., 2010).
responses
Media affects brand image and destination image. Traditional media studied is often
limited to print and video and more recently social media. Bruhn et al. (2012) find that
traditional media impacts brand awareness more than social media, but social media
strongly influence brand image. Hence, we need to look at the impact of words, as hashtags
(#) are gaining importance and impact brands (Chae et al., 2015). Appiah (2006) found for
example, that in the case of internet advertising, respondents were more favourable to audio-
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video testimonials than either text or picture testimonials or no testimonials. Tussyadiah

and Fesenmaier (2009) find that online shared videos can are beneficial as they not only
provide a stimulus for mental pleasure but act as a narrative transportation “providing
access to foreign landscapes and socioscapes”. Campaigns that are more sensory or use
multimedia (videos or interactive displays) will have greater impact though this maybe
cultural (Tavassoli and Lee, 2003). There is a need to understand choice of media and its role
on consumer behaviour.

3.1 Destination image research and non-conscious research on images

With some exceptions, most empirical research on the destination image supports the
premise it consists primarily of two components: cognitive and affective (Crompton, 1979).
However, Michael et al. (2018) argued that the framework used by Gartner (1993), who
extended Crompton’s (1979) model to include a conative component, provided a more refined
explanation of the interrelation between the core constituents of the destination image.
Agapito et al.’s (2013) study on tourists to Lagos and Algarve provided empirical evidence
supporting Gartner (1993), their Algarve study contributed to a stronger theory of the
destination image, developing how tourist images are hierarchically interrelated.
Baloglu and Brinberg (1997) were of the opinion that focusing only on the cognitive
component is not appropriate for the study of the destination image and can result in
measurement issues, as “the meaning of a place is not entirely determined by its physical
properties” (Ward and Russel, 1981, p. 123). Other studies that have used both affective and
cognitive components in evaluating the destination image include Baloglu and McCleary
(1999), Mackay and Fesenmaier (2000) and Uysal et al. (2000). Most studies in tourism, with
the exception of a few such as Agapito et al. (2013) and Michael et al. (2018) have focused
only on two components, namely the cognitive and affective. Further, Courbet and Fourquet-
Courbet (2014) state that recent research into the influence of advertising and marketing
communication has experienced a significant increase in the number of publications dealing
with non-conscious psychological processing; thus, both cognitive and affective (emotions)
have a major role to play and be researched in destination image.
The reasons that have been attributed for this rise in research dealing with psychological
processing methods, include a growing number of communication media, in particular,
internet sites and television channels (with the immense growth of cable television), for
example, web banners, television sponsorship and product placement in movies, which
make low-attention quickly forgotten exposures more frequent (Courbet and Fourquet-
Courbet, 2014). For example, Kim et al. (2014), used psychophysiological measures to
determine how individuals process two types of advertising communications video and
high-imagery audio advertisements concerning mental imagery processing.
Gawronsk and Houwer (2014) stress the need for implicit measures over explicit
measures such as self-reporting; hence, neuroscience techniques in marketing research
 JIMA provide deeper insights into unconscious thoughts and behaviour. Further, Courbet and
Fourquet-Courbet (2014) found that there has been significant progress in research in social
and cognitive psychology that uses implicit measures; this proves that an important part of
the psychological activity involved in thinking, judgements, feelings and behaviours is
unconscious. This study is innovative the tourism field, in that it uses neuroscience
techniques to better understand the processes of the non-conscious influence of marketing
communications and their memory, attitudinal and behavioural effects.
Kim et al. (2014) were the first group of researchers to conduct experiments using
psychophysiological measures for cognitive and emotional processing, on respondents
while they watched destination advertisements. They concluded that because of the wide
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range of narrative and visual communications commonly used by the tourism industry,
