Frequent travelers are about 7% happier than people who don’t travel at all, according to a study carried out in Taiwan.
Chen et al. suggest that travel and tourism can be an important life domain affecting how people evaluate their overall quality of life. Image credit: Joshua Woroniecki.
Dr. Chun-Chu Chen and colleagues from Washington State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Texas A&M University conducted a survey to find out whether frequent travelers are more satisfied with their life as well as why these individuals travel more frequently than others.
They found that individuals who pay more attention to tourism-related information and frequently discuss their travel plans with friends are more likely to go on regular vacations than those who aren’t constantly thinking about their next trip.
Additionally, participants in the survey who reported regularly traveling at least 120 km (75 miles) away from home also reported being about 7% happier when asked about their overall well-being than those who reported traveling very rarely or not at all.
“While things like work, family life and friends play a bigger role in overall reports of well-being, the accumulation of travel experiences does appear to have a small yet noticeable effect on self-reported life satisfaction,” said Dr. Chen, a researcher in the School of Hospitality Business Management at Washington State University.
“It really illustrates the importance of being able to get out of your routine and experience new things.”
The participants were asked about the importance of travel in their lives, how much time they spent looking into and planning future vacations, and how many trips they went on over a year. They were also asked about their perceived life satisfaction.
Out of the 500 Taiwanese respondents, a little over half reported going on more than four pleasure trips a year. Only 7% of respondents did not take any vacations.
“This research shows the more people talk about and plan vacations the more likely they are to take them,” Dr. Chen said.
“If you are like me and chomping at the bit to get out of dodge and see someplace new, this research will hopefully be some additional good motivation to start planning your next vacation.”
The findings were published in the journal Tourism Analysis.
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Chun-Chu Chen et al. Would you be more satisfied with your life if you travel more frequently? Tourism Analysis, published online December 5, 2020; doi: 10.3727/108354220X16072200013427
