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Traits in Tourists’ Experiences: Senses, Emotions and Memories

2017; Springer International Publishing; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-319-44108-5_14

2366-2611

Joana Afonso Dias, Antónia Correia, Teresa Cascais,

Culinary Culture and Tourism

This chapter investigates the traits in tourists' experiences: senses, emotions and memories. Senses (touch, smell, hearing, taste and sight) and memories are narrated and reconstructed beyond the cognitive, and our aim is to depict the social process. Mental travel time, tracks, features and even sensory modalities enact the memory, merging experiences lived in the environment with their inner livelihood. We propose to analyse the narratives and the photos posted on Algarve Regional Tourism Board—the RTA blog to understand how the Algarve residents who participated in this forum portray the Algarve as a tourist destination, whose image is ingrained in their memories. The interpretation of the results emphasizes the importance of senses, emotions and memories in defining a tourism destination. The results suggest that Algarve has a lot of emotions to offer: the photos posted appeal to sensorial experiences, whereas the nostalgic discourse about the Algarve's history and the feelings of tourists at the end of the holidays reinforce positive memories able to retain tourists for ages. Strategic implications are discussed.