Beyond slowness: Exploring destination stimuli and tourists' emotional connections in slow tourism

The present study investigated how tourists engage with destination stimuli to construct emotional connections with a place. Guided by Lazarus' cognitive appraisal theory (CAT), this interpretive qualitative study adopted a constructivist paradigm and hybrid thematic analysis to explore emotional experiences in a Chinese slow tourism (ST) context. The present study identified five types of stimuli, namely, the built environment, the natural environment, the social environment, events and products, and the brand-related effect, underpinning three emotional connections, namely, temporal-spatial reconstruction, healing, and anti-consumerism. Emotion was viewed as an active, meaning-making process rather than a passive reaction. The present study challenges the conventional interpretation of emotion as a static psychological state by reconceptualising the core concept of "slowness" in ST as a subjective appraisal shaped by cognitive and emotional engagement. It offers an analytical framework for emotion-oriented tourism research by linking the identification of inductive stimuli with cognitive appraisals. The present study also highlights strategies prioritising authentic restoration, tourist-led storytelling, and community co-governance, offering an alternative to branding and top-down management.