Studies in the socio-environmental psychology of tourism

Aspects of six graduate theses are described in order to illustrate the potential contribution of social psychology to tourism studies. Their topics are images of tropical holidays, design of holiday brochures, international travel mode choice, family roles on holiday, and long-distance travel and sightseeing. Particular attention is drawn to their theoretical rationale and methodology, to certain environmental questions, and to directions and choices for future research.     

积极心理学在旅游学研究中的应用

积极心理学是心理学研究的一个新思潮。它关注人类的积极品质,探索人类的美德,主张用开放的、欣赏的眼光去看待人类的潜能、动机和能力等。积极心理学不仅契合社会发展背景,而且迎合民众追求幸福的心理,因此其在学术研究和普通民众中的影响力日渐增加。在澳大利亚旅游心理学家菲利普·皮尔斯等(Philip Pearce,et al.)的引荐下,旅游学,一门致力于提升个人和社会的和谐发展与幸福指数的学科,也开始关注积极心理学的应用。文章首先阐述积极心理学的基本主张,注重条理化归纳,然后对积极心理学与旅游学的融合研究做重点述评,注重客观的应用性拓展研究介绍,最后结合国内外的研究现状和国内实情,认为积极心理学在旅游学研究中具有广泛的应用和提升空间,创新的核心是融合中国传统与当代文化,做有深度的研究。结合国内外研究现状,文章提出三个创新提升方向:关注旅游社区的居民福祉,聚焦旅游与游客个人发展、社会和谐的关系,关注日益庞大的老年旅游群体。     

The xenophobic tourist

Addressing the global rise of xenophobia, the authors provide the first investigation of tourist xenophobia (TXO) and its role in shaping tourist behavior. Drawing on research from evolutionary and social psychology, they define TXO as a tourist’s perceptual discomfort and anxiety associated with strangers encountered at foreign destinations. The authors develop a reliable, valid and parsimonious TXO scale, and document its importance empirically. The results show that TXO is an important driver behind many, often neglected, behavioral phenomena, such as tourists’ preference for travel-related vaccination, willingness to try local food, preference for group travel, travel insurance and agency-booked travel, willingness to travel and actual travel behavior. The authors conclude by discussing implications of the findings for research, practice and policy.     

Tourism and health: using positive psychology principles to maximise participants’ wellbeing outcomes – a design concept for charity challenge tourism

This conceptual paper explores the use of psychology, especially positive psychology, to inform the design of travel experiences for a specific health outcome – enhanced participant wellbeing or mental health. It extends the concept of sustainable tourism as a tool for local, regional and societal improvement. Mental health is a growing issue in many developed countries: 30% of Australians report depressive symptoms, with implications for social sustainability. The paper reviews how positive psychology seeks to combine hedonic, eudemonic and social wellbeing into the integrated concept of “flourishing”, creating positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. It uses the charity challenge model to explore tourism experiences that enhance participant wellbeing. Charity challenges are participatory, group travel events combined with extended physical activity, awareness-raising, and fund-raising for charity. These events inherently combine recognised pathways to wellbeing, e.g. being active, doing something meaningful, giving, and connecting with others. Other principles from positive psychology, such as intentional and volitional activity, goal attainment, activation of signature strengths, experiencing positive emotions/gratification, and capitalisation on positive experiences, can be incorporated into the event design to foster wellbeing outcomes. The paper suggests how this design might take shape, as well as management implications and further research questions.     

Toward a symbiosis of social psychology and tourism studies

This introductory paper indicates some of the characteristics of a sociopsychological perspective on tourism studies. Brief points are made about the nature of both psychology and social psychology as academic disciplines which might serve tourism research. More particular attention is paid to the “models of Man” argument and to issues in the application of social psychology. It is suggested that fruitful interaction between social psychology and tourism studies may be achieved by a nonparasitic relationship and by an increase in pre-paradigmatic research.     

Understanding the Motivation and Travel Behavior of Cycle Tourists Using Involvement Profiles

Bicycle tourism is a growing niche tourism market which has potential economic, social, and environmental outcomes for individual participants and host communities. However, there has been a lack of research into heterogeneity of this market and their respective motivations and behavior. This article applies the concept of enduring involvement, in conjunction with tourist motivational theory, to segment and better understand cycle tourist behavior and intentions. A total of 564 completed questionnaires was collected from an online survey of bicycle club members in Australia. Respondents were segmented into five initial clusters by their level of enduring involvement. A number of significant differences were found on their travel motivations, travel behavior, and behavioral intentions, as well as their sociodemographics and cycling behavior. The results lend support to the application of enduring involvement in a tourism context to better understand the behavior of niche markets which include popular leisure pursuits. Recommendations as a result of the findings are made for product development and marketing communication, while future research opportunities are also outlined.     

