Abstract
While emotions are increasingly recognised as central to tourism experiences, their emergence in low-arousal contexts remains underexplored. This study explores how tourists construct emotional experiences in such settings, using a qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal that emotional responses are shaped by appraisals of goal relevance, agency and responsibility attributions, and coping potential. Five positive, three negative and two mixed emotion categories emerged, influencing revisit and recommendation intentions, as well as prompting deeper reflections on tourism and everyday life. The study extends Cognitive Appraisal Theory to low-arousal contexts and highlights a managerial paradox: sustaining competitiveness requires balancing authenticity with experience enhancement.
Keywords
Introduction
Tourism studies have increasingly adopted an emotional perspective, recognising the pivotal role emotions play in shaping tourist experiences (Mashkov et al., 2025). This shift moves beyond viewing tourists as rational consumers assessed by satisfaction, loyalty or economic value, instead acknowledging them as affective agents who appraise and respond emotionally to destinations (Huang et al., 2025). Recent studies suggest that emotions influence not only immediate evaluations (Gary, 2025) but also long-term memories (Yamao and Matsui, 2025), lifestyle orientations and even existential transformations (Vo-Thanh et al., 2025). Within this context, slow tourism provides a distinctive setting for examining the affective dimensions of travel (Lee et al., 2025). In contrast to fast-paced, consumption-oriented tourism, slow tourism prioritises deceleration, immersion and sustained engagement with place, which many tourists experience as opportunities to relieve daily pressures, reconnect with cultural heritage, and support personal well-being (Lee et al., 2025). Its growing appeal also reflects broader societal concerns related to stress, overconsumption and sustainability (Lee et al., 2025; Vo-Thanh et al., 2025). From a cognitive appraisal perspective, emotions arise not from context itself but from individuals’ evaluations of situations along dimensions such as goal relevance, goal congruence and coping potential. In slow tourism settings, tourists may appraise their experiences as goal-congruent, meaningful and manageable, which may in turn be associated with calm, reflective and restorative emotions (Xu and Chia, 2025). However, while appraisal–emotion mechanisms are well-established, there remains limited empirical insight into how tourists appraise slow tourism contexts during on-site experiences and how particular patterns of appraisal shape these emotional experiences. This points to the need for theory-driven research that explicitly examines appraisal–emotion pathways within slow tourism settings (Smith et al., 2025). Conceptually, slow tourism is understood as a mode of travel and engagement with place rather than as equivalent to low-arousal emotion. Although it may foster calmer and more reflective feelings, it can also evoke emotions across different levels of arousal. In this study, low-arousal emotion is therefore treated as one possible emotional outcome of tourists’ appraisals in slow tourism contexts, rather than as a defining feature of slow tourism.
Studies on tourism and emotion have advanced considerably, with Cognitive Appraisal Theory (CAT) emerging as a key framework (Lazarus, 1991). CAT explains how appraisals of goal relevance, accountability, coping potential, and future expectancy shape emotional responses and behavioural outcomes. However, most tourism studies have focused on contexts that many tourists appraise as more intense or stimulating, such as adventure tourism, theme parks and festivals, where experiences are often evaluated as involving heightened risk, novelty or social intensity, and are therefore more likely to elicit stronger emotional responses and behavioural intentions such as revisiting or destination recommendation (Chen and Girish, 2025; Jordão et al., 2026; Lee et al., 2025). In contrast, low-arousal contexts remain underexamined (Liu et al., 2025). Research on slow tourism has largely centred on motivations such as sustainability, authenticity and contributions to local development (Vo-Thanh et al., 2025), with limited attention to how emotions such as nostalgia, which can have restorative psychological effects, arise through appraisal processes (Cao, 2024). Moreover, existing studies tend to focus on conative outcomes – such as revisit and recommendation intentions – while overlooking deeper psychological transformations (Vo-Thanh et al., 2025). Most findings also derive from developed countries, raising questions about their applicability in developing contexts (Syvertsen and Jorge, 2026).
Consistent with the foregoing discussion, this study explores tourists’ emotional experiences in Luzhi Ancient Town, the first Cittaslow-designated farming-culture water town in China and addresses the following research questions: (1) How do tourists appraise their experiences in slow tourism destinations? (2) What emotions arise from these appraisals? (3) What coping strategies and consequences follow? This study makes three main contributions. First, this study offers a fine-grained qualitative account of how appraisal processes unfold in low-arousal tourism experiences, clarifying how CAT operates in slow-paced settings and informing future appraisal-based research on tourism emotions. Second, it exposes the limits of treating slow tourism as reliably emotionally positive by revealing a structural divergence in low-arousal experience. Third, it moves beyond the positive–negative binary often used in CAT-informed tourism research to better account for the complexity of emotional experience.
Literature review
Slow tourism
The slow food and Cittaslow movements that emerged in Italy during the 1980s and 1990s laid the cultural groundwork for slow tourism, promoting locality, authenticity, and quality over speed and standardisation (Fullagar et al., 2012). Slow tourism is commonly characterised as involving unhurried rhythms, experiential depth and opportunities for meaningful engagement with place (Lee et al., 2025). Rather than simply opposing fast tourism, the slow ethos highlights the ethical and experiential value of deceleration in consumer societies where acceleration often undermines authenticity and distinctiveness (Losada and Mota, 2019).
