THE IMPACT OF TOURIST-TO-TOURIST INTERACTION AND EMOTIONAL IMPLICATIONS ON EXPERIENTIAL TOURISM
Abstract
This research presents the main considerations regarding the impact of tourist-to-tourist interaction and the emotional implications on experiential tourism, as well as the beneficial effects resulting from tourists’ participation in certain tours and programs. The purpose of the study is to show what are the impact of tourist-to-tourist interaction and the emotional implications experienced by tourists during and after visiting certain tourist destinations. Data were collected through a field experiment for three months and analyzed on a sample of 102 tourists who participated in cultural and religious tours and programs. The research methodology of this study was the analysis, the descriptive method and the experimental method using a quantitative research instrument, the questionnaire. The main results show the multitude of beneficial and multiplying effects that each tourist can obtain from participation in certain tours and programs, psychological implications with a major therapeutic role in improving their well-being as well as the emotional and general health of tourists. The importance of the study is far-reaching. The findings can contribute to the development of experiential tourism research from the perspective of tourist-to-tourist interaction and the emotional implications by examining the interaction impact among tourists.
References
1. Bernstein, M. J., Zawadzki, M. J., Juth, V., Benfield, J. A., & Smyth, J. M. (2018). Social interactions in daily life: Within-person associations between momentary social experiences and psychological and physical health indicators. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 35(3), 372-394. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407517691366.
2. Chen Ye, C. Y., Zhang Hui, Z. H., & Dong MengLu, D. M. (2017). Accompanying travelers matters? The impact of tourist-to-tourist interaction on tourists' subjective well-being.
3. Clissold, R., Westoby, R., McNamara, K. E., & Fleming, C. (2022). Wellbeing outcomes of nature tourism: Mt Barney Lodge. Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights, 3(2), 100077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annale.2022.100077.
4. Dan, P. (2013). A New Perspective of Tourist Experience Study: The Research on Social Relationships of Tourist-to-Tourist Interaction. Tourism Tribune/Lvyou Xuekan, 28(10).
5. Emiroglu, B., Cetin, G., & Dincer, F. (2017) A Typology of Tourist-Tourist Interactions. pp.139-144.
6. Hosany, S., & Gilbert, D. (2010). Measuring tourists’ emotional experiences toward hedonic holiday destinations. Journal of travel research, 49(4), 513-526. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287509349267.
7. Jelinčić, D. A., & Senkić, M. (2019). The value of experience in culture and tourism: The power of emotions. In A research agenda for creative tourism (pp. 41-54). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788110723.00012.
8. Knobloch, U., Robertson, K., & Aitken, R. (2017). Experience, emotion, and eudaimonia: A consideration of tourist experiences and well-being. Journal of Travel Research, 56(5), 651-662. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287516650937.
9. Lin, H., Zhang, M., Gursoy, D., & Fu, X. (2019). Impact of tourist-to-tourist interaction on tourism experience: The mediating role of cohesion and intimacy. Annals of Tourism Research, 76, 153-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2019.03.009.
10. Lin, Z., & Wong, I. A. (2024). Tourist-to-tourist interactions: A future perspective. Tourism Recreation Research, 49(1), 206-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2021.2004704.
11. Pandey, S., Kumar, D., & Ali, F. (2025). Measuring tourist-to-tourist value co-creation: a scale development. Consumer Behavior in Tourism and Hospitality, 20(1), 16-37.
12. Sun, H., Wu, S., Li, Y., & Dai, G. (2019). Tourist-to-tourist interaction at festivals: A grounded theory approach. Sustainability, 11(15), 4030. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154030.
13. Tang, H., Yang, H., Gan, D., He, H., & Wang, S. (2025). Transforming tourist behavior: An integrated emotional and normative framework for promoting environmental intentions at eco-destinations. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 36, 100993. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2025.100993.
14. Titz, K. (2009). Experiential consumption: Affect–emotions–hedonism. In Handbook of hospitality marketing management (pp. 324-352). Routledge.
15. Volo, S. (2017). Emotions in tourism: From exploration to design. Design science in tourism: Foundations of destination management, 31-40.
16. Volo, S. (2021). The experience of emotion: Directions for tourism design. Annals of Tourism Research, 86, 103097. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103097.
17. Zhou, G., Liu, Y., Hu, J., & Cao, X. (2023). The effect of tourist-to-tourist interaction on tourists' behavior: The mediating effects of positive emotions and memorable tourism experiences. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 55, 161-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2023.03.005.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Casandra-Mariana Mănica
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Revista de Turism: Studii si Cercetari in Turism (RDT) is an open access scholarly journal that allows free access to its content (articles, issues). RDT is available online to the readers without financial, legal, or technical barriers (no publication charges), based on the theory to keep an article's content intact. Authors can use Creative Commons licenses to specify usage rights of articles. Copyright of articles belong to authors.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
