Changes in tourists’ perception of well-being based on their use of emotion regulation strategies during vacation

ABSTRACT

Based on the theoretical foundation of emotion regulation, this exploratory study aimed to examine changes in tourists’ perceived well-being and to determine whether these changes were due to use of emotion regulation strategies (ERSs) during their vacation. This study used travel diaries to record tourists’ use of ERSs on a daily basis, and also measured tourists’ perceived well-being one day before and after their vacation. Results indicated that tourists had significantly higher perceptions of well-being after vacation, and those who used ERSs were more likely to indicate a higher sense of well-being after vacation. The results provide new insight into which aspects of tourists’ subjective and psychological well-being can be boosted by taking vacations and how these aspects may be enhanced by using different ERSs.     

How will multifaceted trust impact domestic travel during the COVID-19 pandemic and subjective well-being? A comparison between Korea and the US

This study examines the impact of extended tourist trust constructs on domestic travel experiences, subjective well-being, and future travel intention in the pandemic. Data was obtained through a survey conducted on 1181 Korean and American domestic tourists. The results show that policy trust and destination trust have positive effects on travel frequency and satisfaction. Moreover, interactional trust positively impacted travel satisfaction. While both travel frequency and travel satisfaction have positive impacts on subjective well-being of travelers, travel satisfaction has a stronger impact on subjective well-being than travel frequency. However, certain relationships were influenced by national backgrounds (U·S vs. Korea).     

Effects of recovery experiences on hotel employees’ subjective well-being

This study focuses on the occupational well-being process in the formation of hotel employees’ subjective well-being based on the recovery experience scale (RES). More specifically, the study (1) evaluates the construct validity of the RES in the hotel sector and (2) examines structural relationships between the RES, organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), job dedication (JOD), career satisfaction (CAS), and life satisfaction (LIS) in a heuristic model. To test the hypotheses, a total of 376 hotel employees were considered in an empirical analysis using a two-step SEM approach. The results verify sufficient validity for the four RES factors and reveal that all recovery experiences, namely psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery experiences, and control, predicted OBSE. In addition, OBSE had positive effects on JOD, CAS, and LIS, and JOD and CAS had significant positive effects on LIS. These results have important implications, and the study's limitations provide some interesting avenues for future research.     

Family Vacation Activities and Family Cohesion

Family is an important unit of individuals seeking experiences together during vacation. This consumptive unit deserves explicit attention not only because of its market size but also because of ramifications of family vacation on family functioning. This study explores the interplay of vacation activity patterns and family cohesion. It reveals a taxonomy of four types of family travelers with respect to their patterns of activities and needs for cohesion. They are “bonded and nature seeking”; “attached and enthusiastic”; “self-directed and recreation oriented”; and “sociable but static” family travelers. This research provides empirical evidences for the proposition that vacation activities are valuable contributors to family cohesion. Implications are provided pertaining to the development of quality family vacation programs and enhancement of family life satisfaction.     

Holiday recovery experiences,tourism satisfaction and life satisfaction – Is there a relationship?

This research examines the relationships between holiday recovery experiences and life satisfaction through mediating variables of tourism satisfaction. Derived from a sample of 777 American respondents, it was found that individuals who were able to control what they want to do, feel relaxed and detached from work, and have new and challenging experiences during a holiday vacation were more likely to be satisfied with their holiday experiences and their life in general. The paper concludes with recommendations for the success of tourism businesses as well as the enhancement of tourists' senses of well-being.     

Holiday taking decisions – The role of spouses

Grounded in part the previous literature on household decision making and in part in the literature on tourism decision making, this paper tries to add to the literature by surveying Turkish academics with respect to spousal purchase decisions. In particular, the study assesses the decision tactics used for several consumer goods including vacation and travel and the link between decision tactics and consumer satisfaction/likelihood to produce positive word of mouth. The study findings confirm that spousal opinions matter and that compromise is a commonly used tactic, regardless of their features of durability (e.g. car, furniture) or non-durability (e.g. vacation, eating out), followed by the introduction of persuasion as the next most powerful tactic. Compromise is also positively associated with the level of consumer/tourist satisfaction with the product and the intention to recommend.     

