Do
we have a long-term sense of being, direction in life and wellbeing
because of travel and tourism? Tourism psychology research has
previously been concerned with tourist motivation, behaviour in and
satisfaction with destination but new research explores how tourism
might affect people’s perceptions.
This article Does Tourism Change our Lives published in Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research
looks at previous research to explain the difference of this new
research, it investigates people’s perceptions using four focus group
discussions, MUNSH methods, Oxford Happiness Inventory and Oxford
Happiness Questionnaires.
With
83 million Chinese travellers in 2012 (UNWTO) this research has been
tailored to China, split between those that have travelled outside of
mainland China in the previous 12 month and those that haven’t. Analysis
has been carried out from the results of 682 questionnaires and ten
themes that were used in the focus discussion groups.
The
article concludes that although there are further areas to be looked
into such as the distanced travelled, destination, how tourism affects
people in their everyday life, motivation and satisfaction, travel and
tourism does impact younger people enabling this generation to better
cope with the modern day pressure and the rapidly changing world,
acquiring a more positive life outlook.