居民出游决策行为与家庭结构的关系探讨--以宁夏回族自治区为例

出游市场是旅游市场的细分市场之一，从家庭结构角度探讨居民出游决策行为的论文在我国目前为数不多。本文以宁夏居民的5000份抽样调查问卷结果为例，分析了居民出游行为与家庭结构的关系。这里的家庭结构包括三代同堂家庭、两代同堂家庭、夫妻二人家庭及单身家庭4种情形。本文从不同家庭的出游时间、出游计划、出游方式、出游心理、对旅游资源的偏好等方面整体性地分析了不同家庭的出游特征，进而通过对宁夏居民区外、区内出游行为空间的分析，得出不同家庭结构出游的行为规律。最后指出这一分析在旅游产品开发、旅游市场营销、旅游市场开发等方面的重要意义。     

国际旅游科学研究新热点:全球气候变化对旅游业影响研究

伴随着全球气候变化科学研究的兴起,近年来全球气候变化对旅游业的影响逐渐成为国际旅游科学研究的新热点。本文划分了气候变化与旅游业研究阶段,按照响应—适应—缓解的系统流程,从全球气候变化对旅游目的地、旅游流、旅游者心理与行为、旅游产业系统的影响以及旅游活动对气候变化的缓解与适应等5个方面进行了综述。最后,总结归纳了国际气候变化对旅游业影响研究的一些基本特点,以期为我国在此领域的研究提供一些有益的启示。     

Positive psychology and tourist well-being: A systematic literature review

This paper examines the current state of research on well-being from tourism from the lens of positive psychology. A systematic review of 82 peer-reviewed articles published in English-language tourism journals indicate that tourist well-being is predominantly examined as a consequence of travel, rather than linked to tourism marketing and management. This study presents a conceptual framework of the antecedents, episodes and consequences of tourist well-being. Practically, results suggest strategies on how well-being can be used to generate better outcomes for tourism marketers and managers. By mapping what is known in the intersection between positive psychology and tourist well-being, this study identifies existing gaps and opportunities for future research in this area.     

海岛旅游研究进展与启示——以国际英文期刊载文为例

海岛旅游是国际旅游研究的重要领域,深入分析国际海岛旅游研究的演化脉络和重点领域,对于提升“海洋强国”战略背景下的海岛旅游研究水平,促进双循环发展格局下的产业高质量发展具有重要借鉴意义。以Web of Science^TM为数据源,使用科学计量工具CiteSpace 软件对2000—2019年的1 511篇英文海岛研究文献进行了可视化图谱分析,揭示研究发展脉络与研究热点。结果显示：（1）海岛旅游研究具有显著的阶段性特征,2000年以来可以划分为缓慢发展、稳步发展和快速发展3个阶段,研究内容从关注海岛旅游开发的生态环境影响,逐渐转向海岛旅游地人地关系的和谐发展;（2）国际海岛旅游研究具有市场依赖性和资源依托性特征,研究区域和研究对象大多集中在发达国家或海岛资源丰富国家,三位高引频次最高学者为Gossling、Hall和Scheyvens,发文期刊集中在环境科学与生态学、海洋海岸科学和旅游学3个领域;（3）海岛旅游研究热点主要集中在海岛旅游地资源环境、海岛旅游与全球气候变化、海岛旅游市场、海岛旅游经济影响、海岛旅游社区、海岛游客消费行为、海岛旅游规划与管理、海岛旅游可持续发展等领域。中国海岛旅游研究应在借鉴国际海岛旅游研究方法和成果基础上,完善海岛旅游理论与研究方法,加强海岛旅游资源与环境,海岛可持续旅游,海岛经济与文化影响,海岛游客消费行为等领域的研究。     

Influences of travel constraints on the people with disabilities’ intention to travel: An application of Seligman’s helplessness theory

Changes to legal and social environments have contributed to the expansion of the disabled tourism market. However, despite this growth, within tourism there is a distinct lack of research of this niche market, and in particular of the barriers which impede or prevent those with disabilities from participating in tourism. This study addresses this lacuna by exploring the relationships between three inter-related concepts, these being: (1) travel constraints including its three sub-dimensions, these being intrinsic, environmental, and interactive; (ii) learned helplessness; and, (iii) intention to travel. This is attempted through a structured survey targeted at a sample of disabled Korean travelers (N = 301). The results revealed that the three sub-dimensions of constraints exerted no significant influence (p < .05) on travel intentions, though two of the three dimensions (intrinsic and environmental) were found to be statistically significantly associated with learned helplessness. This latter variable, in turn provided a statistically significant negative influence (p < .05) on intention to travel. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed, and some avenues for future research are highlighted.     

Short-haul city travel is truly environmentally sustainable

With rising interest in and concern about climate change and environmental sustainability, and the significance of the tourism industry worldwide, the impact of tourism-related activities and behaviors on the environment has become a key area of research. In particular, transport related to tourism has come under scrutiny for its contribution to the ecological footprint of tourism of a destination, mostly accounted for by the dominance of air travel. This study contributes to research in this area by identifying the types of travel situations in which tourists make environmentally friendly choices about travel modes and, consequently, which types of tourism destinations should seek to develop and promote in order to minimize the environmental impact of the tourist sector on both an individual destination and global scale.     

