Can't we all just get along? Emotions and the team guiding experience in adventure tourism

•Seminal investigation of the emotional experience of adventure guiding in teams.•Applies psychological theory to understand adventure guide interactions and experiences.•Demonstrates a rigorous methodological approach to analytical autoethnography.•Recommendations for guide management, organisational culture, and communities of practice.•Identifies the need for future research on guide experiences beyond client satisfaction outcomes.

Despite the volume of research identifying the importance of experiences and emotions in consumption and the impact of tour guide behavior on client experiences, investigations of guide experiences in adventure tourism destinations are limited. In particular, the impact of guide-to-guide interactions, rather than guide-to-client interactions, on experiences is needed. This study investigated interpersonal interactions and emotional experiences that occurred while working in a river guiding team in an adventure tourism destination. Critical incident data was collected by an adventure tourism guide over 112 days and used to inductively analyse emotional experiences and patterns in guide-to-guide relations. Findings highlighted potential factors associated with the experience of both positive and, more frequently, negative basic emotions in the adventure team guiding interactions in this study. This investigation appears to be the first analysis of the emotional experience of team guiding in adventure settings. The importance of studying guide interactions, implications of the findings for tourism destination management and operators, and future research directions are discussed.