Despite limited empirical support, vacations are marketed as beneficial for romantic partners. Using the self-expansion model as a foundation, we tested how self-expanding (e.g., novel, interesting, challenging) vacation experiences are associated with passion, physical intimacy, and relationship satisfaction. Study 1 (n = 238 partners) found that higher individual self-expanding experiences on vacations predicted higher post-vacation romantic passion and relationship satisfaction for couples traveling with their partners, but not those that did not travel together. Study 2 examined 102 romantic dyads that traveled together and found that higher self-expanding experiences on vacations predicted more post-vacation physical intimacy. Our findings advance self-expansion research and provide evidence for the tourism industry to design and promote self-expanding vacation experiences for couples seeking improved relationships and meaningful vacations.
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Due to the increase in the number of elderly and people seeking medical care, the hotel market with a blend of care and leisure experiences is expected to grow in the future (Han, 2013; Karuppan & Karuppan, 2010; Laesser, 2011). The role of care hotels as an intersection between the care and the tourism sectors makes a vacation in a care hotel an interesting social practice to study. In this contribution a social practices approach (Spaargaren, 1997) is applied to investigate how demand and supply interact during a care hotel vacation. Semi-structured interviews are used to identify successful and less successful interactions or practices between senior guests and personnel in five Dutch care hotels. These interactions are related to materials (care and leisure facilities), competences (skills and empathy of the personnel) and meanings (motivations and aspirations of guests) in the care hotel practice (see Shove et al., 2012). The results show that a social practice approach combined with a qualitative research method may be more suited to analysing the complex encounters between guests and personnel during care hotel vacations than more traditional theories from service or experience quality studies. Simultaneously, this study makes clear that we need to develop alternative qualitative (and/or quantitative) research methods to study more privacy-related or intimate practices or rituals as in the case of care hotels.
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Vacations offer a break from daily stressors but at the same time introduce challenges away from home. While the positive aspects of vacationing, especially individual benefits, are well documented, the challenges couples face and their psychological mechanisms and outcomes remain unexplored. This study investigated the effects challenges and challenge resolution might have on shared experiences and on relationship quality. We collected data from 100 romantic couples at major tourist destinations in the Netherlands in Spring 2024. Random intercept regression models showed that novelty is positively associated with positive emotions, passionate love, and feelings of connection with partner; and that challenges would take away some of these benefits. Interestingly, challenges were associated with self-expansion, a major predictor of long-term love and passion, especially when partially resolved. Positive emotions mediated some of these relationships. These findings highlight the importance and value of studying challenges and challenge resolution on vacations for relationship and experience quality.
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The Refined Core and Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning was used to guide our study of the link between vacation experiences of romantic couples and satisfaction with their relationship life. Results revealed that romantic couples who had more shared or joint experiences during their vacations in the previous year reported higher levels of satisfaction with their relationship life at the end of the year. This association was mediated by relationship functioning (i.e., couple cohesion and flexibility). The number of vacations was not a significant predictor of romantic couples’ satisfaction with relationship life; what mattered most was the extent to which partners were engaged in joint experiences during their vacations such as having fun together, mindful conversations, physical intimacy, and trying new things together. These findings demonstrate the need to continue to study less frequent, extraordinary leisure vacation experiences that may help maintain the love within romantic relationships. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed
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Informed by the Core and Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning, we investigated the contribution of one type of family leisure—couple vacations—in enhancing couples’ cohesion and flexibility (i.e., functioning). Studying dyadic data from 112 couples (224 individuals) from across the United States of America, results of multilevel models showed that the variable “shared experiences during vacations” was positively associated with couples’ day-to-day functioning at home. Couples who engaged in higher levels of shared experiences during their vacations, such as effective communication, showing affection, or experiencing new things together, reported higher levels of couple flexibility and cohesion following their vacations, regardless of the number of vacations. We discuss the implications of these results for couples who spend quality time together away from home, as well as future use of our study model when examining benefits of vacationing for families.
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Tourism experiences, also called vacations, are known to boost subjective well-being, although it has been argued that the effects are primarily affective in nature and short-lived. We argue that this is a methodological artifact due to the brief duration—1 year or less—of almost all extant longitudinal studies of tourism experience effects. Based on broaden-and-build and personal resource theories, we hypothesize that tourism experiences contribute to both affective and cognitive components of subjective well-being over a multi-year timespan. Using random intercept cross-lagged panel models, we tested these hypotheses in 8 years of panel data based on a representative sample of the population of the Netherlands. We found both between- and within-individual effects of vacation frequency on cognitive as well as affective well-being. More frequent vacationers experienced higher life satisfaction and lower negative affect, while the average participant also experienced slightly higher life satisfaction and positive affect following a year with higher vacation frequency. Increases in life satisfaction also predicted more frequent vacationing in a following year, consistent with an “upward spiral” pattern of improving well-being based on accumulation of positive experiences, as suggested by the broaden-and-build theory.