From the demand side, research has explored why tourists adopt slow travel orientations, identifying key motivations such as well-being, escape from fast-paced lifestyles, desire for richer experiences and ethical concerns (Liu et al., 2025; Oh et al., 2016). Travellers who choose slow tourism often seek simplicity, reflection and meaningful encounters with people and places, and may experience mindfulness, environmental respect, and stronger social ties (Klarin et al., 2023; Syvertsen and Jorge, 2026). These strands of literature tend to implicitly frame slow tourism, to varying degrees, as a distinctive healing journey centred on well-being, reflection and meaningful engagement. In practice, slow tourism typically involves longer stays, fewer destinations, low-impact mobility and support for local economies – features that some tourists perceive as contributing to more memorable and meaningful experiences (Walker et al., 2021). Destination imagery associated with slowness often correlates with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, shaped by factors such as trip duration, travel companions, prior values and destination type (Frías-Jamilena et al., 2024).
From a supply and governance perspective, slow cities leverage natural and cultural assets to support local businesses and preserve distinctiveness (Jaszczak et al., 2024). For destination marketers, this calls for a shift from volume to quality, and from standardisation to local embeddedness (Manthiou et al., 2022). A six-pillar framework – comprising flexibility, social engagement, localness, destination experience, value perceptions and living in the moment – guides branding and design strategies that emphasise community participation, traditional crafts and everyday life conservation (Manthiou et al., 2022). Despite its benefits, slow tourism faces criticism. Overly rigid planning may hinder investment and growth, while lax regulation can threaten heritage, identity and appeal (Chauhan, 2024). Sustainable management requires balancing carrying capacity, activity design and visitor mix (Bang and Jang, 2025). Although benchmarking tools like slow city tourism indices show promise (Kim et al., 2022), further refinement is needed to ensure clarity, cross-context comparability and alignment with the six pillars (Manthiou et al., 2022). Without this, measurement risks overshadowing meaning (Morrison et al., 2024).
Cognitive appraisal theory – theoretical foundation
CAT, developed by Lazarus (1991), explains emotions as arising not from events per se but from individuals’ evaluations of their person–environment relationships (Scherer, 2001). Emotions are thus generated through subjective interpretations of situational meaning. CAT distinguishes between primary appraisal, which concerns the significance of an event for personal goals, and secondary appraisal, which evaluates accountability, controllability and coping potential (Figure 1). These appraisals jointly determine the quality and intensity of emotional reactions, which in turn guide behavioural tendencies and intentions, including approach or avoidance, recommendation, and adoption of new practices (Yeo and Ong, 2024).
Study framework grounded in Lazaru'’ (1991) theory.
Early applications of CAT in tourism, exemplified by studies such as Ma et al. (2013) in theme park contexts, showed that tourist emotions (e.g. delight) can be understood as arising from multiple configurations of cognitive appraisals. Rather than following a single appraisal route, this line of work highlighted that different appraisal pathways may lead to the same emotional outcome. Subsequent studies extended this analytical sensitivity to more socially embedded tourism contexts, where emotional responses are intertwined with moral, cultural and contextual considerations. Within such contexts, investigations of dark tourism have focused on why tourists choose to visit or avoid particular sites, showing that intentions to adopt or reject these destinations are shaped by the reasons tourists construct for and against visiting, rather than by emotions acting as direct behavioural drivers (Sanyal and Malik, 2026). Recently, studies have shifted towards finer-grained analyses of appraisal components (Qiu et al., 2024; Song and Lu, 2024). For example, studies related to meteorological uncertainty explicitly operationalise primary appraisals, focusing on goal relevance and goal congruence, to explain how alignment with travel goals influences emotions and revisit intentions (Qiu et al., 2024), while wellness and inspiration research highlight goal relevance in eliciting serenity and inspiration (Xu and Chia, 2025).
Secondary appraisals are likewise evident: coping potential and controllability emerge as central in studies linked to service failure and resident–visitor encounters (Su et al., 2023); accountability judgements differentiate anger from guilt in interpersonal contexts (Jordan and Prayag, 2022); and expectancy appraisals capture how anticipated opportunities regulate tourists’ emotions under uncertainty (Qiu et al., 2024). Collectively, these studies demonstrate that appraisal processes underpin emotional generation and guide tourists’ coping and behavioural tendencies. Despite these advances, applications of CAT in tourism studies have tended to emphasise high-arousal experiences and Western cultural contexts (Klarin et al., 2023), while low-arousal settings such as slow tourism have been less frequently examined (Wadham and Dashper, 2025). Cultural variations in the situational meaning attached to events, particularly in how judgements of control and responsibility are interpreted in relation to culturally shaped goals, have received comparatively limited attention, raising questions about the broader cross-cultural applicability of CAT-based findings (Zhang et al., 2021). These considerations are especially relevant to slow tourism, where subdued emotions and culturally embedded value orientations may shape how situations are construed and how appraisal dimensions are interpreted (Klarin et al., 2023). Considering this, the present study investigates how tourists appraise destination stimuli and construct emotional experiences in a slow tourism setting, thereby extending CAT's empirical reach to alternative forms of tourism and offering a more context-sensitive account of appraisal–emotion dynamics.
Drawing on CAT, the present study conceptualises emotional experiences as appraisal-elicited feeling states that arise from tourists’ evaluations of destination stimuli in relation to their goals and concerns during the visit (Lazarus, 1991). This includes both high-arousal discrete emotions and low-arousal, meaningful emotional states that may also emerge in slow tourism contexts (Klarin et al., 2023; Wadham and Dashper, 2025). Participants’ emotion terms are treated as emotional experiences when they refer to appraisal-elicited feeling states grounded in tourists’ on-site experiences and appraisal-based meaning (e.g. goal congruence or incongruence and reflected in perceived fit or mismatch). Terms such as ‘healing’ and ‘reflection’ are sometimes framed as restorative outcomes or meaning-making processes in prior research (Jia et al., 2025). In this study, they are treated as emotion-laden when participants described them as immediate affective relief, comfort or reflective states prompted by appraisals of the slow tourism environment.