travel organizations and organizations within the industry must study how tourists perceive
and respond to their advertisements (Kim et al., 2014). The application of neurophysiological
methods as adjuvant instruments to behavioural data in marketing research is not entirely
new, but has reached the media in the last decade thanks to the use of new imaging methods
such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG),
as well as the special influence that brain images have on non-neuroscientists (Plassmann
et al., 2012; Javor et al., 2013). Hallmark studies include early work by McClure et al. (2004),
who demonstrated that specific memory-related neural activity occurred when brand
images affected the experienced utility of soft drinks. Further, Knutson et al. (2007)
demonstrated that the responses of the brain's basal ganglia to images of products predicted
actual product choice 8-12 s prior to the actual choice and the subjective experience of
making a choice. These and other studies have clearly demonstrated that early subconscious
brain responses to images of brands and products are related to evaluation, preference and
choice. Cognitive, affective and conative dimensions are important for brand engagement
and impact brand usage and self-brand connection (Hollebeek et al. (2014). Self-brand
connection is the extent to which individuals have incorporated [a focal] brand(s) into their
self-concept (Escalas 2004). Study on hashtags find they overlap cognitive and affective
components during times of political crisis (Papacharissi and de Fatima Oliveira, 2012).
There are no known studies in tourism on the impact of images, words and videos on
cognitive and affective responses. The few studies from neuromarketing show that
cognitive load is higher with multimedia because of the fact they may have different
capacities of visual and verbal working memory (Plass et al., 2003). Stylidis, et al. (2017) find
that the affective component h than the cognitive has a higher influence on overall
destination image and future behavior.
Tourism researchers are arguably missing the dynamic, performative and
communication-dependent character of attitudes by reducing their assessment to tables of
means derived from Likert-scale responses (Crang, 1997; Moore and Oaksford, 2002). The
relevance of memory research to tourism studies is under appreciated (Braasch, 2008).
Working memory, which lasts for only about 30 s without conscious repetition of
information, involves the human capacity to attend to auditory and verbal information as
well as to visual and spatial material. Enhancing tourism researchers’ familiarity with
developments in the study of working memory might assist work on such subjects as the
learning of skills, the use of technology and mobile recommender systems and the recall of
immediate information relevant to rapid decision making (Gretzel and Yoo, 2008). The
multisensory encoding of memories is a rich part of brain-based psychology research on
memory. Ethnographic and recall studies could exploit tourists’ recall of taste, sounds and
smells more directly (Jacobsen, 2008).
 At the broadest level, memory research and studies of the experience economy need to Emotional and
develop not just a short-term relationship but also a long lasting and mutually engaging cognitive
affair. Kahneman (2011) claimed that “tourism is about helping people construct stories and
collect memories”. More than 37 years ago, Cohen (1979) argued for a four-pronged approach
responses
to the study of tourism, built on stressing an emic, processual, contextual and comparative
agenda. It is possible to renovate these touchstones for the consideration of tourism studies,
at least in the area of considering the behaviour and experience of tourists as informed by
psychology inquiry. According to Pearce and Packer (2013), emic views are genuinely
driven from the participants’ full frame of reference, and etic perspectives proceed from the
researchers’ imposed categories and assessments. Tourism research might benefit from a
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greater use of emic approaches, which would allow a deeper investigation of the ways
tourists see their experiences.
Marschall (2012) states that tourism and memory most obviously intersect in the niche
area of tourism, where, for example, historical sites and preserved artefacts, embodiments of
collective memory, are commodified to attract tourists. Further, she mentions that the nexus
between tourism and memory, both in its individual and collective expressions, is complex
and multifaceted. The investigation of this nexus is a neglected field of research that
deserves more scholarly attention and a search for useful theoretical frameworks. Such
frameworks emerge not from the realm of concrete everyday experience but in the
circulation of more collectively held images.