A Conservation of Resources schema for exploring the influential forces for air-travel stress

Effective air-travel stress management is increasingly crucial in determining tourist satisfaction and travel choices, particularly in a time of intensive fear about virus, terrorism, and plane crashes. However, research about air-travel stress, particularly what and how various influential forces shape passenger stress levels, is still in its infancy. The current research proposes the adoption of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory as a holistic schema to identify through resource dynamics the potential influential forces for air-travel stress across leisure travel stages. The findings, based on surveying passengers at the gate of multi-country international and domestic airports, demonstrates the capability of COR schema to predict and explain the influences on air-travel stress from an array of personal and situational/trip-specific factors. The theoretical advances from COR-based cross-stage stress analyses, and the guidance for customized airline/airport stress-soothing service strategies are discussed.     

How the COVID-19 pandemic affected hotel Employee stress: Employee perceptions of occupational stressors and their consequences

This study sought to examine the impacts of the global coronavirus pandemic on hotel employees’ perceptions of occupational stressors and their consequences. Paired t-tests and structural equation modeling were applied to examine the responses of 758 hotel employees in the United States. The findings showed that occupational stressors after the outbreak of the pandemic consisted of three domains: traditional hotel-work stressors, unstable and more demanding hotel-work-environment stressors, and unethical hotel-labor-practices-borne stressors. The impacts of these stressors differed from the hypothesis that traditional hotel-work stressors positively affect job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The findings showed that job satisfaction and organizational commitment significantly explained job performance, subjective well-being, and prosocial behavior, but they did not significantly influence turnover intention. Hotel employees’ pre-pandemic perceptions of occupational stressors and their consequences also differed significantly from their perceptions after the pandemic had broken out.     

The Effect of Length of Stay on Travelers' Perceived Satisfaction with Service Quality

SUMMARY

Consumer satisfaction related to service quality during the vacation experience is of paramount importance to the travel and tourism industry. This study tests empirically the effects the number of nights spent on a vacation have on the levels of satisfaction recent travelers report for three service aspects of the travel destination: perceived satisfaction with tourism service providers; perceived “freedom from defects” of tourism services; and perceived reasonableness of the cost of tourism services. Differentiation in satisfaction scores between “short-term visitors” (i.e., those who stayed from one to six nights) and “long-term visitors” (i.e., those who stayed seven or more nights) were examined. Significant differences between the two groups of visitors were present for (1) perceived satisfaction with industry professionals delivering the service experience at the travel destination, (2) perceived satisfaction with “freedom from defects” of the actual services at the destination, and (3) perceived reasonableness of the cost of services at the travel destination. Suggestions for how tourism industry professionals can make use of this information are presented.     

Does Tourism Change Our Lives?

Does tourism change our lives? The mainstream of tourism psychology research is mostly concerned with tourist motivation, behavior in and satisfaction with destination, and few studies explore how tourism might affect people's perceptions of themselves, home, neighborhood, work, friends, relatives, and life in general. This study seeks insights into the effect and influence of travel and tourism on people, not momentary impact during vacation but longer-term impact in terms of sense of being, direction in life, and well-being. It is found that there are positive changes in the perception of life among Chinese travelers in general and the perception changes among travelers are significantly stronger than the perception changes among the control group of non-travelers. There is clear evidence that travelers feel more positive than non-travelers in their general well-being, attitude toward life, sense of control, and outlook.     