Method
Research context
This study focuses on Luzhi, a historic water town in the Yangtze River Delta that was designated an International Cittaslow in 2018 (Figure 2). As the first water town in China to receive this certification for its representation of Jiangnan's agrarian heritage, Luzhi exemplifies how the principles of slow tourism can be integrated with traditional spatial forms and cultural landscapes (Chi and Han, 2020). Its ancient canals, stone bridges, and historic architecture, together with narrow cobblestone alleys and a tranquil atmosphere, stand in contrast to the fast-paced rhythms of China's urban centres. Luzhi's cultural identity is deeply embedded in philosophies of harmony and simplicity, which align closely with the ethos of slowness (Chi and Han, 2020). This makes it a suitable site for examining how slow tourism is articulated in a Chinese cultural context and for generating insights that can extend the predominantly Western conceptualisations of slow tourism to other culturally grounded, non-urban destinations.
Luzhi town, a Chinese slow tourism destination.
Research design
This study employed a qualitative research design to explore tourists’ psychological and behavioural responses within slow tourism contexts. Given its exploratory nature, qualitative inquiry is well-suited to capturing the complex interplay of appraisal, emotion and behaviour (Qiu et al., 2024). A template analysis approach was adopted, combining deductive and inductive reasoning (Otoo et al., 2019). The analysis began with an initial coding template based on an established theoretical framework, which was iteratively refined to generate new insights (Brooks et al., 2015). Guided by CAT, including both primary and secondary appraisal dimensions (Jordan and Prayag, 2022; Lazarus, 1991), the final themes were interpreted through the CAT lens to examine tourists’ psychological and behavioural tendencies in slow tourism settings.
Data collection
The interview protocol was developed in alignment with the study's objectives and informed by prior research (Pan et al., 2024). Data collection occurred in three phases. The first phase involved a 2-day pilot study (2–3 October 2024) to assess participants’ comprehension and engagement. Feedback revealed that some tourism-related cultural terms were unclear, prompting revisions to question wording and the inclusion of brief definitions to enhance clarity and elicit richer narratives.
The main fieldwork, conducted from 11 to 24 January 2025, used purposive sampling to gather in-depth, experience-based accounts. Because slow tourism is understood as a mode of engagement rather than a destination attribute, participants were not recruited based solely on their presence in Luzhi Ancient Town. Recruitment instead involved initial on-site screening based on visit pace and activities undertaken, followed by brief pre-interview questions about the purpose of the visit. Participants were included if they met three criteria: (1) being non-residents, to ensure a tourist perspective; (2) having engaged in experiences consistent with slow tourism, indicated by a relatively unhurried pace, participation in more than one locally grounded activity, and engagement beyond brief pass-through sightseeing and (3) being willing and able to recall and reflect on their experiences. These procedures helped ensure that the interviews focused on experiences consistent with slow tourism rather than general sightseeing. To foster comfort and reflection during the winter season, interviews were held in local teahouses and cafés, aligning with the destination's slow-paced atmosphere. Of the 30 tourists approached, 25 completed interviews, while 5 withdrew due to scheduling conflicts. Each interview, lasting 20 to 35minutes, was audio-recorded with prior written consent and transcribed verbatim using iFlytek Hearing, a high-accuracy Chinese transcription tool. All transcripts were manually reviewed for accuracy.
A final phase on 8 March 2025 aimed to supplement the dataset and assess thematic saturation. Following Lowe et al. (2018: 200), saturation was defined as the point at which ‘new data tend to replicate what has already been collected’. Two additional interviews were conducted, after which no new codes or themes emerged. Thematic saturation was thus confirmed, concluding data collection with a total of 27 interviews. Participants were informed of their voluntary involvement, the right to withdraw at any time, and the confidentiality of their data. Ethical approval was obtained from the researcher's university.
Data analysis
Interview transcripts were analysed using template analysis (Brooks et al., 2015). This flexible form of thematic analysis allows themes to be identified both deductively, from established theoretical constructs, and inductively, from emergent data patterns (King et al., 2002). Themes were initially provisional and refined iteratively, enabling a responsive examination of tourists’ appraisals, emotions, and behavioural tendencies within the CAT framework. The analysis advanced through three interconnected stages: open coding, categorisation and abstraction (Chen et al., 2018). During open coding, meaningful units were identified to build an initial template. Preliminary analysis of four interviews indicated strong conceptual alignment with CAT, which was therefore adopted as the guiding framework (Lazarus, 1991). In the categorisation stage, related codes were grouped into broader clusters, with iterative refinements until no substantive changes remained. Abstraction then produced subcategories and overarching categories that captured tourists’ cognitive and emotional responses in the slow tourism context, systematically mapped onto CAT's appraisal and emotion components. To ensure trustworthiness, two researchers independently coded an initial subset of transcripts, compared outputs and resolved discrepancies through discussion until consensus was reached. Manual coding was conducted in accordance with Saldaña's (2021) guidelines. This process reduced individual bias, enhanced credibility, and provided a clear audit trail of analytic decisions. Coding decisions and template revisions were documented in a chronological audit trail, ensuring methodological transparency. Reflexive journaling was maintained to examine researchers’ assumptions and positionalities, while peer debriefing with external colleagues further strengthened credibility and confirmability.
Findings
Of the 27 participants, 15 were male and 12 female. More than 60% were aged 18 to 39, with about 26% in older age groups. Approximately half held a college degree, and more than 80% resided in nearby cities. They represented diverse occupational backgrounds such as service workers, students and retirees (Table 1). Guided by the initial coding template, the analysis of interview data generated four main categories: cognitive appraisal, emotional experiences, coping strategies and behavioural tendencies, with each category comprising specific dimensions (Figure 3).