4. Bridging the gap in studying tourism using novel neuroscience methods

DMOs have a great practical need to identify the features of advertising messages that can
most effectively persuade consumers to visit a destination. For measuring the effectiveness
of messages, numerous advertising and communication studies have established viewers’
attitudes on responses to imagery evoked in advertisements (e.g. Harben and Kim, 2010).
Most advertising scholars have investigated results accruing after exposure to ads (Barnes,
2010). Although some advertising scholars are beginning to investigate these mental
processes, no efforts using psychophysiological measures have been undertaken in the
context of tourism advertisements—a field particularly dependent on imagery-laden
advertisements. As a result, the crucial psychological mechanics that bring about mental
effects from destination advertising remain unknown, claims have been made that processes
occurring inside the brain have not been examined, and this gap needs to be closed. Wilson
and Grant (2013) highlight that fact that marketing theory needs to evolve to reflect the lens
through which it is viewed.
In Kim et al. (2014), study video ads (i.e. the combination of motion picture and text that
evoke mental images) are compared to high-imagery audio ads (i.e. solely audio) with set
instructions given to participants to form mental images during exposure to ads) in terms of
mental-imagery processing. In the study, the researchers simultaneously measured
respondents’ heart rates, skin conductance and self-report data to explore how media
messages persuade potential tourists. Processes occurring inside the brain that heretofore
have not been examined in the context of tourism advertisements will be investigated in this
present study.
The destination study by Kotsi et al. (2018) investigated the UAE’s need for place
branding; they suggest that future research should look at alternative research
methodologies such as neuromarketing to understand place attachment through
represented visuals and audio signals, as this would cut across language barriers. As
Wilson (2012: 6) iterates, Islamic marketing can look at:
 JIMA A multi-layered, dynamic and three-dimensional phenomenon of Muslim and non-Muslim
stakeholder engagement, which can be understood by considering the creation of explicit and/or
implicit signalling cultural artefacts – facilitated by marketing.
Although traditional research methods are highly valuable for understanding conscious and
narrative elements of destination branding and travel choices, emerging disciplines such as
neuromarketing provide valuable insights into the direct and unconscious responses of
consumers.
According to Kotsi et al. (2018), the inclusion of neuromarketing in tourism studies would
yield two contributions to the understanding of destination branding. First, neuromarketing
is a theoretical framework that provides researchers with a novel understanding of
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consumer attention, emotion, cognition and motivation, and it would allow researchers to
gain a more comprehensive understanding of conscious and unconscious drivers of
destination branding. Second, it provides a new toolbox (or novel tools to go into an existing
toolbox) with which researchers can assess unconscious emotional and cognitive responses
with an unparalleled granularity, which would allow a precise understanding of how these
responses unfold over time underneath consciousness. Thus, there is a need for ways to
assess conscious and unconscious responses in destination branding and a deeper
understanding of consumers’ brand association processes for destinations (Kotsi et al., 2018).
This is all the more important in studing Islamic marketing, as it is deeply rooted in culture,
its communication (Wilson, 2012) and its interpretation. This present study presents an
approach in which state-of-the-art neuroscience tools and analyses have been used to study
emotional and cognitive “gut responses” as well as related characteristics of destination
image responses.

5. Unconscious emotional and cognitive responses to destination images

Recent advances in cognitive and affective neuroscience have provided new tools and
models for the study of unconscious emotional and cognitive responses and understanding
human thought and action. This has led to the recent emergence of multidisciplinary efforts,
going under such headings as “neuroeconomics” and “neuromarketing”. These approaches
hold out the promise of an unparalleled approach to understanding and measuring
unconscious drivers of human decision making. Indeed, early studies demonstrated this
feasibility. For example, McClure et al. (2004), found that brands imbue value to an
otherwise anonymous soft drink by recruiting key memory structures of the brain. Even
more tellingly, Knutson et al. (2007) reported that the brain already responds during product
perception and, seconds before actual and experienced volitional choice, predicts actual
choice, suggesting that unconscious brain processes occurring during product viewing had
a significant impact on actual choice. Together, these and many subsequent studies have
demonstrated that unconscious brain processes may supersede or create conscious
preferences and choices.
Beyond providing a toolbox and empirical evidence for unconscious decision processes,
applied neuroscience offers a novel take on our understanding of preference and choice.
Recent theoretical contributions have changed the way that we understand human decision
making in various contexts, including how values are perceived, represented, remembered
and affect decision processes (Plassmann et al., 2012). Indeed, several studies have shown
that even when participants report making only random choices, brain responses show a
clear learning effect that systematically biases choices, supporting the notion that the brain
contains at least two parallel motivation systems, one unconscious and one conscious. In the
behavioural economics literature, these have been referred to as System 1 and System 2,
respectively (Gardner et al., 2012). In the neuroscience literature, the valuation of options
 shows a similar distinction between an unconscious “wanting” system and a conscious Emotional and
“liking” system (Berridge, 2009). cognitive
The inclusion of neuroscience in the study of different forms of human decision making
has made substantial contributions to our ability to measure, understand and predict choice
responses
behaviours, including in emerging new disciplines such as neuromarketing and consumer
neuroscience (Morin, 2011). By the same token, the study of consumer perception, preference
and choice of travel destinations – reasonably categorized as consumption behaviours –
should include theoretical consideration and empirical study of the unconscious emotional
and cognitive processes underlying destination choices. However, this has been woefully
lacking. To understand how direct and unconscious emotional and cognitive responses
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underlie travel destination preferences, we conducted an applied neuroscience study using

hardware-enabled eye tracking and neuroimaging techniques.

