Benefits Of Travel Research Articles

The psychophysiological effects of travel: a horizon 2050 paper

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the state of the literature related to the psychophysiological effects of travel, to identify gaps in the literature and to propose a vision to guide research between now and 2050. Design/methodology/approach The study was guided by a systematic literature review which started with more than 2,100 papers. The extant review and its findings are written in a conceptual nature with the concluding propositions, for the year 2050, guided by the systematic review and the authors’ personal knowledge. Findings It was found that research related to the psychophysiological effects of travel has greatly progressed over the past two decades. Findings include evidence that travel reduces both perceived and actual stresses and that taking more vacations has the ability to make people healthier. The study also revealed that travel can have negative effects on physiological health. The overall results led to a call for research on the psychophysiological benefits of travel between now and 2050. Research limitations/implications The systematic review of literature was limited to studies conducted in English and to studies that included the words “travel” or “tourism” and “benefits”, stress, “health” and “wellness”. Results provide a discussion of theories that should guide the research agenda. Practical implications The review and proposed vision for research provide a detailed guide for researchers to follow. Should the proposed research come to fruition, tourism practitioners globally will have results to aid in engineering tourism experiences that could provide health benefits to visitors. Social implications The proposed vision could have profound social implications, as the understanding of the positive and negative effects of travel should make travel experiences healthier for all. The study also proposes a call for research to determine ways to make the benefits of travel available to both the “haves” and “have nots” so that the benefits of travel can be more inclusive. Originality/value The main contribution of this manuscript is that it proposes 11 propositions for research between now and 2050 based on a thorough review of gaps related to the psychophysiological benefits of travel. The resultant propositions provide a clear and unique call for research in this area of inquiry.

Towards travel therapy: addressing the health benefits of international travel.

This perspective article discusses the physical, mental and sociocultural benefits of international travel and considers the case for prescribing travel for therapeutic reasons. It also identifies priorities for further research in this neglected area.

How mindfulness training changes tourist experience: An exploratory study

While mindfulness is receiving increasing attention in tourism literature, most studies are either conceptual or grounded in positivist paradigms that emphasize the potential benefits of mindful travel. There is limited research on mindful training programs and the experiences of tourists who have undergone such training. This study fills this gap by adopting an interpretive perspective to explore tourists who have undergone mindfulness training and now act as mindfulness facilitators in tourism. It aims to depict the role of mindfulness training programs in travel and tourism experiences. The findings show that mindfulness training interventions optimized the participants' travel expectations and cultivated a state of present-moment acceptance. The participants reported higher levels of satisfaction, reduced desire to escape from their travels, and improved decision-making regarding their travel choices. The experiences of mindful travel fostered deeper connections with nature and enhanced self-compassion, which could potentially contribute to the promotion of sustainable tourism practices. Mindfulness transformed ordinary vacations into meaningful and enriching experiences, ultimately leading to reduced post-travel stress and promoting overall well-being.

Balancing Work and Leisure: Unraveling Constraints on Work-Leisure Integration in Bleisure Travel

ABSTRACT Bleisure travel has gained momentum due to the flexibility of the modern workplace and the desire for work-life balance. Despite this, due to the contrasting characteristics of work and leisure and the limited resources available to travelers such as time and energy, it is difficult to assume that integrating these two domains has always been seamless. Utilizing a focus group interview and an online survey, this research explains travel attributes that generate conflicts between work and leisure during bleisure travel, impacting travelers’ subjective well-being. Findings contribute to the travel and work-life balance literature, offering insights for travel managers to mitigate conflicts and enhance travel benefits, recognizing the complexities of harmonizing professional responsibilities and leisure pursuits in contemporary travel practices.

Exploring the Relationship of Leisure Travel with Loneliness, Depression, and Cognitive Function in Older Adults.

Loneliness, depression, and cognitive decline are pressing concerns among older adults. This study examines the association between leisure travel participation and these health outcomes in older adults, aiming to provide further evidence of the benefits of leisure travel. Using nationally representative historical data from the 2006 household survey of the Health and Retirement Study, this study conducted a series of regression analyses to investigate the relationship between traveling and the three health outcomes, adjusting for age, sex, race, marital status, education, total wealth, annual income, and difficulty with daily activities. The results reveal that travel patterns in terms of distance are significantly associated with loneliness, depression, and cognitive function. Long-distance travel is positively related to higher cognitive function and a reduction in depressive symptoms, along with lower levels of loneliness, reinforcing the notion that leisure travel can potentially act as a catalyst for improved cognitive and mental health by offering opportunities for enhancing social connections and forming new relationships. The findings on the relationships between participation in leisure travel and mental and cognitive health contribute to the body of evidence supporting the therapeutic value of leisure travel in promoting healthy aging and enhancing the overall well-being in older adults.

AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION INJECTION FREQUENCY: Effects of Distance Traveled and Travel Support.

Although efficacious, intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy regimens for neovascular age-related macular degeneration can prove difficult for patients to adhere to because of high cost and burden of transportation. Analysis of electronic health record data from the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center eye clinic (January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2019) was performed, extracting demographic data, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injection history, and enrollment in the SFVA travel benefit program. Two-tailed P -values were calculated for Poisson regression examining average number of injections per year as the outcome and distance traveled as the primary predictor. Travel benefit was evaluated as a modifying effect on the distance-injection relationship. Three hundred and eighteen patients who received intravitreal injection for treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration were included in the analysis. Median (interquartile range) distance to clinic was 31.5 miles (7.4-69.4 miles). Driving distance in miles was inversely associated with average number of injections per year. Among all 318 patients, for every additional 100 miles a patient lived from our clinic, the patient received on average 2.5 fewer injections per year ( distance = -0.0025, P < 0.001), but this was not the case for patients with travel benefits ( distance = -0.0011, P = 0.362). The greater the distance from a patient's eye clinic, the lower the average number of injections per year. However, travel benefits mitigated this relationship, highlighting opportunities for improving patient's adherence through assistance programs.

Tourism &amp; Mental Health: Prospects &amp; Challenges

Global tourism is a multi-trillion dollar industry with vast infrastructure and resources generated through travel. In 2022, tourism contributed about 7.7 trillion dollars to the global GDP, amounting to 7.6% of the global GDP. This fact alone indicates that people undertake tourism not just for trips to see other parts of the world, but also for a myriad of other unexplored benefits. It is well known that people will invest in ventures that are psychologically appealing and which improve the quality of their lives. Hence, this editorial explores the mental health benefits of travel and also details some of the challenges faced by tourists.

The Economics of Time Travel

The lack of time travellers visiting us may be seen as evidence that time travel is not possible. In this article, I argue an alternative explanation is that we are not economically important enough to our descendants to justify the costs of time travel. Using a cost-benefit analysis, I elaborate on this argument. I suggest that the major cost of time travel is likely to be the energy cost, whilst the largest benefit of time travel is knowledge which the present possesses, but the future has lost. Focusing on this benefit, I argue it is extremely unlikely that we possess a piece of knowledge which is sufficiently important to a future civilisation (system critical), but also has been lost by said civilisation. This is to say, we may not have been visited by time travellers because we are not important enough.

Healthy climate, healthy bodies: Optimal fuel taxation and physical activity

Passenger transport has significant externalities, including carbon emissions and air pollution. Public health research has identified additional social gains from active travel, due to the health benefits of physical exercise. Per mile, these benefits greatly exceed the external costs from car use. We introduce active travel into an optimal fuel taxation model and characterize analytically the second‐best optimal fuel tax. We find that accounting for active travel benefits increases the optimal fuel tax by 44% in the USA and 38% in the UK. Fuel taxes should be implemented jointly with other policies aimed at increasing the uptake of active travel.

A brief gamified immersive intervention to improve 11–14-year-olds’ cycling-related looking behaviour and situation awareness: A school-based pilot study

Despite the health benefits of active travel, very few people in the UK choose to cycle short journeys; a frequently cited barrier is personal safety concerns. Recent research using immersive video-based training has shown promise, in terms of improving young children’s situation awareness and looking behaviour when cycling, although such evidence is sparse. We designed and delivered a brief gamified immersive intervention to address this. Forty-four schoolchildren took part in a 10-minute intervention comprising 360-degree real-world point-of-view footage of a cycle journey through a busy urban environment, experienced via a head-mounted display (HMD) with built-in eye tracking. The participants were split into two groups: an explicit learning group who received instructions regarding adaptive looking behaviour, and an implicit learning group who received no instructions. In a gamified protocol, participants scored points for fixating on target areas that represented adaptive looking behaviour; reward sounds notified them when they were successful. The explicit learning group accrued points more rapidly in the early stages of the intervention, but the implicit learning group matched the explicit group’s performance level by the end of the brief intervention. All participants’ cycling confidence increased after the brief intervention, and these increases were correlated with their performance in the game, but participants’ performance on video-based situation awareness tests did not improve. Brief gamified immersive interventions could be used to develop young cyclists’ competence, and therefore confidence, regarding cycling on roads, which could, in turn, encourage them to cycle short journeys.

The Effects of Nature-Based Travel in Virtual Reality: The Role of Spatial Presence and Narrative Engagement.

