Psychological consequences of tourism ideal affect

Guided by the affect valuation theory, this study examined the relationships among tourism ideal affect (i.e. how people want to feel at tourism destinations), tourism actual affect (i.e. how people really feel at tourism destinations), and tourism satisfaction. Online surveys were conducted before and after travel, and 418 Japanese adults provided usable data. Our SEM results indicated that (a) tourism ideal affect, not global ideal affect, influenced tourism actual affect; (b) tourism ideal affect influenced tourism actual affect with matching arousal levels (high- vs. low-arousal); and (c) tourism ideal affect influenced tourism satisfaction via tourism actual affect, but only for high-arousal levels. Our research extends ideal affect to the tourism context, which has motivational force and better explains tourism experience and satisfaction than global ideal affect. Tourism federations and agencies need to know that tourism and global ideal affect is distinct, and the former predicts actual emotional experiences in tourism. Providing people with tourism experiences that match their tourism ideal affect is the key to tourism development and planning/managing tourism destinations.