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Malin Zillinger.

Malin Zillinger

Assistant Head of Department, senior lecturer, associate professor

Malin Zillinger.

Emotions in motion: tourist experiences in time and space

Author

  • Ingrid Zakrisson
  • Malin Zillinger

Summary, in English

The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology enables the study of tourists’

activities and movement patterns in real time. But what does this information tell us

about tourists’ subjective experiences? The present paper accounts for the results from

four case studies: two event studies and two destination studies. Two of these took

place in the wintertime, and two in the summertime. Visitors carried a GPS device for

one day, after which they answered a brief questionnaire. A total of 241 visitors

participated in the study. Based on cluster analyses of distance measures calculated

from the GPS data, several movement patterns were revealed. Three of these, labelled

Main attraction visitors, Wanderers, and Specialists, emerged in all four cases. The

reported experiences differed between the clusters, especially concerning negative

experiences. In the destination studies, the clusters differed with regard to what was

considered a negative experience, while in the event studies, the clusters differed with

regard to how the tourists responded emotionally to their experiences. The authors

conclude that GPS technology is a promising tool for tourism research but that, if one

is to gain a full understanding of tourists’ experiences and mobility, it ought to be

combined with other methods.

Department/s

  • Department of Service Studies

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

505-523

Publication/Series

Current Issues in Tourism

Volume

15

Issue

6

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Economic Geography

Keywords

  • destination
  • emotions
  • event
  • GPS
  • mobility pattern
  • tourist experience

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1368-3500