Results of the cognitive appraisals process.
Profile of participants.
Source: Authors own work.
Cognitive appraisal
Within slow tourism destinations, goal-related and adaptation-related appraisal emphases were observed within the same cognitive appraisal process. In the goal-related appraisal stage, tourists’ motivational relevance played a key role in the generation of emotions. The congruence or incongruence between these motivations subsequently shaped specific emotions, as reflected in the tourists’ varied travel purposes. In the adaptation appraisal stage, tourists conducted further evaluations of events, focusing on agency, responsibility, controllability and coping potential.
Goal-related appraisal
Motivational relevance
In the stage of motivational relevance appraisal, three core motivations emerged for visiting slow tourism destinations. First, 19 participants sought to escape the fast pace and high pressure of daily life, often describing their routines as ‘stressful’ and ‘exhausting’. For example, one participant shared, ‘I feel like I’m always being chased by work and life. Being here is like pressing pause’ (R5). Another expressed a similar need, noting, ‘I needed a place where time wasn’t constantly pushing me forward’ (R12). Second, 16 participants emphasised physical and mental restoration, viewing slow tourism to relax and relieve stress. As one participant noted, ‘I just wanted to give my body and mind a chance to slow down’ (R15), while R21 similarly reflected, ‘Study pressure drains me, so I came here just to breathe’. Third, nine participants aimed to escape overly commercialised settings, seeking simplicity, authenticity and reflection on their life values and priorities. One participant remarked, ‘Other tourist spots feel too commercial, feel authentic and it reminds me that a simple life is more meaningful’ (R3). Likewise, R18 noted, ‘I’m tired of places designed just for spending money – this place lets me think about what really matters’. These findings suggest that slow tourism destinations were often framed not simply as leisure destinations, but as low-arousal, non-commercialised spaces for slowing down, recovery and reflection.
Motivational congruence or incongruence
During motivational congruence appraisal, tourists evaluated whether their goals of escaping stress, restoring well-being and seeking simplicity were fulfilled. When built and natural surroundings fostered a slow rhythm and immersion, tourists generally reported positive emotions. As one participant explained, ‘The buildings and surroundings here make me feel like I’m in a different world’ (R18), while others noted, ‘It feels like stepping back in time’ (R4), and ‘finally away from the rush’ (R10). Cultural activities also offered emotional relief, as one participant shared: ‘The soft music and slow rhythm healed me’ (R12), while another described it as ‘a quiet moment that calmed my mind’ (R7). The town's simple spaces and limited commercialisation further enhanced feelings of authenticity and value alignment. Participants appreciated that ‘nothing here tries to sell you something’ (R14) and that ‘the old signs feel authentic’ (R11), which led some to view the town as ‘a place made for living, not selling’ (R19). However, certain disruptive elements weakened this sense of coherence. Modern sounds broke immersion, as one participant recalled, ‘The pop music suddenly pulled me back to reality’ (R23). Likewise, non-local accents undermined cultural authenticity: ‘His accent wasn’t local, so it didn’t feel authentic’ (R26). These findings align with CAT's framework of appraisal. In the primary stage, tourists judged whether situations were congruent with their goals, which triggered positive or negative emotions. The specific types of these emotions were then further refined through secondary appraisal.
Adaptive-related appraisal
Agency, responsibility and controllability
From a cognitive appraisal perspective, individuals evaluate emotional situations by considering who caused an event (agency), who should be held responsible (responsibility), and whether outcomes are perceived as controllable. Based on the coding, this study identified two broad attribution patterns: external attributions (other actors or uncontrollable conditions such as weather or luck) and internal attributions (personal expectations and prior travel experience).
External factors
Tourists often attributed heritage preservation and environmental maintenance to destination managers. This perception of managerial effort fostered feelings of gratitude, trust and attachment. As one participant noted, ‘The old houses still have wooden windows and brick carvings… I guess maybe the local government has some strict preservation rules’ (R21). Clean waterways were also seen as evidence of effective management: ‘Hidden devices filter out leaves…it keeps the river clean’ (R6). At the same time, residents were regarded as enhancing the town's authenticity through their continued residence and traditional way of life, which created a sense of warmth and connection. As one visitor remarked, ‘Seeing locals live here made me feel real and connected’ (R21). However, when visitors perceived inadequate regulation of commercialisation, their sense of immersion was reduced, leading to disappointment. As one participant commented, ‘A coffee shop with neon lights… ruined the atmosphere’ (R14).
Uncontrollable attributions
For tourists who participated in or anticipated outdoor experiential activities, adverse weather was widely regarded as an uncontrollable factor. When it caused cancellations, they generally expressed regret rather than intense disappointment. As one participant noted, ‘I came for the iron flower forging show, but it was cancelled because of uncontrollable rain…I still felt a little disappointed’ (R23). Some participants further associated unfavourable weather with bad luck. As expressed by one participant, ‘It rained the whole time I was here, and I missed the show – guess I was just unlucky’ (R11).
Expectations (internal factor)
Tourists often evaluated their experiences in relation to prior expectations. When encounters exceeded what they had anticipated, participants described positive emotions such as surprise: ‘I thought this was just an ordinary town, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it full of historical charm’ (R27). When experiences fell short of expectations, disappointment was more likely to emerge: ‘I thought the ancient town would be lively, with food stalls and street performances, but at night it was unusually quiet, which was disappointing’ (R13). When experiences largely matched expectations, emotional responses tended to be relatively flat: ‘What I saw was pretty much what I imagined, so I didn’t feel anything in particular’ (R2). In some accounts, tourists attributed the emotional outcome to themselves, often by referring to their own expectations (e.g. ‘my expectations were too high’), reflecting self-agency and self-responsibility appraisals in CAT.
