Author Identifier (ORCID)
Pieter Jan Bezemer: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2006-9959
Eerang Park: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0495-7128
Sangkyun Kim: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2746-9952
Abstract
Curiosity increasingly attracts attention in tourism research. However, the field remains conceptually fragmented around what curiosity is and how it works, often pointing to related yet different understandings of the concept. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of 61 peer-reviewed articles, we aim to build a more coherent agenda for future research by answering two core questions: how has curiosity been conceptualised and studied in tourism research, and what gaps and directions emerge from the literature? The analysis reveals that curiosity has been studied in four primary ways in tourism research: an innate motivational driver, a situational mediating state, an outcome state, and a basis for profiling tourist segments. The review also reveals a strong reliance on quantitative methods and limited methodological diversity. This review offers an integrated perspective on the role of curiosity in tourism and identifies opportunities for greater conceptual clarity, methodological breadth, and contextual nuance in future research.
Keywords
cognitive psychology, curiosity in tourism, psychological drivers, tourist behaviour, tourist engagement
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
9-1-2026
Volume
63
Publication Title
Tourism Management Perspectives
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Business and Law
RAS ID
95135
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Comments
Langmann, S., Bezemer, P., Park, E., & Kim, S. (2026). Curiosity in tourism: A review and future directions. Tourism Management Perspectives, 63, 101482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2026.101482