Measuring Emotions in Real Time

This study introduces a new approach for assessing traveler’s emotions in natural settings and discusses the implications of this approach within the context of designing tourism places; in particular, the electrodermal activity (EDA) of two travelers during a four-day visit to Philadelphia (USA) were used, where they were exposed to a range of experiences while collecting EDA data on a second-by-second basis. The data were then combined with post hoc interviews, including time, locations, activities, and perceptions to aid interpretation. The results indicate that the visitors exhibited substantial variation in emotions depending on the places visited, their activities, and the people they met. It is concluded that the ability to measure travelers’ emotions in real time and in natural settings leads to new knowledge about the relationship between travelers’ emotions and the physical and social environments, which, in turn, provides a useful foundation for designing and managing tourism experiences