Prior travel experience (internal factor)
Compared to other destinations, slow tourism sites such as ancient water towns can be difficult to navigate due to their winding waterways and similar street names. Tourists with prior experience in similar settings noted that this familiarity helped them adapt quickly, drawing on their spatial awareness and navigation skills to reduce confusion. As one visitor explained, ‘I’ve been to several water towns before, so I didn’t feel lost and quickly figured out the general layout’ (R17). Prior travel experience provided a sense of familiarity that enhanced perceived controllability in spatially complex environments, thereby reducing confusion and related negative emotions.
Coping potential
Informational preparation improved tourists’ coping potential. Advance checks of weather, routes and activity schedules reduced environmental uncertainty. One tourist shared, ‘I checked the latest map and, seeing from a guesthouse owner's videos that it had been raining, packed waterproof shoe covers and an umbrella’ (R20). By contrast, unprepared tourists relied on observing and following others, which increased effort and diminished immersion: ‘I came here without planning, kept checking my phone and following others, and although I found a few places, it was tiring’ (R19). Adjusting expectations enhanced tourists’ coping potential. By maintaining a flexible mindset and adjusting expectations, they can view unmet experiences as part of slow tourism's natural rhythm and spontaneity rather than as failures. For example, ‘Rain cancelled the iron-flower show we planned to see, so we sat in a teahouse listening to the rain, and it was still relaxing’ (R11). This illustrates how expectation adjustment transformed potential disappointment into relaxation.
Beyond immediate coping strategies, some participants adopted a future-oriented way of coping to sustain a sense of coping potential. By anticipating future opportunities to revisit or to re-engage with desired activities, they managed unmet experiences by framing them as temporary and recoverable, which helped mitigate disappointment. In this study, this future-oriented coping strategy involved anticipating future visits or adjusting plans for subsequent trips (e.g. choosing a more favourable time in response to weather-related disruptions). For instance, one participant remarked, ‘The iron-flower show was cancelled, but I thought I could come back another time’ (R11), while another added, ‘I’ll remind my friends to prepare strategies before coming here’ (R22). In some accounts, positive anticipation of future visits sustained optimism: ‘It's okay, there's always next time’ (R26) and reinforced return intentions: ‘Next time, I want to stay for a full week’ (R22).
Emotional experiences
Findings show that in slow tourism destinations, tourists experienced three categories of emotions: positive, negative and mixed. These were closely linked to appraisal-related stimuli (Table 2). Five positive emotions were identified: surprise, calm, nostalgia, healing and reflection; three negative emotions: regret, boredom and alienation; and two mixed emotions: contentment with concern and awed with melancholy.
Tourist emotion and appraisal-related stimuli.
Positive emotions
Motivational congruence elicited positive emotions when tourists’ goals aligned with their experiences. Surprise often stemmed from initially low expectations and was reinforced by favourable comparisons with other ancient towns: ‘I thought it was just an ordinary town but was surprised by its rich history and well-preserved architecture’ (R22); ‘Compared with other ancient towns I’ve been to, Luzhi feels quieter and more authentic’ (R15). Calmness, the most frequently mentioned emotion, reflected visitors’ need for emotional regulation and recovery from high-pressure environments, often attributed to the town's quietness and authentic charm: ‘This is exactly the sense of relaxation and calm I was looking for’ (R1). Nostalgia was evoked by traditional houses and antique objects that stirred memories of childhood and home: ‘That chipped iron frog in the antique shop felt like meeting my childhood self’ (R3). Feelings of healing emerged from engaging in local activities: ‘On the boat, I felt I could let go – the calm water, light breeze, and a freedom from anxiety I hadn’t felt in years’ (R9). Moreover, the slow-paced atmosphere encouraged reflection, prompting visitors to reconsider their lifestyles: ‘Seeing the locals’ calm life made me wonder if I want that high-pressure lifestyle’ (R1).
Negative emotions
Negative emotions often arose when tourists’ goals were not achieved. In a slow tourism setting, reduced stimulation may be appraised as incongruent with some visitors’ desired level of engagement, while a stronger sense of localness may heighten perceived social and cultural distance, which may be associated with boredom or alienation rather than relaxation. Some expressed regret when the destination failed to meet their expectations or when they missed the best viewing time (R9), sometimes attributing this to uncontrollable factors (R10). In these accounts, regret was tied to a sense of missed opportunity and low perceived controllability. In addition, some tourists visited with a tentative mindset and without mental preparation to slow down, which led to boredom: ‘Felt bored because there was nothing to do at night’ (R27). Furthermore, when tourists faced barriers such as differences in food, pace or language, they described feelings of alienation, such as ‘the locals’ unfamiliar dialect made me feel out of place’ (R25).
Mixed emotions
Interview data suggest that tourists may experience mixed emotions when the same cultural park setting is perceived as lively and enjoyable, yet judged as too new to sustain a coherent historical ambience. For instance, one participant noted: ‘The cultural park is lively, but it looks too new and doesn’t fit the vibe’ (R7). Here, enjoyment and dissonance emerged because the same destination setting was experienced as lively and engaging, yet judged as architecturally too new to sustain a coherent historical ambience. Similarly, some visitors enjoyed the exhibition experience, yet felt that parts of the same presentation were staged and therefore less authentic: ‘I enjoyed the exhibitions, but some parts felt staged and lacked authenticity’ (R10). This reflects an ambivalent response in which enjoyment coexisted with scepticism about authenticity. Mixed emotions were also evident in tourists’ engagement with the same architectural site. While some expressed awe at the site's historical depth, they also reported a sense of loss when confronted with emptiness and material decay: ‘I felt awe at its history, but some of the empty rooms brought a sense of loss’ (R8). Others expressed a similar ambivalence: ‘the carvings were beautiful and impressive, yet seeing them worn down made me feel a little sad’ (R25). Heritage appreciation can therefore co-occur with sadness when the passage of time becomes materially visible. These accounts suggest that tourists’ emotions in slow tourism encounters cannot always be classified as purely positive or negative. Instead, mixed emotions arose when the same setting was appraised as goal-congruent on some dimensions yet goal-incongruent on others (e.g. authenticity cues alongside perceived artificiality, or perceived heritage value alongside perceived deterioration), challenging binary valence classifications sometimes adopted in CAT-informed tourism research.
