Ad­vances in Tour­ist Be­ha­viour

Course content

Understanding tourists’ behavior, their thoughts, feelings and motivations is key to business success. Be it the choice of a holiday destination, the booking of a hotel, or the decision regarding travel mode, the foundation of an organization's success lies in understanding how tourists think, feel, choose, and consume tourism and hospitality services. In most cases, the answer to these questions can be obtained by drawing on the extensive field of psychology. Over the last two decades, tourism researchers and managers have increasingly recognized the potential of psychology to understand tourist behavior. This course is designed to help students become curious discoverers and astute thinkers for behavioral phenomena encountered in tourism and hospitality. This course provides a comprehensive coverage of theories, concepts and management tools to understand these challenges “.

The topics discussed in this course can be grouped in four broad clusters. Each cluster comprises of various specific applications.

Cognition, Attitude and Motivation

•                       Mental Processing and Decision-Making

•                       Destination Image and Destination Choice

•                       Travel Career Patterns and Motivations

•                       Tourism Biases

Emotions, Feelings and Sensory Experiences

•                       The Role of Emotions in Tourism and Hospitality

•                       Embodied Cognition and Sensory Marketing

•                       The Influence  of Emotions on Judgment and Decision-Making

•                       The Role of Coolness

•                       Affective Forecasting in Tourism and Hospitality

Evolutionary Psychology and Tourism

•                       The Evolutionary Tourism Paradigm

•                       Luxury Travel

•                       Sexual Signaling and Sex Tourism

•                       Tourism in Times of a Pandemic (Disease Threats and Counter Strategies)

Sustainable Tourist Behavior

•                       Facing the attitude-behavior gap

•                       Measuring sustainable behavior

•                       Destination management and climate change

•                       Tourist behavior and weather: Preferences and  expectations

•                       Sustainable Holiday Travel: Awareness and Demand

The sessions are framed in an introductory lecture and an exam wrap-up lecture