Wednesday, 3 July 2013 | 1
The influence of the weather on tourist experiences
Jelmer Jeuring MSc
Faculty of Spatial Sciences / Department of Cultural Geography
University of Groningen
Dr. Karin Peters
Cultural Geography Group
Wageningen University
Wednesday, 3 July 2013 | 2
The weather: awesome, (un)predictable, everywhere, mundane
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Often implicitly, sometimes explicitly present.
• Climate  Seasons  Weather
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Affecting us in multiple ways
• Travel mode, travel time
• Infrastructure
• Clothing
• Comfort
• Health
• Mood
• Sense of place
• Leisure, tourism
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The weather: awesome, (un)predictable, everywhere, mundane
Wednesday, 3 July 2013 | 4
The weather: awesome, (un)predictable, everywhere, mundane
Wednesday, 3 July 2013 | 5
The weather: awesome, (un)predictable, everywhere, mundane
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The impact of the weather on tourism
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Destination attractiveness, potentials, limitations
Tourist activities
Travel itineraries
Satisfaction
Tourist experiences
› Yet, much to be learnt about “actual responses, perceptions, needs,
reactions and expectations of vacationers” (de Freitas, 2003: p.52) and the
sensitivities of tourists for the weather (Denstadli et al., 2011)
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Descriptions of the weather
› How do we talk about the weather?
• Weather as context: Objects in time (Harley, 2003);
• Weather as experience: Weather extremes, comparisons;
› The weather in our narratives
• To make sense of the world and of the self in this world
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Study: analysis of travel blogs
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Tourist experiences
• “a complex combination of factors that shape the tourist’s feeling and
attitude towards his or her visit” (Page et al., in: Volo, 2010: p.299);
• “past personal travel-related events strong enough to have entered long-term
memory (Larsen, 2007: p.15);
• Experiences only have value when stored and remembered (Clawson &
Knetsch, in: Kim, 2010)
• Narratives, reproduced through stories
Re-experience, making sense, consumption
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Study: analysis of travel blogs
• Travel blogs: the rise of the blogosphere
• Sharing experiences, moods and feelings (Volo, 2010)
• Expressing identities (McCabe and Foster, 2006)
• Consumer-to-consumer  Word of Mouse
• Research applications
• A source to collect rich narratives (Bosangit et al., 2009)
• Discover new layers of satisfaction (Filep, 2008)
• Unobtrusive way to collect qualitative data
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Study: analysis of travel blogs
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Data collection: www.waarbenjij.nu
200 weather narratives
184 different authors (61% female; 39% male)
Avg trip: 21 weeks
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Study: analysis of travel blogs
Grounded approach: the spiral of analysis (Boeije, 2009)
› What kind of weather is narrated about on travel blogs?
› How does the weather impact the tourists?
› How are these weather impact evaluated?