Eudaimonic and hedonic well-being pattern changes: Intensity and activity

How well-being changes over the course of a vacation is unclear. Particular understudied areas include the eudaimonic dimension of well-being, the comparison between eudaimonia and hedonia, and the role of activity type. Using an integrated model, two studies which combined survey and experiment were conducted to examine the change patterns of eudaimonia and hedonia, the difference of change patterns between eudaimonia and hedonia, and the moderating role of activity type. Hedonia and eudaimonia both significantly changed via a ‘first rise then fall’ change tendency over the course of a vacation. Compared to hedonia, eudaimonia has lower change intensity over the course of a vacation; eudaimonia achieved in a challenging (vs. relaxing) activity is more. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Effect of cultural distance on tourism: A study of pleasure visitors in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the effect of cultural distance on pleasure visitors, mainly vacation overnight visitors, in Hong Kong. Secondary data on 10 source markets are extracted from the annual report of visitor profile 2014 published by Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB). The data are compared to recognize the influence cultural distance can have on visitor profiles and trip characteristics, including travel patterns, expenditure, and satisfaction levels. Deteriorating effects ascribed to cultural distance are clearly observed in the following three important aspects: repeated visit, length of stay, and expenditure; however, these effects do not extend to all aspects. Therefore, cultural distance may be used to complement physical distance in order to explain the tourist flow, and it should be further studied.     

What Does Vacation do to our Family? Contrasting the Perspectives of Parents and Children

Family has been identified as the most important consumption unit. This research builds on related theories of family system and vacation functions and empirically examines the dimensionality of family vacation functions. Through focus group interviews and survey techniques, a typology of family vacation functions was identified. Stressing both “home environment” and “destination environment,” “we” and “individual,” the functions are “Bonding and Sharing,” “Communication,” “Escape and Relaxation,” “Children’s Learning,” and “Novelty Seeking.” Fathers, mothers, and children showed significant differences in their perception of these five dimensions. Parents, especially mothers, appeared to be much more group well-being oriented, and their aspirations for vacation performing various functions were much more pronounced. Children did not demonstrate the equal amount of enthusiasm towards family vacation. Implications were discussed from both academic and applied perspectives.     

Investigating the key drivers of traveler loyalty in the airport lounge setting

This study intended to examine the structural relationships among functional congruity factors, delight, well-being perception, brand identification, and traveler satisfaction in the formation of air traveler loyalty for airline lounges. The survey sample consisted of 394 air travelers who visited an airline lounge in airport in the U.S. during the past six months. Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model. Results of the structural equation modeling indicated that functional congruity of the physical environments and facilities were significantly and positively associated with delight, which in turn, affected air travelers’ perceived well-being and satisfaction level in the lounge. It was also found that well-being perception significantly and positively affected brand identification and satisfaction, and loyalty was a positive and significant function of satisfaction. The mediation test showed that delight and well-being perception were significant mediators in the proposed theoretical framework. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Vacation from work: A ‘ticket to creativity’?: The effects of recreational travel on cognitive flexibility and originality

Recreational travel may increase creativity by relieving workers from stress, providing diversifying experiences and increasing positive emotions. Consequently, vacations may boost creativity, apparent in a greater variety (flexibility) and originality of ideas after work resumption.In our longitudinal field study, creativity (measured by Guilford's Alternative Uses Task; independently scored by three raters) was assessed in 46 workers before and after vacation. Potential precursors for creativity changes (i.e. work load, vacation hassles, vacation destination and positive affect) were also explored.Cognitive flexibility increased whereas originality remained the same after vacation. None of the precursors explained variance in creativity changes.Although vacations seem to increase chances on creative insights by raising the amount of available cognitive elements (flexibility), they do not necessarily lead to higher levels of originality (uncommon, remote and clever ideas). Research in larger samples is required to further explore mechanisms that may explain why travel seems to enhance creativity.     

Destination Aesthetics and Aesthetic Distance in Tourism Experience

Given the paucity of scholarly attention to the aesthetic component of tourism experience, this research attempted to empirically explore the roles of destination aesthetic qualities and “aesthetic distance”, that is, the perceived difference between the aesthetic properties of a destination and those of a tourist’s home environment, in the tourist’s aesthetic judgment and vacation satisfaction. The results validated a six-factor structure of aesthetic qualities, namely locale characteristics, scope, upkeep, accord, perceived age, and shape. This research noted that when tourists evaluate their home environment more positively in terms of upkeep and scope than vacation environment, they tend to perceive a destination as less beautiful. Only aesthetic distance in scope of experiential features influences vacation satisfaction. Relevant practical implications are discussed.     