The benefits of nature tourism, or nature-based travel, are plentiful. For example, participation in nature tours has positively impacted environmental attitudes and behaviors. Unfortunately, while psychologically beneficial, nature-based tourism can hurt the environment through a myriad of factors. Therefore, we must continue to explore ways to make the benefits of nature-based travel more sustainable and impactful. Research suggests that nature-based travel in virtual reality (VR) may impart numerous travel benefits, such as improving conservational behavior and interconnectedness with nature. While these early findings are promising, questions remain regarding the theoretical mechanisms underlying the effects of nature-based VR travel. Therefore, this study explores how VR may provide an avenue to make nature tourism more environmentally friendly while simultaneously making people more environmentally connected and conscious. Furthermore, a theoretical framework is posited that combines concepts from the spatial presence and narrative persuasion literature to help explain the effects. To accomplish these goals, an experiment was conducted using a two-condition (VR travel vs. TV control) between-subjects factorial design with random assignment. The participants were 66 college students from a large Midwestern University in the United States. Results indicated that there wasn't a statistically significant difference between the VR travel condition and the television (TV) control condition regarding the environmental outcome variables. However, while the nature-based VR travel experience did not appear to influence the environmental outcome variables directly, it did indirectly affect them through the mediating roles of spatial presence and narrative engagement.

Why Fly? Prudential Value, Climate Change, and the Ethics of Long-distance Leisure Travel

We argue that the prudential benefits of long-distance leisure travel can justify such trips even though there are strong and important reasons against long-distance flying. This is because prudential benefits can render otherwise impermissible actions permissible, and because, according to dominant theories about wellbeing, long-distance leisure travel provides significant prudential benefits. However, this ‘wellbeing argument’ for long-distance leisure travel must be qualified in two ways. First, because travellers are epistemically privileged with respect to knowledge about what is good for them, they must look critically at their own assessment of the prudential benefits of a trip. Second, the wellbeing argument is unlikely to support prudential arguments for long-distance leisure trips made by frequent flyers.

DOMESTIC TOURISTS’ BEHAVIOUR ON ISLAMIC TOURISM IN KOTA BHARU MALAYSIA

Abstract: Islamic tourism, also known as halal tourism, is an emerging trend in the industry that is growing in popularity among travelers who seek to experience the benefits of travel while being mindful of their religious obligations. On the other hand, Islamic Tourism is an industry that generates billions of dollars in economic impact and creates thousands of jobs worldwide. The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between tourists’ behavior and Islamic Tourism in Kota Bharu. A sequential explanatory mixed method was carried out, with a total of 400 domestic tourists participating in the questionnaire survey and six Subject Matter Experts (SME) participating in the structured interview. The data were analyzed using the Relative Importance Index (RII) and content analysis. The findings show that the majority of the respondents were satisfied and agreed with the indicators and components of Islamic Tourism in Kota Bharu. The results of this research are beneficial to the tourism stakeholders in Kota Bharu for better Islamic Tourism, as it can help to increase tourist arrivals to the city. Moreover, this research is also expected to contribute as a basis for Islamic Tourism in other Islamic cities around the world.&#x0D; Keywords: Islamic Tourism; Tourist Behaviour; Kota Bharu; Halal Tourism

The health benefits of bicycling to school among adolescents in China: A propensity score matching study.

A large number of high-income countries are now promoting active commuting to school as an opportunity for adolescents to increase physical activity (PA) and improve their health. Few studies have examined the multiple benefits of active travel to school among adolescents in developing countries, especially in China. Hence, this study aims to estimate the effects of bicycling to school on adolescents' subjective health, physical health, and sickness absence. Self-reported and cross-sectional data from 6,353 school-aged children (12-19 years old) in the 2014-2015 China Education Panel Survey (CEPS2014-2015) were used. The independent variable was a binary, self-reported indicator of whether children bicycled to school. The dependent variables included subjective health (self-reported health, mental stress), physical health (BMI, kidney disease, lung disease, heart disease, brain disease, upper limb fracture, lower limb fracture, and sickness frequency), and sickness absence. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to estimate the causal effects of bicycling to school on adolescents' health. Bicycling to school positively affects both subjective and physical health. Those students who biked to school were associated with a higher self-rated health status, a healthier weight, a lower level of mental stress, and a lower risk of developing brain diseases. No significant relation is found between bicycling and sickness frequency, and sickness absence. Moreover, we separately compared the bicycling group with the walking group and the non-active travel group. There is still evidence that cycling is beneficial for students. Compared with walking to school, cycling to school resulted in a higher self-rated health score and a lower mental stress score. Physically, students who bicycled to school were less likely to be absent from school and suffer from kidney and brain diseases than students who walked to school. However, we do not find a significant difference in health outcomes from cycling compared to non-active modes of transportation. Further, differentiation of the health effects of bicycling across living areas shows that health effects are more pronounced for those living in edge and rural areas. These findings provide evidence of the value of promoting bicycling to school in improving various adolescents' health outcomes in transitional China.

