The Effects of Holiday Leisure Travel on Subjective Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Experience Sharing

Abstract

Despite growing interest in experience sharing among leisure travelers, there is still limited research concerning the role of travel experience sharing on leisure traveler’s life satisfaction. The main objective of this research is to test the moderation effects of experience sharing during and after leisure travel on the bottom-up spillover process of tourists’ leisure travel satisfaction–life satisfaction hierarchy. The positive effect of holiday trip motivation fulfillment on overall holiday trip satisfaction is hypothesized to be amplified by on-site experience sharing (e.g., uploading holiday pictures or videos to social media platforms while traveling). Also, the positive effect of holiday trip satisfaction on holiday travelers’ subjective well-being is hypothesized to be amplified by posttrip experience sharing (e.g., publishing blog posts or travel reports online post trip). We used data from a large-scale social survey in Germany (N = 2,198) and the results confirmed the hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.