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Study: analysis of travel blogs
Table 1. Weather themes and impacts
Weather themes
Rain/hail (82)
High temperature/heat (82)
Wind (55)
Sunshine (45)
Low temperature/cold (34)
Variability (29)
Favourable (19)
Thunder/lightning (17)
Humidity (16)
Unfavourable (13)
Clouds (13)
Mist (7)
Snow (6)
Clear/Blue sky (4)
Rainbow (2)
Drought (1)
Impact on experience
1. Behaviour/adaptation
Obstructing activity (50)
Adapting to situation (48)
Protection/Safety (28)
Enabling activity (26)
2. Aesthetics/Environment
Atmosphere (26)
Visibility (22)
Beauty (18)
Visual/Scenery (14)
Flooding (8)
3. Satisfaction
Comfort +/- (40)
Enjoyment +/- (38)
4. Physical
Exhaustion (13)
Sweating (12)
Wet (9)
Sunburn (7)
Pain/Damage/Hurt (6)
Smell (2)
5. Emotions/moods
Disappointment/Sad (14)
Lucky (11)
Impressed (11)
Scared/Worried (6)
Happy (5)
Contemplation (1)
6. Thermal
Cold (31)
Warm (30)
Cooling down (5)
7. Changes/Variation
Contrast/Comparison (17)
Changing weather (10)
8. Neutral
Lack of impact (9)
Wednesday, 3 July 2013 | 13
Study: analysis of travel blogs
Table 1. Weather themes and impacts
Weather themes
Rain/hail (82)
High temperature/heat (82)
Wind (55)
Sunshine (45)
Low temperature/cold (34)
Variability (29)
Favourable (19)
Thunder/lightning (17)
Humidity (16)
Unfavourable (13)
Clouds (13)
Mist (7)
Snow (6)
Clear/Blue sky (4)
Rainbow (2)
Drought (1)
Impact on experience
1. Behaviour/adaptation
Obstructing activity (50)
Adapting to situation (48)
Protection/Safety (28)
Enabling activity (26)
2. Aesthetics/Environment
Atmosphere (26)
Visibility (22)
Beauty (18)
Visual/Scenery (14)
Flooding (8)
3. Satisfaction
Comfort +/- (40)
Enjoyment +/- (38)
4. Physical
Exhaustion (13)
Sweating (12)
Wet (9)
Sunburn (7)
Pain/Damage/Hurt (6)
Smell (2)
5. Emotions/moods
Disappointment/Sad (14)
Lucky (11)
Impressed (11)
Scared/Worried (6)
Happy (5)
Contemplation (1)
6. Thermal
Cold (31)
Warm (30)
Cooling down (5)
7. Changes/Variation
Contrast/Comparison (17)
Changing weather (10)
8. Neutral
Lack of impact (9)
“Due to heavy rain, on the way to Terrace we see many
small waterfalls along the road. I also took a photo of a
beautiful waterfall.” (nr 113:24, Male, 64, Alaska)
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Study: analysis of travel blogs
Table 1. Weather themes and impacts
Weather themes
Rain/hail (82)
High temperature/heat (82)
Wind (55)
Sunshine (45)
Low temperature/cold (34)
Variability (29)
Favourable (19)
Thunder/lightning (17)
Humidity (16)
Unfavourable (13)
Clouds (13)
Mist (7)
Snow (6)
Clear/Blue sky (4)
Rainbow (2)
Drought (1)
Impact on experience
1. Behaviour/adaptation
Obstructing activity (50)
Adapting to situation (48)
Protection/Safety (28)
Enabling activity (26)
2. Aesthetics/Environment
Atmosphere (26)
Visibility (22)
Beauty (18)
Visual/Scenery (14)
Flooding (8)
5. Emotions/moods
Disappointment/Sad (14)
Lucky (11)
Impressed (11)
Scared/Worried (6)
Happy (5)
Contemplation (1)
6. Thermal
Cold (31)
Warm (30)
Cooling down (5)
“All day long [surfing] and then ending with a beautiful
sunset, while lying on my board and surfing one wave after
another. It was one of 3.those
beautiful moments
to consider
Satisfaction
7. Changes/Variation
Comfort +/- (40)
Contrast/Comparison (17)
yourself lucky.” (nr 71:31,
Female,
24, El Salvador)
Enjoyment
+/- (38)
Changing weather (10)
4. Physical
Exhaustion (13)
Sweating (12)
Wet (9)
Sunburn (7)
Pain/Damage/Hurt (6)
Smell (2)
8.
Neutral (9)
Lack of impact (9)
Wednesday, 3 July 2013 | 15
Study: analysis of travel blogs
Table 1. Weather themes and impacts
Weather themes
Rain/hail (82)
High temperature/heat (82)
Wind (55)
Sunshine (45)
Low temperature/cold (34)
Variability (29)
Favourable (19)
Thunder/lightning (17)
Humidity (16)
Unfavourable (13)
Clouds (13)
Mist (7)
Snow (6)
Clear/Blue sky (4)
Rainbow (2)
Drought (1)
Impact on experience
1. Behaviour/adaptation
Obstructing activity (50)
Adapting to situation (48)
Protection/Safety (28)
Enabling activity (26)
5. Emotions/moods
Disappointment/Sad (14)
Lucky (11)
Impressed (11)
Scared/Worried (6)
Happy (5)
Contemplation (1)
“Yesterday morning I was picked up by Mr. Azad. The heat
outside is just amazing. It immediately becomes clear you are
Aesthetics/Environment
not in Europe anymore. 2.Atmosphere
Yesterday
was ridiculously hot
(26)
Visibility
(22) 12:27, Male, 23,
6. Thermal
though, about 30 degrees.”