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.     

境外信息技术与旅游的交叉研究进展——基于ENTER会议文献集(2005~2012)的统计分析

在信息通信技术与旅游业发展日益紧密结合的背景下,国际信息技术与旅游业联盟(IFITT)应运而生,并展开了一系列相关交叉研究。作为探讨信息和通信技术在旅游行业中应用与影响的组织,IFITT每年召开的ENTER会议是西方相关学者交流的重要平台。文章以ENTER会议论文集(2005～2012)为研究对象,从文献的时间分布、作者及机构、所属国家/地区、研究议题、演进规律等方面来展现国外信息技术与旅游的交叉研究现状和发展轨迹,并进一步归纳出国外旅游与信息技术交叉研究发展特点,并提出研究展望,以期为国内相关研究提供参考。     

How tourism memory boosts creativity? The role of openness to experience

Although tourism memory is widely regarded as a valuable commodity, scant research examines its influence on creativity, a crucial factor for individual and organizational success. Moreover, while both travel and work are vital for human functioning, there are inconsistent views on whether they are opposing domains. This research aims to fill these gaps by investigating the unique characteristics of tourism memories and their effect on creativity at the individual level. Across four studies, we demonstrate that merely recalling one's tourism memory - even from a long time ago - increases creativity. We have also found that this effect is mediated by an increased state of openness to experience triggered by tourism memory retrieval, and one's trait openness moderates this effect. Our research contributes to the literature on tourism, management, and psychology, also offering insights for marketers and organizations to leverage the potential of tourism memories to foster creativity and success.     

旅游社会学研究初探

由于理论体系和方法论尚未成熟,旅游社会学仍处于初期发展阶段。本文在前人研究基础上,对旅游社会学的研究对象、研究方法进行了尝试性探讨,认为旅游社会学的研究对象范围应是旅游者的社会行为和社会关系以及由此引起的相关问题的集合,包括旅游者个体和群体两方面。旅游者个体研究包括旅游者行为及引起该行为的动机、心理、价值取向、审美观念等深层因素,属微观旅游社会学范畴;旅游者群体研究包括社会关系、跨文化交际、社会影响、旅游人流等宏观旅游社会学的层面。此外,本文还对旅游社会学的研究方法进行了初步探讨。     

Health-care tourism — an exploratory study

This article explores the concept of health-care tourism. It is based on a pilot study that involved a survey of 206 travellers, 22 travel agents, 12 medical doctors and two herbalists; a review of the tourism and travel literature; and content analysis of 284 travel brochures about 24 countries. Healthcare tourism is defined, the sample, methods of data collection, findings, and implications are discussed, and future research areas suggested. Health-care tourism can be used to define an effective marketing strategy.     

Developing a conceptual framework for slow travel: a grounded theory approach

This paper discusses the sociocultural phenomenon of slow travel and explores and clarifies definitional issues. The 30-year-plus antecedents of slow travel are examined. A literature review shows a concentration on four key features: slowness and the value of time; locality and activities at the destination; mode of transport and travel experience; and environmental consciousness. Links to the slow food and slow city movements are discussed, and evidence that slow travel is an important emergent form of tourism in Europe, accounting for 10% of the holiday market, is provided. A grounded theory approach continues the exploration, involving 23 in-depth interviews with practitioners and academics, which revealed that their core requirements for slow travel centred on slowness, the travel experience and environmental consciousness. There was a lack of consensus about the eligibility of car travel and high-speed rail. Slow travel is seen as a group of associated ideas rather than as a watertight definition; it is a mindset about travel rather than a tangible product and concentrates on lack of speed rather than slowness per se. The conclusion shows it to be a growing part of the sustainable tourism paradigm and proposes a working definition of slow travel.     

Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction Behaviors in Tourism – A Perception Study of Asian Visitors from a Protection Motivation Theory Perspective

Many researchers suggest that global warming and the effect of greenhouse gases pose environmental threat worldwide, not to mention a threat to the sustainable development of the tourism industry. For tourism, social and behavioral changes and tourist management and education are important for energy saving and carbon reduction (ESCR). The purpose of this research is to explore tourists' ESCR behavior and its influent factors. The research framework is based on the protection motivation theory to investigate ESCR behavior in the tourism, restaurant and hotel industries. It used the survey method on 512 foreign tourists in Taiwan to discuss the environmental protection behavior. Through the linear regression analysis, obvious differences between tourists' ESCR behavior intention and actual behavior are found. A suggestion for tourism environmental education is provided according to the study result.     

Proximal and distal post-COVID travel behavior

Using terror management theory as a theoretical base, and drawing upon pertinent tourism studies, this conceptual paper represents one of the first attempts to systematically identify and predict post-COVID travel and tourism behaviors. Several salient proximal and distal post-COVID travel behaviors are identified or predicted. Their psychological and phenomenological roots, behavioral manifestations, and potential impact on tourism are discussed. This research intends to offer some foundational building blocks to better understand travel and tourism behaviors and to inform tourism theory and practice in the post-COVID era.