6. Methodology
This neuromarketing study on destination image investigates the third source of image
formation, that is, the “demand side”, the image receivers, in particular local citizens Tasci
and Gartner (2007), of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) referred to as Emiratis.
UAE is a Muslim country, part of the GCC and home to one of the top global cities –
Dubai. UAE has 200 nationalities residing in the country and only 15 per cent of the
population is local. Emiratis are themselves active travelers. This paper uses
neuromarketing to identify what images Emiratis more responsive. The limitations of this
paper are that Emiratis maybe more homogenous in their practice than in other countries
and the cultural relevance of some of the symbols may be more context specific or shaped by
media than by religion. Kotsi et al. (2018) stress in their study, the need to designing
destination brand studies using a local perspective. In their study, Braun et al. (2013)
highlighted that residents play three key roles in place branding:
(1) through their characteristics and behaviour;
(2) as ambassadors for the place giving credibility communications on place; and
(3) as citizens and voters who are vital for the political legitimization of place
branding.

Stylidis, et al. (2017) encourage researchers to investigate local residents as a group when
conducting destination image studies, as they feel that tourism research has not yet
developed in terms of predicting the overall destination image of local residents.
The participants were recruited through a message board aneived the required sample
size for a study of this type. Thirty Emirati (nationals of the UAE) participants, consisting of
equal numbers of males and females (15) were recruited and signed an informed consent.
Some of them were full time students at a local University, some were working full time and
part-time students.
Each participant was positioned in front of an eye tracker and computer screen, and
brain-scanning equipment was mounted; then, each participant underwent eye-tracking and
neuroimaging calibration procedures. We used a Tobii T60XL eye tracker and an ABM X-
10 EEG brain scanner, both running iMotions v5.1 in a Windows 7 environment. Eye-
tracking calibration was done with a nine-point fixation test and the EEG calibration was
done using functional localizer tests based on the ABM B-ALERT calibration process. This
calibration procedure allows reliable tracking of emotional and cognitive responses over
time.
 JIMA To better understand consumers’ unconscious responses to possible travel destinations,
we ran a 3  5 factorial design, with the factors being stimulus type (images, printed names
and videos) and travel destination (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, NY and London). These
locations – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and London are familiar destinations (London – www.
souqalmal.com/financial-education/ae-en/5-popular-holiday-destinations-for-uae-nationals/).
Hong Kong and New York were chosen because of their knowledge of the cities but also to
see contrasts in behaviour. The students were business student so they have an idea of the
potential of these cities as economic gateways and also understand the tourism pull. The
images chosen for the experiment were the most popular from the internet. Iconic images
and culture were chosen. The videos came from the latest destination campaigns.
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Each participant was presented several images and videos from travel destinations. Each
stimulus (videos, images, and place names for each city) was presented for 8 s with a
randomly jittered inter-stimulus interval of 1-2 s. The destination images and videos were
pre-selected as the most representative of each city, based on a collective agreement by three
independent raters. Each place name was also created as independent stimuli, using Times
New Roman black text on white background. After the test, all participants underwent a
survey, which assessed their conscious preferences and destination associations. The still
images of travel destinations included the following:
 Abu Dhabi: Three still images – Abu Dhabi Falconary, Sheikh Zayed Mosque and
Camel Trekking.
 Dubai: Five still images – New Year fireworks in Dubai, Burj Khalifa, Burj Al Arab,
Dubai Creek with people on Abras and HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum.
 Hong Kong: Two still images of Hong Kong was used – Its famous night skyline
and Temple Street.
 London: Two images of the Big Ben and famous Harrods.
 New York: One image and video each of The Statue of Liberty, and Times Square
were the images shown to respondents.
 Singapore: Three images shown – its famous outdoor restaurants, Merlion statue at
Merlion Park and shopping at Pagoda Street.

