Monitoring emotions throughout the onboard customer journey – evidence from the travel and tourism industry

Abstract

AbstractThe primary objective of this study is to evaluate passengers’ emotions throughout different stages of their onboard customer journey to determine whether assessing passengers’ emotions at a single stage of their journey accurately reflects their overall onboard emotional experience. The study aims to fill this research gap by acquiring data that not only addresses the aforementioned aspects but also validates the applicability of the adapted emotional measurement instrument within the travel and tourism industry. A large-scale survey was conducted, targeting respondents who were ferry passengers traveling for tourism purposes. The study’s results indicate emotional variations throughout the onboard customer journey and affirm the effectiveness of the adapted measurement instrument within the passenger shipping sector. The paper demonstrates the importance of measuring passengers’ emotions at various stages to acquire valid insights and a profound understanding of their emotional experience on board. While extensive research has explored emotions during the customer journey across various sectors, there has been limited quantitative analysis specifically focusing on the emotional experiences of ferry passengers. Future studies could investigate emotional changes in passengers across various and multiple travel and tourism customer journeys, aiming to derive broader and more generalizable conclusions.

Keywords

• Customer journey
• emotional experience
• onboard experience
• tourism
• travel industry
• passenger shipping