Short answer
Prioritize the emotional journey of visitors in heritage sites, as this is a primary driver of their engagement and contribution to the site's value and sustainability.
- Field
- User-Centred Design
- Source
- Sustainability (2025)
- Method
- Quantitative research using structural equation modeling.
- Sample
- 470 participants
- Evidence
- Strong effect
Understanding and leveraging tourists' emotional experiences, such as aesthetic appreciation, nostalgia, and flow, is crucial for fostering their active participation and value co-creation in sustainable cultural heritage tourism. This user-centred design research insight is drawn from a 2025 study published in Sustainability. Using Quantitative research using structural equation modeling. with 470 participants, researchers explored how this design variable affects real-world outcomes. The key design takeaway: Prioritize the emotional journey of visitors in heritage sites, as this is a primary driver of their engagement and contribution to the site's value and sustainability.
Emotional Engagement Drives Value Co-Creation in Cultural Heritage Tourism
Understanding and leveraging tourists' emotional experiences, such as aesthetic appreciation, nostalgia, and flow, is crucial for fostering their active participation and value co-creation in sustainable cultural heritage tourism.
Sustainability · 2025
Key Findings
- 01Emotional experiences (aesthetic, nostalgic, flow) significantly drive value co-creation behavior.
- 02Different motivations (self-enhancement, escapism, social interaction) uniquely influence specific emotional experiences.
Application
Design takeaway
Prioritize the emotional journey of visitors in heritage sites, as this is a primary driver of their engagement and contribution to the site's value and sustainability.
How to apply
When designing visitor pathways, interpretation materials, or interactive elements at heritage sites, consider how they can trigger feelings of beauty, connection to the past, or immersive engagement.
Project actions
- 01Consider how your design can evoke specific emotions in users.
- 02Think about how users might 'co-create' value with your design, not just consume it.
Method & Evidence
Variables
Strengths & Limitations
Strengths
- +Investigates a complex interplay of psychological factors.
- +Uses a robust quantitative methodology (PLS-SEM).
Limitations
The emotional impact of a design can be subjective and difficult to measure precisely. Generalizing emotional responses across diverse user groups can be challenging.
Reliability & validity
The study uses established scales for measuring motivations, emotions, and behaviors, and employs PLS-SEM, a suitable method for complex models, suggesting good reliability and validity. However, the context-specific nature of heritage tourism might limit generalizability.
Think critically
To what extent can designers ethically manipulate user emotions to achieve desired outcomes like increased engagement or sustainable behavior?
Design Principles
"Design for emotional resonance to foster user engagement and value co-creation."
Designers and experience creators in the heritage sector can significantly enhance visitor engagement and promote sustainable practices by intentionally designing experiences that evoke specific emotions. This approach moves beyond mere information delivery to creating memorable and participatory journeys that benefit both the visitor and the heritage site.
What This Means for Your Design
To make cultural heritage sites more engaging and sustainable, designers should focus on creating experiences that make visitors feel good emotionally – by being beautiful, reminding them of the past, or fully immersing them in the moment.
How to use in your project
- 1.Reference this study when discussing the importance of user emotions in driving engagement and participation in your design project.
Add to My Project
Quick Cite
Paragraph starter
This research underscores the critical role of emotional experiences in fostering user engagement and value co-creation, particularly within cultural heritage contexts. By understanding how motivations translate into aesthetic, nostalgic, and flow experiences, designers can craft more impactful and sustainable interactions that resonate deeply with visitors.
Source
Sustainability
The Emotional Foundations of Value Co-Creation in Sustainable Cultural Heritage Tourism: Insights into the Motivation–Experience–Behavior Framework
journal · 2025
View sourceQuestions About This Research
- What does the research say about emotional engagement drives value co-creation in cultural heritage tourism?
- Prioritize the emotional journey of visitors in heritage sites, as this is a primary driver of their engagement and contribution to the site's value and sustainability. Evidence: Sustainability (2025).
- Why does "Emotional Engagement Drives Value Co-Creation in Cultural Heritage Tourism" matter for design?
- Designers and experience creators in the heritage sector can significantly enhance visitor engagement and promote sustainable practices by intentionally designing experiences that evoke specific emotions. This approach moves beyond mere information delivery to creating memorable and participatory journeys that benefit both the visitor and the heritage site.
- How can designers apply this research?
- Prioritize the emotional journey of visitors in heritage sites, as this is a primary driver of their engagement and contribution to the site's value and sustainability.
- What were the main findings?
- Emotional experiences (aesthetic, nostalgic, flow) significantly drive value co-creation behavior.. Different motivations (self-enhancement, escapism, social interaction) uniquely influence specific emotional experiences.
- What research method was used?
- Quantitative research using structural equation modeling. with 470 participants.
- How strong is the evidence?
- Evidence strength is rated Strong effect, based on a 2025 journal from Sustainability.
- What should I do differently in my next project?
- When designing visitor pathways, interpretation materials, or interactive elements at heritage sites, consider how they can trigger feelings of beauty, connection to the past, or immersive engagement.
- What are the limitations?
- Findings are specific to the studied heritage site and may not generalize to all cultural tourism contexts. The study relies on self-reported data.