Coping strategies
Tourists expressed their emotional responses to slow tourism destinations either directly through behaviours or indirectly by regulating their emotions. Through such coping strategies, they were able to sustain positive feelings or alleviate negative ones.
Problem-focused coping
Problem-focused coping refers to tourists deliberate efforts to modify the situational factors that trigger emotional discomfort. When experiencing regret, tourists coped through planning future trips (R4), reflecting compensatory planning or by reframing unfulfilled goals (R9), illustrating goal substitution. Feelings of boredom prompted exploratory behaviours (R22) or active social engagement (R20) to restore involvement and satisfaction. In cases of cultural alienation, tourists adopted cultural adaptation strategies, including negotiation (R12) and cultural learning (R27), reducing discomfort while deepening cultural understanding. These strategies demonstrate tourists’ active role in managing emotional challenges in slow tourism and their capacity to reshape both their experiences and emotions through purposeful action.
Emotion-focused coping
When situations were difficult to change, tourists resorted to emotion-focused coping strategies. For example, when experiencing regret, they used positive reappraisal, such as viewing unmet goals as motivation for future travel (R4) or redefining the current experience to reduce emotional distress (R9). In adapting to the slower pace, some tourists transformed initial boredom into opportunities for quiet self-reflection, such as experiencing relaxation and nostalgia through sitting still or observing their surroundings (R7). Some also expressed their emotions through activities such as journaling, which helped them restore emotional balance (R27). When confronted with cultural alienation, tourists adopted acceptance and cognitive adaptation by embracing language differences and observing local daily life with an open mind, thereby reducing unfamiliarity and strengthening cultural connection (R12).
Consequences tendency
Behavioural intentions
Tourists’ revisit intentions were shaped by both positive and negative emotions. Nostalgia encouraged revisits to places tied to personal memories: ‘This brings back the taste of when I was little. I’m coming back with my mom during the Spring Festival’ (R22). Calm and healing also motivated revisits, particularly among those under high levels of stress (R4). Regret over incomplete experiences, such as those caused by weather, acted as compensatory motivation: ‘I couldn’t explore because of the rain, so I’ll come back another time’ (R10). Intentions to recommend were primarily associated with positive emotions and took two forms: direct recommendations and social sharing. Some expressed direct recommendations, for example, ‘I would recommend my friends to experience such a calm ancient town’ (R7). Others shared their experiences on social media platforms: ‘I just posted a few photos on Rednote – empty scenes of the river, old houses, and a pot of tea’ (R20). Consumption intentions were shaped by both positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions led to commemorative purchases that preserved the experience as memory, while negative emotions triggered compensatory purchases to ease regret and validate the visit despite unmet goals. For example, respect for an elderly craftsman's skill prompted the intention to purchase (R16), while another who could not explore the town due to rain bought local snacks to compensate for the missed experience (R10).
Psychological reflection
Emotional experiences in slow tourism, especially calm, healing, and reflection, prompt tourists to re-evaluate fast-paced, attraction-oriented travel and adopt a slower and immersive mode of travel. Sensory immersion fostered deeper connections, leading participants to value meaningful encounters over efficiency. As one tourist noted, ‘Before, I only remembered having been there; now it is the environment, the atmosphere, and the feelings that stay with me’ (R24). These experiences extend beyond travel, prompting reflection on lifestyle and family bonds. Calm and mindfulness led tourists to question efficiency-driven routines: ‘That one hour I spent sitting quietly by the river…made me realize we’re always trying to prove our worth by staying busy, but we forget what life is about’ (R10). The low-pressure environment heightened awareness of family bonds, as one tourist remarked, ‘Watching an elderly couple making rice cakes reminded me I haven’t seen my wife and children in four months’ (R21).
Discussion and implications
Discussion
Contrary to existing tourism studies that have largely focused on the outcomes of tourists’ emotional experiences, for example, satisfaction, loyalty and well-being (Al-okaily et al., 2023; Bagheri et al., 2024), this study redirects attention towards the processes through which such experiences are generated. Drawing on CAT as the theoretical foundation, within the context of slow tourism, where immersive engagement with built, natural and sociocultural settings is central to the tourist experience, this study explores how tourists’ appraisals shape the formation of emotional experiences. By identifying a two-stage appraisal process (primary and secondary) that produces differentiated emotional responses and initiates coping strategies, this study establishes a process-oriented understanding of tourist emotion. These insights extend beyond outcome-focused perspectives and provide a theoretical basis for rethinking the role of appraisal in shaping both behavioural intentions and reflective psychological shifts.
