The effect of sensory components on positive word-of-mouth advertising by mediating role of destination emotion and brand experience in tourism industry (Case study: foreign tourists)

Today, tourism industry, as the one of largest service industry in revenue terms, is considered an important factor for economic growth and development. The most important steps that can lead to the growth of tourism industry is the development of accommodation and hotels for travelers stay. Sensory marketing is important for hotel industry progress. Here, we examine the effect of sensory marketing and its components on positive word-of-mouth advertising in tourism industry through brand experience and destination emotion. The type of research is applied research in terms of the purpose and nature of the problem studied, from the data collection method, is a survey research based on structural equation modeling and in terms of research method, is descriptive. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data in this research. Regarding the limited statistical population of this study, which includes foreign tourists of five star hotels in Tehran, the sample size was 280 persons according to Morgan table and structural equation modeling was used. The results of the research indicate that the hypothesis of the effect of the tactile stimuli on destination emotion is not confirmed by tourists, but other hypothesis of the research has been confirmed.