This allowed us to analyse the main effects of media type and destination separately, as well
as possible interaction effects. In this context, this study is the first in tourism research to
use neuroscience equipment to study unconscious emotional and cognitive responses.
Below are links to some of the travel and tourism related websites that were used in the
experiments:
 www.youtube.com/watch?v=17tVhX0AdAg
 www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLmz0_oN4pY&index=2&list=PLI22ogTfqzcq1TJL
RMsK-yW-PlGHHDlF1
 www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtWeqZsuzpE

All data were integrated and synchronized using the iMotions biometric platform, pre-
processed using R v3.2.1 (www.r-project.org) and analysed using JMP v11.02 (www.jmp.
com/) running on Mac OSX v.10.11 (www.apple.com). After pre-processing, EEG data were
transformed into selected NeuroMetric scores, including Emotional Arousal, Emotional
Motivation and Cognitive Load. Each participant’s benchmark was used as a calibration file
upon which EEG data were normalized to scores ranging from zero (minimum) to one
 (maximum). Emotional Arousal is a bivalent score that shows peak values for highly Emotional and
positive and highly negative events and low scores for neutral emotions. Thus, Emotional cognitive
Arousal denotes emotional intensity but does not contain information on the actual direction
responses
of the emotional response (Gilet and Jallais, 2011). Below Figure 1 shows what elements of
the study are being tested.
Emotional Motivation relates to the direction of emotional responses; scores higher than
0.5 indicate positive scores and “approach motivation” (Gilet and Jallais, 2011). Conversely,
scores lower than 0.5 denote negative emotional responses and “avoidance motivation”.
Together, the arousal and motivation scores provide a two-dimensional score for emotional
responses. Finally, Cognitive Load is a working memory metric, indicating the amount of
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information being held at any one moment (Baddeley, 1992). The higher the Cognitive Load
score, the more information is contained in working memory. Scores up to 0.65 are indicative
of processing within capacity, while scores that exceed 0.7 are indicative of information
overload. In the present context, brief exposures to images, words and videos generate
immediate associations and cognitive responses (in addition to emotional responses), and
here a higher Cognitive Load scores can be seen as indicative of a higher degree of
associations.

7. Results
7.1 Emotional responses
It was found that emotional arousal was affected by the type of stimuli and the destination
of interest. The overall model was highly significant (R2 = 0.277, p < 0.0001) and had effects
as shown below (Table I). There was a main effect of destination, where New York showed
the strongest emotional response, followed by Dubai, London, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi
(Figure 4). There was also a general effect of media type, where videos, in general, produced
the strongest responses, followed by images, and then words had the lowest responses.
Finally, there was an interaction effect between destination city and stimulus type. We
found that the strongest emotional arousal was found for videos of New York and that the
lowest emotional response was for the word “Dubai” compared to all other videos, images

Figure 1.
An overview of the
metrics from eye-
tracking and
neuroimaging. Visual
attention is derived
from quantifying
visual fixations as
assessed by eye-
tracking. Emotional
measures are based
on two dimensions,
arousal (intensity)
and motivation
(direction), while
cognitive load is a
measure of working
memory demand
 JIMA
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Figure 2.
Mean arousal

and place names of the other cities. These results demonstrate that emotional arousal, the
intensity of emotional responses is driven by main effects of destination and media type and
that some emotional responses are specifically high or low for specific media.
For many cities the highest emotional arousal response was found for videos (e.g. New
York and London) whereas other cities this difference was more even or even different (e.g.
Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong). Bars represent mean arousal score, whiskers denote 95 per cent
confidence interval.

7.2 Emotional motivation

The differences in Motivation – the direction of emotional responses – were less pronounced
than those for Arousal, but had the main effect of media type: videos were slightly more
motivating than images and words. Importantly, items from Dubai demonstrated the
highest Motivation response, significantly higher than other places, such as Abu Dhabi,
Hong Kong and New York, but similar to London (Table II and Figure 5). We found no
interaction effect, or at best a trend effect; this suggests that Motivation responses do not
change according to media channel (images, videos or words). Taken together, this
demonstrates that there are significant differences with respect to emotional motivation and
direction in how consumers respond to different places. Although there was a main effect of
media type, the lack of interaction effect between media and place suggests that consumers
respond to certain places in the same way regardless of media type.
An Arousal and Motivation Matrix (Figure 6) allows us to pinpoint the nature of the
differences between each place and better visualize and understand how different places
relate to each other. In general, all scores higher than 0.5 on the x-axis (Motivation) indicate a
more positive emotional response, and thus an “approach” motivation. Conversely, scores
 Emotional and
cognitive
responses
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Figure 3.
Mean arousal versus
region

DF F Ratio Prob > F

Stimulus Type 2 2,734,135 <.0001 Table I.