In this study, agency and responsibility attributions were often interpreted through contextually embedded meanings and normative expectations. Participants frequently attributed unsatisfactory experiences to their own preparation or effort (e.g. inadequate planning or insufficient engagement) and tended to adopt compensatory rather than confrontational coping strategies. This pattern is broadly consistent with cross-cultural research suggesting that responsibility-oriented interpretations and socially embedded emotions (e.g. guilt and shame) may be more prominent in some East Asian settings (Ni et al., 2025), and that anger may be less openly expressed in certain interpersonal contexts (Ge, 2025). Within CAT, controllability appraisals are commonly linked to responsibility attributions and subsequent action tendencies (Sufi et al., 2024). Our findings suggest that, in this context, shared expectations about responsibility influence whether unsatisfactory experiences are attributed inwardly or externally, and which coping responses (e.g. adjustment or confrontation) are considered appropriate. Rather than externalising blame, responsibility was often oriented inward or diffused across broader actors, and anger was rarely foregrounded. Instead, participants described reparative strategies such as re-planning, information seeking or seeking guidance from locals. We therefore interpret these patterns as reflecting culturally shared norms regarding responsibility attribution and appropriate coping within this slow-tourism setting.
From a CAT goal-congruence perspective, our findings indicate that the emotional meaning of calm depends on tourists’ goal orientations. Qiu et al. (2024) reported calm in situations where intended viewing goals were not realised; in such cases, calm may accompany goal incongruence, particularly when tourists seek more stimulating or exciting experiences. In our study, by contrast, calm was frequently described as a positive experience in this slow-tourism setting, often aligned with tourists’ aims of recovery and reflective immersion. We interpret this divergence through appraisal framing: when calm follows blocked instrumental goals, it reflects disengagement, whereas when it accompanies the attainment of motives for tranquillity in a low-arousal environment, it is experienced as rewarding. Participants frequently linked calm with motives of escape and tranquillity (Tsegaw, 2023) and with moments of goal congruence that typically produce positive affect (Lee et al., 2026). Within the CAT framework, the experience of calm reflects strong primary goal congruence combined with sufficient coping potential at the secondary appraisal stage, generating a low arousal but positively valenced state. Calm is therefore not inherently positive or negative; its valence is context-dependent, shaped by goals, appraisals and setting (Barrett, 2022). In this low-arousal tourism context, norms prioritising calmness and relational harmony may further bias appraisals towards interpreting calm as desirable, thus constituting a boundary condition for the generalisation of these findings.
Existing appraisal-based studies often define outcomes mainly in terms of behavioural intentions such as revisit and recommendation (e.g. Qiu et al., 2024; Su et al., 2026). Our analysis shows that, in slow-tourism contexts, appraisals also trigger reflective shifts in how tourists view travel practices and lifestyle orientations during on-site engagement. Calm was experienced as an immediate emotional benefit, often facilitated by an unhurried pace that enabled tourists to notice subtle cultural and environmental cues. For many participants, this calm state was accompanied by reflective moments, including reconsidering fast, consumption-driven travel and re-evaluating everyday routines and priorities. This pattern resonates with transformative tourism research suggesting that immersive experiences may foster reflection and meaning-oriented outcomes for some travellers (Fu et al., 2022). From a CAT perspective, appraisals of goal congruence and coping potential can be associated with affective responses that, in some accounts, were accompanied by behavioural intentions and reflective reconsideration. This study demonstrates the applicability of CAT for explaining emotion generation in low-arousal slow tourism contexts.
Theoretical implications
Three main theoretical contributions are offered in this study. First, the study explicates a complete appraisal-based mechanism of emotional generation in low-arousal tourism experiences, providing a process-level account of how emotions emerge, develop and acquire meaning in slow-paced tourism settings. As part of a relatively limited body of CAT-informed research examining low-arousal experiential contexts, it offers a fine-grained qualitative analysis of how established appraisal dimensions operate when interpreted through culturally embedded frames in a non-Western setting. Existing studies on tourism emotions have been largely grounded in Western settings, with limited attention to cultural diversity (Hosany et al., 2021; Klarin et al., 2023). The findings demonstrate that appraisal processes operate through culturally embedded interpretive frameworks. Empirically, collectivist value orientations inform how responsibility appraisals are distributed beyond the individual to collective actors such as communities or governing bodies, reflecting shared normative expectations that guide evaluative standards. Within this evaluative structure, low-arousal emotions such as calm and nostalgia arise when encounters are appraised as both goal-congruent and culturally meaningful and are experienced not merely as pleasurable states but as appraisal-based emotional formations linked to personal and social meaning. This mechanism becomes particularly apparent in contexts where cultural norms align with slow-paced environments, suggesting boundary conditions for its operation. By clarifying how culturally embedded appraisal processes generate low-arousal emotions, the study provides a foundation for advancing cross-cultural theorisation within CAT-informed tourism research.
Second, this study exposes the limits of treating slow tourism as reliably emotionally positive by revealing a structural divergence in low-arousal experience. This divergence emerges from differing appraisals of person–environment goal congruence, such that emotional outcomes arise from whether slow-paced encounters are evaluated as goal-congruent or incongruent. While slow tourism literature often associates slow tourism with well-being, reflection and restoration, the findings indicate that such outcomes arise when the pacing and social structure of the setting are appraised as compatible with tourists’ goals and desired level of engagement with slow-paced experiences. When low stimulation was evaluated as insufficient for desired engagement, boredom arose from a mismatch between personal goals and environmental pacing. Likewise, distinctive local cues could heighten perceived social and cultural distance, producing alienation rather than immersion. Rather than treating such emotions as minor exceptions, the study shows that they are integral to understanding how emotional meaning develops in slow tourism experiences. In this sense, slow tourism functions as an appraisal-dependent experiential context in which emotional outcomes are contingent on goal congruence rather than guaranteed by environmental pace. By clarifying this conditional structure, the study refines theoretical understandings of slow tourism and offers a more precise account of how emotional meaning is produced in low-arousal settings.
