This systematic literature review synthesises literature on the impact of emotional, cognitive and technological mechanisms in tourist decision-making to fill gaps in neurotourism research.
Eighty-one peer-reviewed articles (1994–2025) were located and searched in Web of Science and Scopus and analysed using the assistance of the ADO (Antecedents- Decisions-Outcomes) framework.
We identified five high-level themes: neuroscience and decision-making; emotional and cognitive processes; service innovation; consumer use of social networks; and brand management with sustainability. The analysis suggests that the neurocognitive and affective understandings of tourism studies underwent a crucial shift in 2016, when the influence of emotion, technology and cognition, when integrated, determines tourism decisions.
For practitioners, this review offers guidance on designing tourism experiences that are emotionally engaging (based on sensory and affective stimuli). For researchers, the integrative ADO framework provides standardised measurement methods and methodological uniformity across neuroscience, psychology and behavioural economics in tourism/scenarios.
It is the first systematic literature review to combine neuroscientific measurement methods (fMRI, EEG, eye-tracking), emotional and cognitive psychology and service innovation within the ADO framework. It builds on previous research by showing how neurocognitive antecedents directly mediate experiential outcomes through technology-mediated social decision-making.