Region 4 487,008 <.0001 EEG Data for
Stimulus Type  Region 8 888,088 <.0001 Emotional response

lower than 0.5 tentatively indicate negative emotions and an “avoidance” motivation. For
Arousal, on the y-axis, a higher score denotes a higher arousal.
The Arousal–Motivation Matrix shows how different scores are related to each other. In
general, higher Motivation is indicative of higher engagement and interest, and higher
arousal is an amplification of this. As this plot shows, destination scores depend on the type
of stimuli that are being used. For example, Dubai scores high on Motivation for videos and
words but not for images. This suggests, for example, that place-branding communication is
particularly strong for Dubai.

7.3 Cognitive load

We find significant differences in Cognitive Load among regions and among communication
types/channels. Here, we find that Dubai is among the top scorers, with a high Cognitive
Load, similar to New York, beaten only by Abu Dhabi (Figure 7). Among channels, words
are the most mentally taxing (high Cognitive Load) whereas videos are the least taxing
 JIMA
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Figure 4.
Mean motivation

Source DF F Ratio Prob > F

Table II.
EEG Data for Stimulus Type 2 40,696 0,0171
Emotional Region 4 26,871 0,0295
Motivation Stimulus Type  Region 8 17,276 0,0866

(Figure 7). If Cognitive Load indicates the number and spread of associations, this suggests
that Dubai and New York are the cities that generate the greatest number of associations
and for which words generate the most associations.
A high cognitive load is indicative of cognitive processing and mental taxation. Too low
of a score (e.g. below 0.4) is indicative of dullness and even boredom, whereas scores that are
too high (typically above 0.7) are indicative of mental stress and information overload. The
scores given here are indications that people have mental processes and associations that
differ among destinations. The actual contents of these associations should be explored in
subsequent studies.
There is also an interaction effect, in which we see that Cognitive Load is particularly
high for the word Dubai and particularly low for images from Hong Kong. This suggests
that people’s immediate and unconscious cognitive responses and associations are
different for different travel destinations. This is a general effect, but it also
demonstrates that particular destinations are more mentally taxing when presented via
one channel.
 Emotional and
cognitive
responses
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Figure 5.
Emotional arousal
versus emotional
motivation

Figure 6.
Mean cognitive load

8. Summary and discussion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first applied neuroscience study in tourism
research. We have laid out a feasible approach for how eye tracking and brain scanning can
be used to better understand the underlying unconscious emotional and cognitive processes
that affect consumer thought and action. Although it is a feasible study, beyond this, we
identify key differences in emotional response profiles to key urban travel destinations. In
the emotional domain, we see that different destinations may have high levels of motivation
response (such as Dubai), whereas others may produce high emotional arousal (such as New
York). While the nature of these emotional responses differ, it is likely that they would also
manifest as overt behavioural preferences and choices. Indeed, several lines of research have
 JIMA
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Figure 7.
Means of different
stimulus types for
cognitive load

