Love in tourist motivation and satisfaction

Sebastian Filep, Xavier Matteucci

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Despite limited recent contributions, explorations of the human emotion of love are underexplored in tourism studies. Love can be defined as both companionship (such as friendship) and as passion (romance and sexual connection). The aim of this article was to explore how the concept of love can be integrated into tourist motivation and satisfaction research. With this aim in mind, a literature review of tourist motivation, satisfaction, and types of love was conducted. The findings, as summarized in a table, show that love is a motivator for tourist experiences, because love resembles established tourist motives, such as the motives for social interaction, kinship and relationship enhancement. As a powerful human emotion, the concept of love helps in better interpreting fulfilling, on-site tourist experiences, and in better understanding post hoc tourist satisfaction. The article proposes research directions for future examinations of love in tourist motivation and satisfaction research.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1026-1034
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Hospitality and Tourism Research
Volume44
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 May 2020
Externally publishedYes

Cite this