Tourist Experience and Fulfilment

Insights from Positive Psychology

Sebastian Filep, Philip Pearce

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136482076
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Consumer Behaviour
• Index: Business

What makes life worth living? Many people would argue that it is fulfilling experiences. These experiences are characterised by feelings of joy and pleasure, positive relationships and a sense of engagement, meaning and achievement. Tourism is arguably one of the largest self-initiated commercial interventions to promote well being and happiness on the global scale but yet there is absence in the literature on the topic of fulfilling tourist experiences from psychological perspectives.Drawing on insights and theories from the research field of positive psychology (the study of well being), this is the first edited book to evaluate tourist experiences from positive psychology perspectives. The volume addresses the important topic of fulfilment through the lens of the world's largest social global phenomenon tourism. In doing so, the book refreshes and challenges some aspects of tourist behaviour research. The chapters are grouped under three broad sections which reflect a range of positive psychological outcomes that personal holiday experiences can produce, namely; happiness and humour; meaning and self-actualisation and health and restoration. The book critically explores these fulfilling experiences from interdisciplinary perspectives and includes research studies from wide range of geographical regions. By analysing the contemporary fulfilling tourist experiences the book will provide further understanding of tourist behaviour and experience.Written by leading academics this significant volume will appeal to those interested in Tourism and Positive Psychology.

1 Introducing tourist experience and fulfilment research

Sebastian Filep and Philip Pearce

Our research problem

Towards the end of 2012 the United Nations World Tourism Organisation provided a press release signifying that one billion tourists had crossed international borders during the year (UNWTO, 2012). Undoubtedly this figure will be quoted and re-quoted by tourism students and scholars as they use it to justify, albeit indirectly, the significance of their work. The attention to the statistic of one billion tourists at the start of this book is much more circumspect. It is difficult to provide coherent generalisations about even one million tourists, let alone one billion, even when they are from the same demographic segments and from the same country. It is therefore appropriate to identify our interests in the topic of tourist experience and fulfilment as consistently localised and specific. Our broad intention in this book is to highlight the way well-defined groups of tourists travelling in particular ways to specific kinds of tourist places develop their sense of well-being.

This sense of purpose is not apologetic or necessarily limiting for the scope of the work. A persistent and mindful appreciation however that each chapter describes a component part of the total tourism jigsaw is important. A prevailing awareness that each study and treatment of tourist experience and fulfilment is specific might prevent the problem of researchers seeing contradictions across studies where none really exist. A focus on the context and an awareness of tourism as a variegated phenomenon is also a healthy reminder that many tourist groups remain to be studied as we apply the concepts of positive psychology to tourists' personal growth and well-being. Couch surfing tourists and those who volunteer their time for altruistic purposes are a part of the jigsaw of fulfilment opportunities but so too and in different ways are the package tourists emerging from the growth tourism markets of India and China.

In the following chapters the multiple personal benefits which people may realise through tourism are considered. Insights from the theories and methods of positive psychology help define the special contribution of the work (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). The book seeks to complement the vast body of knowledge on health and wellness in tourism (Voigt and Pforr, 2013). The work reported in the following chapters also complements emerging traditions of research on transformative travel (Reisinger, 2013) and experience economy perspectives on personally enriching consumption processes (Gilmore and Pine, 2002; Morgan et al., 2010). In these contributions, however, authors often do not access the core literature in psychology that underpins this volume (Pearce and Packer, 2012). As such, we aim to enrich investigations of quality of life and tourist behaviour from psychological standpoints such as those offered by Neal et al. (2007) and contemporary work in leisure studies on accentuating the positive value of leisure behaviour (Stebbins, 2011; Freire, 2013). Drawing on insights and theories from the research field of positive psychology, this edited volume presents 12 original research chapters investigating fulfilling tourist experiences. The work has a positive, optimistic and potentially personally rewarding tone. It forms a contrast to the more extensive research into so-called ‘dark tourist’ experiences, such as those involving visits to battlegrounds and places of genocide (Dann, 1998; Stone and Sharpley, 2008; Institute for Dark Tourism Research, 2013).

According to the Oxford dictionary, fulfilment is ‘the achievement of something desired, promised, or predicted’ or a ‘satisfaction or happiness as a result of fully developing one's potential’. It is further defined as the meeting of a requirement, condition or need (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013). Fulfilment is therefore a broad term that encompasses diverse aspects of well-being and this broad definition fits the labels of the part titles in this book. The happiness and humour, and meaning and self-actualisation parts respectively resemble the hedonic and the eudaimonic conception of well-being, suggesting that tourist experiences are clearly not just about hedonism, but a sense of achievement, meaning and purpose in life. The health and restoration parts fit the physical well-being dimension of fulfilment. Before we outline the book structure in more detail, we address research challenges which need to be considered in empirical examinations of tourist experience and fulfilment through the lenses of positive psychology.