(nr
Mauritius)
Beauty (18)
Visual/Scenery (14)
Flooding (8)
Cold (31)
Warm (30)
Cooling down (5)
3. Satisfaction
Comfort +/- (40)
Enjoyment +/- (38)
4. Physical
Exhaustion (13)
Sweating (12)
Wet (9)
Sunburn (7)
Pain/Damage/Hurt (6)
Smell (2)
7. Changes/Variation
Contrast/Comparison (17)
Changing weather (10)
8. Neutral (9)
Lack of impact (9)
Wednesday, 3 July 2013 | 16
Study: analysis of travel blogs
Table 1. Weather themes and impacts
Weather themes
Rain/hail (82)
High temperature/heat (82)
Wind (55)
Sunshine (45)
Low temperature/cold (34)
Variability (29)
Favourable (19)
Thunder/lightning (17)
Humidity (16)
Unfavourable (13)
Clouds (13)
Mist (7)
Snow (6)
Clear/Blue sky (4)
Rainbow (2)
Drought (1)
Impact on experience
1. Behaviour/adaptation
Obstructing activity (50)
Adapting to situation (48)
Protection/Safety (28)
Enabling activity (26)
5. Emotions/moods
Disappointment/Sad (14)
Lucky (11)
Impressed (11)
Scared/Worried (6)
Happy (5)
Contemplation (1)
“The heat should make sleeping harder, but even a tornado
could not keep us awake, we were that tired from the trip and
2. Aesthetics/Environment
the nice day.” (nr 91:8, Male,
age unknown, Italy)
Atmosphere (26)
Visibility (22)
Beauty (18)
Visual/Scenery (14)
Flooding (8)
6. Thermal
Cold (31)
Warm (30)
Cooling down (5)
3. Satisfaction
Comfort +/- (40)
Enjoyment +/- (38)
4. Physical
Exhaustion (13)
Sweating (12)
Wet (9)
Sunburn (7)
Pain/Damage/Hurt (6)
Smell (2)
7. Changes/Variation
Contrast/Comparison (17)
Changing weather (10)
8. Neutral (9)
Lack of impact (9)
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Study: analysis of travel blogs
Figure 1. Weather evaluations
Drought
Rainbow
Clear/Blue sky
Snow
Mist
Clouds
Unfavourable
None
Humidity
Negative
Thunder/lightning
Positive
Favourable
Variability
Low temperature/cold
Sunshine
Wind
High temperature/heat
Rain/hail
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
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Conclusions
› The weather has a significant and complex impact on tourists and their
tourist experiences  integrated part of holiday experiences;
› Impact highly contingent on expectations and activities;
› Understanding of impact, evaluation and attribution is essential for
(coastal) tourism management;
› Especially in outdoor destinations, such as coastal areas.
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Conclusions
› Travel blogs a promising, unobtrusive source for qualitative, in-depth data;
› Why do people write about the weather (or not)?
Weather salience? (Stewart, 2009)
› More research needed to account for the qualitative, contextual impact of
various weather conditions on tourists, their (longitudinal) behaviour and
the way their holidays emerge.
› Focus on (differences between) specific activities, regions (coastal tourism)
or weather conditions?
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Paper available online this week in Journal of Vacation Marketing:
Jeuring, J.H.G. and Peters, K.B.M. The influence of the weather on tourist
experiences: Analysing travel blog narratives. Journal of Vacation
Marketing, 19(3), 2013.
j.h.g.jeuring@rug.nl
Thank you for your attention