Tourist Wellbeing: Re-Thinking Hedonic and Eudaimonic Dimensions

Abstract

Research on tourists’ eudaimonic and hedonic wellbeing has grown exponentially in the tourism literature. The paper re-examines the conceptualization of psychological tourist wellbeing. While there is agreement that tourist wellbeing is multidimensional in nature, it is unclear what specific dimensions, or psychological domains, underpin tourists’ hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing. Models that summarize these domains seemingly overlap, notably the PERMA and DRAMMA models. Ideas on re-conceptualizing tourist wellbeing are proposed. A new conceptual model re-organizing hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions of tourists’ psychological wellbeing is presented for consideration in future research. This new model is termed DREAMA. It consists of the following dimensions: detachment-recovery (DR); engagement (E); affiliation (A); meaning (M); and achievement (A). The new affiliation dimension now includes both social connections and tourists’ connections with the natural environments, thus reframing tourist wellbeing conceptualization beyond human-to-human contact.