Storytelling and its psychological influence on tourism experiences: A scoping review

Resumo

Objectives

Sustainability has become one of the biggest goals for “policy-makers, developers and place-makers” (Tan, 2023, p.3673). At the same time, tourists today seek more than a simple product when visiting a destination (Garcês, et al, 2108). They are becoming consumers of experiences, but also of stories within the destinations, and stories can become drivers for sustainable development (Tan, 2023).  Storytelling is, a powerful tool that can lead to the development of memorable experiences bringing value to the destination (Pereira, et al., 2020). It is also a creative “escape” that can be seen in creative tourism, by bringing imagination and creativity to the forefront of the tourism experiences (Pereira, et al., 2020). Storytelling with its different elements can be a differentiator element of tourism products (Gonçalves, et al, 2018) and can bring positive psychological outcomes for the tourism experience as a whole. The aim of this research is to look into the published literature on what has been done regarding storytelling and its impact on tourism experiences, with a particular focus on psychological variables and thus discover advances and/or gaps to further advance this field.

Methodology  

As a methodology, a scoping review was performed, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews  PRISMA-ScR  (Tricco, et al., 2018). This methodology allows to analyze outcomes from a body of knowledge and identifies gaps that may allow for future in-depth research (Tricco, et al., 2018). As the search database, the Online Knowledge Library (b-on) was used. This Portuguese library comprises a wide range of publishers and scientific publications, including major ones such as SCOPUS. Due to the aim of this research “storytelling” and “tourism experiences” were the two search keywords used. Boolean operator AND was used to ensure the presence of both search keywords, and truncation symbol * was used to address words within the same family. These terms were searched on the paper's keywords, being one of the inclusion criteria. Other inclusion criteria included:  a) papers in English; b) peer-review papers; c) journal articles; and d) integral texts available. Beyond these, the scope of the papers must have had the search variables as a focus of the research or part of it. The first search found 77 results. After the application of inclusion criteria, only 20 papers remained.

Main Results and Contributions  

In a preliminary analysis, it is possible to see that the relationship between storytelling and tourism experience in scientific publications is recent (2008 onwards). This shows that the interest in applying storytelling to tourism experiences is current. This is aligned with the development of an experiential economy that is translated to the new tourists' needs for more personal and in-depth experiences (Garcês, et al., 2018). Simultaneously, stories can be important products to show authenticity to tourists and the essence of the destination, which is also a growing interest by tourists when seeking new destinations/experiences. The results also show that the majority of the studies are of a qualitative nature. Thus allowing a better understanding of the experience, but lacking robust data to allow generalizations. While different destinations have their unique stories and experiences, research may be a key element to understand which common (and different) elements exist and its impact on sustainable and creative practices. Overall, storytelling in the tourism experience looks intrinsically linked with the tourists': emotions, engagement, positive responses towards the destinations, and memorability and it also seems interconnected by co-creation processes between tourist and place. A small portion of the sample focuses on the study of the impact of storytelling on the tourism workers who take on these tasks. The results acknowledged that workers' emotions, personal interests, and involvement play a key role in their performance. The idea of authenticity also indicates that storytelling can be important in promoting a perception of the genuineness of the experience to the tourists.

Limitations

As limitations for this study, while b-on is a widespread resource for scientific studies additional research on specific databases such as Scopus or Web of Science could have allowed for more findings. Also, it would have been important to advance this topic by developing empirical research. In fact, this comes as a suggestion for a future study to understand the actual psychological factors that are linked and can influence the tourism experience through storytelling. By doing this, destinations could identify and develop new strategies that consider storytelling as a product, and at the same time as a technique to promote emotions, engagement and authenticity to their experiences.

Conclusions

This study allows a better understanding of storytelling in tourism experiences but from a psychological perspective. Emotions and engagement/involvement are recurring positive psychological factors that have emerged as a link between storytelling and tourism experiences. This focus on a psychology forefront allows us to better understand the influence of storytelling in tourism from a not-so-common perspective and may open doors for new sustainable and creative practices that can have a positive psychological impact on the tourism stakeholders, and the experience as a whole.

References

Garcês, S., Pocinho, M., & Jesus, S. (2018). Review of optimism, creativity and spirituality in tourism research. Tourism and Hospitality Management, 24 (1), 107-117.

Gonçalves, J. C., Seabra, C., & Silva, c. (2018). Histórias de cultura. o poder do storytelling em destinos de turismo cultural. Cadernos de Geografia, 37, 1113-120. https://doi.org/10.14195/087-1623_37_9

Pereira, A., Silva, C., & Seabra, C. (). Creative tourism and storytelling withing heritage destinations. In S. Cabeça, A., Gonçalves, J. Marques, & M. Tavares (Eds), Creative tourism dynamics: Connecting travellers, communities, cultures and places (pp.105-117). Grácio Editor.

Sion-Kian, T, & Siow-Hooi, T. (2023). A creative place-making framework for a sustainable development. Sustainable development, 31, 3673-3691. DOI: 10.1002/sd.2619

Tricco, A. C., Lillie, E., Zarin, W., O'Brien, K.K., Colquhoun, H., Levac, D., Moher, D., Peters, M.D., Horsley, T., Weeks, L., Hempel, S., Akl, E., Chang, C., McGowan, J., Stewart, L., Hartling, L., Aldcroft, A., Wilson, M., Garritty, C., Lewin, S., Godfrey, C., Macdonald, M., …, Straus, S. (2018). PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR): Checklist and explanation. Ann Intern Med, 69 (7), 467-473. doi:10.7326/M18-0850.