Third, the study moves beyond the positive–negative binary often used in CAT-informed tourism research to better account for the complexity of emotional experience. It conceptualises mixed emotions as arising from concurrent appraisals within the same experience, highlighting how tourists can hold multiple evaluative orientations toward a setting at once. Our findings indicate that slow tourism encounters frequently elicited simultaneous appraisals of congruence and incongruence, resulting in coexisting positive and negative affect. For example, cultural vibrancy could be appraised as enjoyable while certain built cues were simultaneously judged as historically incongruent; heritage features could elicit admiration alongside sadness in response to visible deterioration. These accounts demonstrate that appraisal dimensions can operate in parallel rather than being reduced to a single dominant evaluation, producing mixed emotional experiences grounded in the co-occurrence of positive and negative appraisals within the same situational frame. This layered appraisal structure suggests that tourism emotions should not be assumed to be singular but may reflect multiple evaluations operating at the same time. Slow-tourism encounters, by encouraging sustained attention to cultural and environmental cues, appear to intensify this concurrent appraisal process, helping explain why mixed emotions are especially likely in low-arousal contexts. By clarifying this multi-layered emotional structure, the study refines how CAT is applied in tourism by showing that emotional experience in slow tourism settings may be structurally layered rather than unitary.
Practical implications
This study offers practical implications for destination managers by showing that slow tourism should be approached not simply as a set of destination attributes, but as an experience shaped by how visitors interpret pace, atmosphere and opportunities for engagement. While these qualities may appeal to tourists seeking slower, more reflective or restorative experiences, they may also generate boredom or disappointment when the experience seems limited or when promotional messages create expectations that the destination cannot fulfil. This managerial paradox has implications at three levels: strategy, experience design and governance.
At the strategic level, more precise segmentation and expectation management are essential. The findings suggest that emotional responses in slow tourism depend less on destination attributes than on whether visitors perceive the experience as fitting their travel goals. Accordingly, destination management organisations (DMOs) should position such sites not simply as heritage attractions, but as destinations suited to slower-paced and more engaged forms of travel. This requires moving beyond broad promises such as ‘healing’ or ‘escape’, which may attract visitors expecting immediate relief or guaranteed emotional benefits. Instead, strategic communication should make clearer what kinds of visitors and travel goals the destination is best suited to, including unhurried exploration, attention to everyday cultural detail, and experiences valued for atmosphere, rhythm, and gradual engagement with place rather than spectacle or a dense concentration of attractions. In practice, official websites, short-form videos, social media captions and itinerary suggestions should help align visitor expectations with what the destination can realistically offer. Messaging can signal that the destination is better suited to travellers seeking unhurried wandering, culturally grounded encounters and a break from fast-paced routines, while also making clear that the experience may feel understated to those expecting intensive sightseeing or constant stimulation. More precise segmentation can therefore reduce expectation mismatch and attract visitors whose goals are better aligned with what the destination can meaningfully offer.
At the level of product and experience design, the main managerial challenge is to prevent slower-paced experiences from being perceived as empty or boring, rather than assuming that the solution is simply to make the destination more eventful. The findings show that tourists valued calm when they could move at an unhurried pace, notice environmental and cultural details, and remain engaged without feeling rushed. By contrast, boredom was more likely when the destination was perceived as lacking structure, depth or meaningful ways of connecting with place. This suggests not so much a need for more activities as for spatial design, pacing and interpretation that help visitors recognise the value of more subtle experiences. Managers should consider how experiences unfold over time: where visitors slow down, what draws their attention, how opportunities to pause are created, and how local practices can be noticed and appreciated without being over-staged. In practice, this may involve walkable routes that encourage lingering, small rest areas without pressure to consume, and light interpretive support that draws attention to everyday cultural details, architectural features, waterways or seasonal rhythms. Experience enrichment should remain low pressure and may include brief resident-led interactions, craft or food demonstrations embedded in everyday settings, and self-guided routes organised around sensory or historical themes. Such interventions can help visitors stay engaged while preserving the slower rhythm of the destination.
At the governance level, slow tourism destinations need more adaptive forms of monitoring that combine digital tools with visitor feedback. Beyond traditional satisfaction surveys, managers should pay closer attention to the on-site conditions that shape how tourists appraise their experiences, including visitor density, disruptions to pace, commercial pressure and opportunities for meaningful engagement. Timely inputs, such as social media feedback, short post-visit comments, and simple on-site feedback tools, can help identify when the destination is experienced as calming and restorative and when visitors instead report boredom or alienation. This kind of evidence would support more timely adjustments to visitor flow, activity timing, interpretive support, and the balance between preservation and experience enhancement. Governance in slow tourism therefore needs to do more than balance development and conservation. It must also protect the slower pace, lower-pressure atmosphere and experiential qualities on which the destination's appeal depends. If handled carefully, these tensions may help destinations preserve what makes them distinctive while responding to the pressures of an increasingly homogenised tourism market.
Limitations and future research
This study has several limitations. First, while it offers insights from a developing-world context, the collectivist cultural orientation may have influenced how responsibility was attributed and how emotional responses were framed, highlighting the contextual nature of appraisal–emotion processes. Future studies should explore cross-cultural comparisons (e.g. collectivist vs. individualist settings) to assess whether appraisal dimensions like responsibility and coping potential yield consistent emotional outcomes. Second, as an exploratory qualitative study, the findings primarily outline appraisal processes without establishing causality. Future studies could adopt quantitative (e.g. surveys and SEM), experimental or longitudinal designs to capture the dynamic and causal nature of cognitive appraisals. Finally, despite efforts to enhance credibility through peer debriefing, interpretive subjectivity remains a limitation. Mixed-methods or experimental approaches could help isolate specific appraisal dimensions and test their effects on emotional outcomes across diverse tourism contexts.
Footnotes
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.