The effects of perceived service quality on repurchase intentions and subjective well-being of Chinese tourists: The mediating role of relationship quality

The current study provides and tests an integrated model that examines two relationship quality constructs (overall customer satisfaction, customer-company identification) as mediating variables between Chinese tourists' lodging service quality perceptions and two outcomes (repurchase intentions, subjective well-being). The results of a study with domestic Chinese hotel guests (n = 451) provide support for the proposed model. Specifically, the results indicate that overall customer satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between perceived service quality and repurchase intentions and subjective well-being, respectively. Customer-company identification partially mediates the relationship between perceived service quality and repurchase intentions and subjective wellbeing, respectively. We provide empirical validation that customers do, indeed, identify with hospitality providers, and this, in-turn, provides positive consequences for both the service provider (i.e., repurchase intentions) and the customer (i.e., subjective well-being). Managerial implications are provided, limitations noted, and future research directions suggested.     

The impact of leisure coping beliefs and strategies on adaptive outcomes

Despite the recent growth of leisure coping research, it is not entirely clear: what aspects of leisure best contribute to coping with stress, and how the mechanisms that link leisure to adaptive outcomes operate. Another limitation of this research has been a tendency to examine leisure coping independent of general coping - coping not directly associated with leisure (e.g., problem-focused coping). To help overcome these limitations, the purpose of this study was to test two models of leisure and coping: (a) an independent model and (b) a buffer model, when the effects of general coping were taken into account. The findings of the study using police and emergency response service workers suggest that the effects of leisure on adaptive outcomes differ depending on the type of leisure coping used. Situation-specific leisure coping strategies (i.e., actual coping behaviors and cognitions available through leisure) were significantly associated with effectiveness of coping, satisfactory coping outcomes, and stress reduction (i.e., immediate adaptive outcomes), whereas enduring leisure coping beliefs (i.e., personality dispositions and beliefs about the role of leisure as a means of managing stress) significantly predicted better physical health (as a long-term outcome), irrespective of the level of stress experienced. Both types of leisure coping had significant 'main effects' supporting the independent model. Also, evidence of the buffer model was found for the effects of leisure coping strategies on moderating the detrimental impact of stress on physical health. Implications of leisure coping research for health promotion and lifestyle intervention are discussed.     

Hospitality accommodations and women's consensual sex

The purpose of this exploratory study was to clarify Israeli women's sexual behaviors in different tourist experiences, while relating to the variety of the hospitality accommodations. Constructivist grounded theory was implemented drawing upon 21 in-depth interviews. Sex was described as important part of women's satisfaction with their tourist experiences, sometimes even as a major motivation to go on vacation. Participants expected the role of sex to be acknowledged by the hospitality industry. Women's perceptions with respect to the social atmosphere, sense of detachment, privacy, and anonymity affected their sexual behavior. Recommendations to address women's expectations are offered.     

Work stress and well-being in the hotel industry

Employee stress is a significant issue in the hospitality industry, and it is costly for employers and employees alike. Although addressing and reducing stress is both a noble goal and is capable of resulting in expense reductions for employers, the nature and quantity of hospitality employee stress is not fully understood. The first aim of this study was to identify common work stressors in a sample of 164 managerial and hourly workers employed at 65 different hotels who were each interviewed for eight consecutive days. The two most common stressors were interpersonal tensions at work and overloads (e.g., technology not functioning). The second aim was to determine whether there were differences in the types and frequency of work stressors by job type (i.e., managers versus non-managers), gender, and marital status. Hotel managers reported significantly more stressors than hourly employees. There were no significant differences by gender or marital status. The third aim was to investigate whether the various stressors were linked to hotel employee health and work outcomes. More employee and coworker stressors were linked to more negative physical health symptoms. Also, interpersonal tensions at work were linked to lower job satisfaction and greater turnover intentions.