Alotaibi, Somaiah
(2024)
Emotions within a social context of group adventure holidays: a tourist perspective.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
This thesis examines tourists’ emotions within the context of group adventure holidays. Despite extensive research on emotions in tourism and marketing, little is known about the social aspect of emotions in shared consumption contexts. By examining emotions in group holiday, this study addresses previously ignored aspects of the experiential perspective of consumer behaviour. In particular, it explores the ways in which emotions are expressed, communicated, and experienced in group adventure trips. Adventure tourism as an experiential consumption encounter presents a context rich in emotions, and this study investigates (i) how individual emotions are influenced by the social context of a group tourism experience; (ii) how emotions are communicated in a group tourism experience, and the role of social interaction in this process; (iii) how the expressed emotions of others interact with an individual’s own felt emotions; and (iv) which emotions tourists attribute to the group tourism experience within an adventure holiday setting.
This thesis adopts an interpretive methodology to uncover the participants’ meaningful experience of emotions. The study employs semi-structured interviews with 32 Saudi tourists to develop a detailed understanding of their subjective experiences within a specific social context. Thematic analysis was used to generate themes from the data to answer the research questions.
The findings demonstrate that tourists’ emotional experiences are shaped by the interplay between the individual's personal and social processes of emotions. Emotions are expressed and communicated by emotional expression, social interactions, and behaviours, and facilitated by five social context dimensions: group diversity, social escape, supportive environment, socialisation; and the perception that other group members are authentic. The presence of both positive and negative emotions is identified, and the emotional experiences of joy and freedom, fear and thrill, and frustration and annoyance are shown to be both prevalent and attributed to the group adventure holiday. In this context, it is noteworthy that fear and thrill are perceived as pleasant and peak experiences. The study also finds that positive emotional contagion tends to be more evident in group adventure holidays and significantly influences group bonding and cohesion. The findings also show that emotional experiences are complex and interconnected, and their appraisal dimensions differ based on the context in which they occur, with several appraisal combinations contributing to the elicitation of emotions in group adventure holidays.
The main contributions of this thesis are fourfold. First, this study contributes to the experiential perspective of consumer behaviour by providing an in-depth understanding of emotions within a shared consumption context. It focuses on the role of the social context in tourist emotions. Second, it contributes to tourism literature by identifying how emotions are experienced, expressed, and communicated in group adventure holidays, thereby highlighting the significant processes through which emotions are shaped in a specific context. Third, it identifies context-specific emotions attributed to group adventure holidays, highlighting their nuances, and the role of cognitive appraisal in shaping them. Fourth, it contributes to the literature in tourism and marketing by providing an understanding of the forms of emotional contagion and its role in the context of group adventure holidays. This research also has practical implications for the tourism industry. It provides valuable insights to inform tourist experience design and management and enable tourism providers to tailor their offerings to better meet consumer needs. The implications for future research are also considered.
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