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Tourism experiences have been recognised for their power to change peoples’ lives. Termed transformational tourist experiences, these life-changing experiences have been conceptualised in terms of changes to individuals’ well-being, values, and goals. Yet, little is known about the potential of tourism experiences to induce changes in personality. Drawing on a nine-year longitudinal panel study in the Netherlands with 3292 responses from 1803 participants, we examined within-individual, between-occasion associations between vacation frequency, duration, and extraversion. More frequent and longer vacations were associated with increases in extraversion, and that this effect was partially mediated by the experience of meeting new people during vacations. These findings offer preliminary longitudinal evidence that vacation experiences can drive personality change, and position interpersonal novelty as a mechanism of transformation, extending theoretical understandings of personality malleability and the transformative potential of tourism.
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The section - Travel Psychology - contains 3 chapters. Chapter 1 starts by listing different types of travel constraints facing all citizens. For travelers who negotiate their travel constraints and are able to travel, two seminal models for tourism motivations are reviewed. First, the pull and push factors are mentioned along with examples. In a second model, travel motivations are categorized into traveling to gain something and, travelling to get away from something.After reviewing various travel constraints and motivations, Chapter 1 continues by discussing how travelers’ mood and tendencies at any given time could affect the type of travel destination they pursue – historical vs. natural vs. manmade; warm vs. cold; urban vs. country; crowded vs. quiet; familiar vs. novel vs arousing; and, the type of experiences and activities travelers pursue on their vacation. Also, the relationship between less dynamic personality traits and travel decision-makings are discussed: who to travel with, where to stay, what to do; perceived risks; and information seeking behavior. Chapter 1 ends by discussing how travel service providers could play a significant role in helping customers make more informed and authentic decisions that would eventually feed their psychological needs, wants, and wellbeing. This wellbeing perspective to travel is contrasted with a service quality and money-driven perspective in tourism industry and research. Chapter 2 starts by reviewing the fundamentals of the science of positive psychology, defining wellbeing, happiness, and quality of life, and how tourism could be accounted as one element linked to all the above. A page is dedicated to memorable tourism experiences and its different dimensions such as hedonic and eudaimonic experiences, and how some of these memorable experiences positively impact travelers’ subjective wellbeing. In the core of chapter 2, travelers’ diverse needs are discussed under: (a) physiological needs such as quality and attractive local food and drinks, physical activity, and adequate sleep on vacations; (b) mental needs including topics such as expressing emotions before, during, and after vacation, causes and fluctuations of emotions; mood regulations on vacations; mindfulness; technology use; stress recovery mechanisms during vacations namely relaxation, detachment, control, mastery; and optimal challenge and flow states for individuals and group of travelers; (c) interpersonal needs of the traveler including interaction with host community, service providers, and other travelers, e.g., joint experiences of romantic partners and family members. Throughout chapter 2, how service providers and experience designers could more effectively monitor, identify, and address these physiological, mental, and social needs are thoroughly discussed. Moreover, evidence and research-based travel tips are offered to general travelers for observing, attending to, appreciating, and enhancing positive emotions during the anticipation phase of a vacation, during the actual trip, on the way home, and up to two weeks post-vacation. A small section at the end of Chapter 2 is devoted to the psychology of holidays and staycations for employees with stressful jobs. Chapter 3 discusses how small occasions during vacations can accumulate and sometimes have long-term psychological effects on travelers. This chapter reviews the psychological of souvenirs, savoring, and photography on vacations. It continues by talking about the concepts of self-awareness, learning, growth, meaning and transformation, related to vacations, using examples. Chapter 3 ends by encouraging travel planners and designers to invest in long-term benefits of vacations.This handbook contains a total of 42 chapters on a range of topics aimed at educating employees at tourism service providers in Iran. This book is in press and distribution, and will be the official source for the national exam for the national travel agency certification in Iran. Topics of this book include the following: tour design and operations, travel psychology, air travel, tour marketing, human resource management, accounting, travel technology, travel start-ups, strategic management, and ethics.
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