Our research challenges

First, there is the challenge of defining key terms, such as happiness – a subject of one of the part headings in our volume. Holt (2006) in his review of McMahon's book, Happiness: A History, argues in jest that the history of the idea of happiness could be thought of in terms of a series of bumper stickers: happiness – luck (Homeric era), happiness – virtue (Classical era), happiness – heaven (Medieval era), happiness – pleasure (Enlightenment era) and happiness – warm puppy (Contemporary era). He argues that in each era societies have had their own interpretation of happiness. The reality of clearly defining happiness is a far more intricate process than the bumper stickers would suggest and the nature of happiness has puzzled Western and non-Western philosophers for more than two millennia (Tatarkiewicz, 1976).

Kesebir and Diener (2008) suggest, however, that while modern psychologists cannot hope to define happiness to everyone's satisfaction, they have uncovered coherent and separate components of subjective well-being. These components include life satisfaction (global judgements of one's life), satisfaction with important life domains (satisfaction with one's work, health, marriage, etc.), positive affect (prevalence of positive emotions and moods) and low levels of negative affect (prevalence of unpleasant emotions and moods). There are also more prescriptive and less subjective theories that specify certain needs that have to be fulfilled (such as self-acceptance and mastery) as a prerequisite of happiness. These theories, such as Ryff and Singer's (1996) concept of psychological well-being, and Ryan and Deci's (2001) self-determination theory are more akin to the eudaemonist flourishing theories of happiness of the classical era, like those of Aristotle (Tiberius, 2006). Both conceptions of happiness – the subjective well-being conception and the eudaemonist conception – have been utilised by researchers to help define happiness of tourists (Nawijn, 2011; Filep, 2012). Any academic attempts at defining happiness in the context of tourist experiences, hence must take into account these theories of happiness. Therefore while a formulaic definition of happiness may not exist and while we recognise the complexity of the term, we rest on the shoulders of the subjective well-being and the eudaemonist theories (e.g. Ryan and Deci, 2001; Seligman, 2011). Happiness is mostly, if not entirely, a conscious state of mind (Veenhoven, 2000). A consistent approach in this volume from the authors has been to address research challenge of defining happiness by referring to the theories of happiness from modern psychology.

The second challenge we faced in this empirical examination related to the variability of tourist experiences. Sharpley and Stone (2012, p. 7) argue:

the tourism-happiness equation is infinitely variable; people consume tourism in numerous different ways and for a multitude of different reasons, whilst the source of happiness or contentedness undoubtedly varies significantly from one person to another. Therefore, there is no simple answer to the question: is to experience tourism to experience happiness?

We have addressed this second research challenge of variability by recognising that tourist experiences are diverse but also by recognising that we are able to imperfectly bring together our empirical contributions under a single umbrella of tourist experience and fulfilment. Much of tourist behaviour is indeed complex and variable, yet our colleagues have over the years developed many conceptual schemes and theoretical models to study the tourist experience (Ryan, 2002; Morgan et al., 2010). Research on the complex state of flow (optimal state of meeting a challenge) has received much empirical focus in tourism and leisure (Ryan, 1995; Han et al., 2005), yet we know flow is a deeply subjective state, comprising immediate conscious dimensions such as time transformation or unambiguous feedback (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). So while the experience of happiness might include a strong degree of subjectivity which would make it variable and hard to study empirically, the tourism research problem is not very different to that characterising the studies on leisure and flow. Sharpley and Stone (2012) highlight the perspective that people consume tourism for a multitude of different reasons and in numerous ways. Their argument effectively implies that we cannot study such variable systems. It is our argument that it is possible to respect diversity and to study diversity. Some guidance here for studies of fulfilment reside in the study of motivation. Certainly tourists vary in their motives but there are patterns of motives which can be identified for coherent clusters of tourists (Pearce, 2005, 2011). Certainly we have persevered with the study of tourist motivation for decades despite the challenges (Harrill and Potts, 2002; Hsu and Huang, 2008). The infinite variability argument need not be a permanent impediment to the study of human experiences. Social scientists have studied the complexities of variable human behaviour for centuries and have been able to develop insights in many complex topic areas. It is the contention of this volume that contexts do matter and variability must be recognised but tourist experience and happiness or fulfilment studies can be assembled in ways which provide some coherent overviews of the forces involved. An overview of key themes the editors see as emerging from the research chapters will be presented in the concluding chapter.

