The impact of travel and tourist trips on human well-being and psychology.

Abstract

this dissertation acknowledged the growing demand for tourism activities to help health and wellness; however, it acknowledges that there is little literature on how these activities promote the psychological wellbeing of the tourists. Due to limited literature, the study employed a qualitative research method to investigate the impact of travel and tourism trips on the well-being and psychology of travels. The inquiry was guided by four objectives; to explore the variables of tourism, explore variables of psychological wellbeing, and identification of the positive and negative impact of travel and tourism trips on the psychological wellbeing of individuals. Findings established that the variables of tourism include destination characteristics, tourism motivation, travel expr4ience, tourism infrastructure, and socioeconomic factor that together determine whether an individuals will participate in travel or tourism trip. Second, the study found that the variables of psychological wellbeing among tourists include emotional wellbeing, subjective wellbeing, social connectedness, and mental health that all either positive or negative impact on the wellbeing of individuals. The positive impact of travel trips on psychological wellbeing includes relaxation and reduced stress, personal growth, social connectedness, and sense of accomplishment and achievement while the negative impacts include stress and anxiety, culture shock, negative emotions from overtourism, and stress from financial and budget constraints. Overall, there are both positive and negative impact of travel and tourism trips on psychological wellbeing; however, the positive impacts outweigh the negative impacts. This study recommends that industry to ensure that destinations optimize the positive impact and minimize the negative impacts while taking into considerations the key variables identified. The same research should replicate using quantitative analysis. Word Count - 14950