demonstrated that both arousal (Groeppel-Klein, 2005) and motivation (Ravaja et al., 2012)
are highly related to actual purchasing decisions (Coan and Allen, 2003).
Second, we identify general emotional and cognitive differences between the channels
through which travel destinations are presented. Words about and names of travel
destinations cause higher cognitive loads, which may not be surprising, given the greater
associative load that words have than images. Conversely, videos cause the largest increase
in emotional responses (most pronounced in arousal, but also found in motivation),
suggesting that this medium is more emotionally engaging and positive than other media
channels. Emotions play an important role in a range of behaviours, including attention,
memory, perception and physical action, and they can be expressed behaviourally,
linguistically and physiologically. A long-standing assumption within psychology is that
preferential links exist between emotions and mental imagery about other forms of
processing (e.g. Conway, 2001; Kane et al., 2001; Holmes et al., 2009).
Of particular interest is the hypothesis that images evoke stronger affective responses
than verbal representations. However, as previously noted (Holmes and Mathews, 2005),
empirical evidence for this assumption seems surprisingly sparse. In their research
experiment, Holmes et al. (2009) predicted that integrating word–picture stimuli using
imagery would be associated with greater self-involvement with the stimuli and stronger
associations to autobiographical memories. Presumably, the heightened emotion
experienced from imagery enhanced evaluative learning. Finally, content analysis showed
imagery descriptions to be more strongly emotionally valenced than sentences. This
evidence strongly suggests that mental imagery has a more powerful impact on emotion, both
in a positive or negative direction, than verbal processing of the same material. The results
 described provide the clearest evidence of which we are aware that imagery does indeed have Emotional and
a significantly stronger impact on emotion than verbal processing. Theoretically, it seems cognitive
plausible that specialized emotional systems might have greater preferential links to brain
regions involved in perception and imagery than brain regions subserving other types of
responses
representation, such as language, which evolved later (Holmes et al., 2009).
It has become clear that conscious decisions are too demanding to take place with every
judgement. Rather, emotional and cognitive brain responses that occur unconsciously have
long been known to have a role in conscious preference and actual choice. The present study
and the context provided here suggest that decisions on travel destination have an
unconscious component and a direct component that may drive or affect overt preference
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and actual choice. Indeed, in the context of the type of decision we often consider travel
choice to be, namely, a deliberate, conscious process, and these findings imply a
subconscious component that warrants further study. This reinforces the argument put
forward by Wilson and Liu (2011) that there are limits on how far brand managers can push
more emotionally led brand messages and when promoting Islamic brands, there is a need to
understand the target audience and the type of Islamic brand.
In future multidisciplinary studies, we see at least two broad trends. On the one hand,
studies rooted in tourism research should seek to map out the relative impact and role that
unconscious processes have in determining the consumer journey in making choices of travel
destination. Here, understanding the relative role of attention, emotion and cognition in
driving choice is likely to affect the theories, models and understanding of tourism research.
On the other hand, neuroscience research can consider tourism behaviours as valid
vehicles for typified behaviours that can be used to understand the workings of the brain.
Destination images are multifaceted phenomena that refer to a common target: the destination.
Thus, tourism research may indeed be a suitable field for understanding the brain bases of
complex preference formation and choice. Various researchers have found that a destination
image is typically measured using cognitive, affective and behavioural components, and
further stated that the cognitive image component of a destination was found to have a
significant positive effect on the affective image component and overall destination image
(Stylidis et al., 2017). Therefore, this research which has introduced brain scanning can be used
to better understand the underlying unconscious emotional and cognitive processes that affect
consumer thought and action. An understanding of what goes on in the human unconscious
mind is very important for destination marketers, this can help in the integrated marketing
communication process to create a destination image and brand.
Finally, before any new concepts or fields such as neurotourism are founded, we urge that
this paper, an attempt to understand specific mental processes in human tourism behaviours,
be taken into account. We have found no need to invoke special concepts or append any prefix
to anything to describe these efforts. Indeed, we suggest that in the types of processes shown in
tourism behaviours and unconscious emotional and cognitive responses are natural processes
that need to be studied and understood, not as special cases, but embedded as natural parts of
tourism research. After all, because this field concerns human behaviour, it encompasses these
unconscious processes as naturally occurring, valid targets, which are perhaps more predictive
of actual choice and action than overt, conscious and narrated responses.

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Further reading
Padgett, D. and Allen, D. (1997), “Narrative advertising is cognitive in nature and communicates brand
image, communicating experiences: a narrative approach to creating service brand image”,
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perceptions of young tourists from United Arab Emirates”, Tourism Management, Vol. 40,
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advertisements together with brand familiarity (very important) are important drivers of
consumer branded hashtag engagement. Psychology and ”, Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 34
No. 4, pp. 448-462.
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Vol. 42 No. 4, pp. 42-53.
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pp. 373-389.

Corresponding author
Ian Michael can be contacted at: ian.michael@zu.ac.ae

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