A third research challenge also shapes the style of work in this volume. A persistent challenge lies in reconciling the relationship between tourism as a commercial phenomenon and greater well-being of those who travel. Some would argue tourist experiences are about consumption and consumption has been linked to depression – not happiness or greater fulfilment (DeLeire and Kalil, 2010). While we agree that consumption is an often inescapable part of tourism (as reported in Tourists, Tourism and the Good Life; Pearce et al., 2011) we are hesitant to suggest the totality of tourism leads to depression because materialism is linked to depression (Kasser, 2002). It will be noted in several of the research chapters that the tourist experience often leads to higher subjective well-being levels compared to non-tourist experiences. Occasionally holidays result in enhanced levels of eudaimonic well-being. It is useful here to distinguish tourism from other forms of consumption and perhaps part of the reason for this paradox about tourism is that while most people may trade in an old vehicle for a better vehicle, many may be hesitant to trade in their holiday memories. Tourist experiences are simply not commercial commodities like bars of soap or old vehicles even though many tourist experiences may involve shopping for tangible goods.

The fourth research challenge is sometimes raised by critical tourism scholars (Higgins-Desbiolles and Whyte, 2013). The argument is that tourism is an activity that is simply outside the reach of many people, so why should we worry about the well-being of those privileged few who can afford to travel? There are, in research terms, always other problems and topics which might be seen as more valuable or ethical areas of endeavour that are seen to matter more than others (Becher and Trowler, 2001; Thouless, 1938). We can however report that there can be direct and indirect benefits to studying the well-being of tourists. A better understanding of what makes certain groups of tourists value their experiences may lead to a more complete understanding of the inadequacies as well as the strengths of current tourism practices. There are then consequences here not just for tourists but for communities, business and the very heart of positive health and sustainability. As editors we have addressed one component of this challenge by asking contributors to report on a diverse set of tourist experiences in this volume. We do not advocate expensive, environmentally destructive or indulgent long-haul travel. Packer's research chapter for example reports on benefits of tourist experiences in parks and gardens – experiences that are arguably affordable and accessible to a diverse cohort of individuals. Positive psychology is not a psychology of luxury whose benefits accrue to the rich and the untroubled but is for everyone (Seligman, 2011). We have also recently commenced a research initiative that examines well-being derived from tourist experiences by underprivileged minority groups (Filep and Bereded-Samuel, 2012). In fact Sharpley and Stone (2012) highlight that the cost of holiday may not be related to the level of happiness it generates; subsequently, a cheap holiday may in fact lead to considerable happiness.

Sharpley and Stone (2012) also suggest people may travel out of habit and they question if habit can be equated to happiness. For us a more important question here is what kind of behaviours do people engage in when they habitually travel? Clearly some tourist habits are destructive as they are personally addictive and bad for the environment – for example ‘binge flying’ or travelling frequently and to many different destinations (Cohen et al., 2011). There are, however, many potentially beneficial tourist habits which have received limited empirical focus, such as the use of humour with travel companions (Mitas et al., 2012) or acts of kindness, generosity and gratitude in numerous cross cultural tourist–host situations (Duckworth et al., 2005). The view that tourists can learn to cultivate positive habits should not be dismissed as necessarily naïve optimism or a defence of the commercial tourism business. Some ‘habits’ that characterise some of the positive tourist experiences have changed in recent years, consumer consciousness towards pro-environment actions are an example, and some are documented in this volume. A biochemist turned Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard, argues we can train our minds in habits of well-being to generate a sense of fulfilment (TED, 2012); we therefore reiterate the comments made by Csikszentmihalyi in the foreword, that tourism lends itself to a variety of interventions that might add a great deal to the overall quality of life.

Our research team

Our team includes a growing international team of scholars who study tourist experiences from a positive psychology perspective. As editors we have tried to incorporate contributions by senior as well as emerging scholars, male and female researchers and from various countries. Our friends and colleagues – authors of this volume are: Dr Mieke Witsel, Ms Zoë Alexander, Dr Ali Bakir, Ms Anja Pabel, Dr Jenny Panchal, Dr Jan Packer, Dr Xavier Matteucci, Dr Christina Hagger, Dr Duncan Murray, Mr Rob Saunders, Dr Jennifer Laing, Professor Betty Weiler, Dr Jessica de Bloom, Professor Sabine Geurts, Professor Michael Kompier, Professor Gábor Mich...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introducing tourist experience and fulfilment research
• Part I Happiness and humour
• Part II Meaning and self-actualisation
• Part II Health and restoration
• Index