Емоционалният дизайн в туризма – инструмент за кроскултурна комуникация и стратегическо управление на изживяванията

Abstract

This paper examines emotional design as a key element in shaping culturally sensitive and engaging tourist experiences in the highly globalized context of the 21st century. Emotional design is presented as a multidimensional framework that operates on visceral, behavioral, and reflective levels, influencing tourists’ perceptions long before cognitive interpretation occurs. The study highlights the cultural relativity of emotional experiences and demonstrates how tourists from different cultural backgrounds interpret the same stimuli differently due to their cultural norms, emotional regimes, and symbolic systems. Several case studies are analyzed—Japan’s omotenashi, Disneyland, Louvre Abu Dhabi, and Bulgarian ethnographic complexes—to illustrate distinct mechanisms of emotional design rooted in local cultural logic. The paper also addresses critical challenges such as emotional manipulation, the loss of authenticity, and the risk of global standardization of experiences. It considers the impact of contemporary technologies, including VR and AI, on the emotional structuring of tourism.