Neuroscience for Tourism Research

Abstract

There is an emerging interest in understanding the cognitive, emotional and motivational processes that drive tourists' behaviour using neuroscientific research methods. This chapter briefly reviews the main methods of interest to tourism researchers, to then focuses on electroencephalography, which reflects electrical activity from the brain. Event-related potentials or electroencephalography oscillations reflect cognitive and affective processes. Components of the former can index emotional brain responses, and alpha oscillations are related to attention and approach/withdrawal. Existing tourism literature/using electroencephalography are reviewed. This is a promising tool for studying a range of phenomena that are of interest to tourism scholars, but require careful use of methods and interpretation.

Citation

Bastiaansen, M., Mitas, O., Strijbosch, W. and Revers, H. (2024), "Neuroscience for Tourism Research", Cognitive Psychology and Tourism (Tourism Social Science Series, Vol. 27), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 273-289. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1571-504320240000027021