How do people experience a new touristic city? An exploratory GIS analysis on the influence of the novel physical surrounding on the emotional experience of people new in the touristic city of Krakow, Poland

Abstract

In the subject of tourism management and scholarship the tourists’ emotional experience of a city that is visited is essential. This qualitative exploratory thesis presents a comparison between the emotional experience of tourists in touristic and non-touristic areas, based on physiological observations through skin conductance measurements. By gathering data on the skin conductance level (SCL) of respondents, potential arousing spots can be noticed within the city. The data collection is carried out in the touristic city of Krakow that attracted approximately 13 million visitors in the year 2017. A qualitative comparison of the emotional experience of respondents who are walking in a novel physical surrounding is based on the design of two different routes – an Old Town route that leads to surprising views on the main touristic highlights of the city and a route outside of the traditional touristic area. GIS mapping techniques are used to combine the skin conductance data with the GPS data, and consequently in order to show the SCL scores and fluctuations on map with the location where they occurred. These results are combined with the subjective emotional description of the respondent which are measured by traditional methodological techniques. Does there exist a potential link between the main touristic locations and heightened SCL? Or will the urban surrounding outside of the traditional tourist space generate more positive arousal leading to unexpected insights? These questions will be discussed in the present study.