An Accessibility Measurement Based on Commuter Behaviour and Living Conditions: An Empirical Analysis of the High-Speed Railway Network in the East of China

High-speed railways as a competitive intercity transport solution in areas of high population density have been constructed rapidly in the last decade. Accessibility measurements have been frequently tested and applied with various definitions, indicators, and processing methods for assessing traffic system utility. In this paper, an improved method of accessibility measurement based on travellers’ profitability is introduced. Three levels of accessibility indicators, Daily Commute Accessibility (DACC), Daily Work Commute Accessibility (DWACC), and Weekly Commute Accessibility (WACC) were designed based on different commuting frequencies and purposes. The average traveller’s income and local living cost were integrated to simulate the real commute scenario and assess the status of the transport system. In the case study, a series of statistics, containing 50 lines of travelling data and 10 years of economic data, was collected from the historical railway service record and local economy yearbook, in an area with 11 cities connected by conventional normal-speed and upgraded HSR networks in the east of China. An index sheet measuring the three levels of accessibility indicated the changes in the travel benefit ratio throughout the test period following popularisation of the high-speed service. To validate the practicability of the new methodology, regression analysis of four groups of panel data, including the accessibility index and local demographic data, was implemented to illustrate the population fluctuation impacted by the HSR services. The results proved that the HSR service is more beneficial in reducing population aggregation than the conventional railway service, which has the opposite effect, leading to the generation of cities with a high population density, and could help to rebalance the local uneven population distribution and promote the progress of urbanisation.

Identifying Factors Influencing Recreational Travel during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aims to identify the psychological constructs that are antecedents to people’s intention to travel to a tourist destination during the COVID-19 pandemic using the extended theory of planned behavior (ETPB) and necessary condition analysis (NCA). Online survey responses collected from 1,259 participants in the United States in May–June 2021 are used for the study. We find a moderating effect of public trust towards the government on the relationship between travel concerns and intentions. Results suggest that certain levels of public trust, subjective norm, perceived benefit of travel, perceived behavioral control, and perceived knowledge of the pandemic are necessary to manifest travel intentions. We uncover that providing travel incentives and better dissemination of the pandemic-related information can potentially encourage people to regain their original travel intention that was lost due to the pandemic. Furthermore, the bottlenecks obtained using NCA show that travel intentions are more easily manifested by perceived knowledge of the pandemic versus others. This study demonstrates the application of NCA, which can be further extended to make policy-level decisions for transportation systems.

Policy for First Nations Self-Determination in Health: An Analysis of Problems, Politics, and Policy Related to Medical Travel in Northwest Territories

Medical travel, where a patient travels to a larger centre for services not available in their home community, is a critical element of the Northwest Territories (NT) health care system. For residents with a valid NT health care card who do not have other coverage for medical travel, the territorial government administers some travel benefits through the NT Medical Travel Program as well as the federally funded non-insured health benefits program. The Gwich'in Tribal Council (GTC) recognizes that medical travel constitutes a major burden and presents extraordinary challenges for Gwich'in living in small remote communities in NT. In 2020, the GTC conducted research that suggests current policy and programs provide only partial access to care. Informed by Gwich'in medical travel stories and drawing from literature on the concepts of health care access, knowledge, power, and Indigenous rights, this article reframes prevailing understandings of the problems, politics, and policy associated with medical travel in NT. The authors contend that relevant and equitable medical travel in NT depends on policy-making that engages First Nations as equal partners with different levels of government and describe key considerations relevant to policymakers in NT and throughout Canada.

Deducting Dobbs: The Tax Treatment of Abortion-Related Travel Benefits

Deducting Dobbs: The Tax Treatment of Abortion-Related Travel Benefits

Evolutionary Game Analysis on Sharing Bicycles and Metro Strategies: Impact of Phasing out Subsidies for Bicycle–Metro Integration Model

The rapid development of sharing bicycles has facilitated the last mile of travel and provided new opportunities for the sustainable development of metro transportation. However, there is still insufficient literature on how to promote the bicycle–metro integration mode. This paper designs a bicycle–metro integrated model based on evolutionary game theory and explores the evolutionary mechanism of the sharing of bicycles connection system and metro system under the subsidy phasing out. The conditions for achieving different equilibrium states were discussed based on the replication dynamics equation. In order to prove the evolutionary game analysis, the system dynamics simulation model was used to reveal the effects of the cost factor, subsidy factor, reward, and penalty factors on the equilibrium of the integrated model. Moreover, the values of the influence factors that make the system reach the optimal equilibrium were obtained through sensitivity analysis. The results show that by reasonably adjusting the values of the parameters, sharing bicycles connection systems, metro systems and connection travelers can reach an equilibrium state where they are willing to cooperate. Subsidy phasing-out policies for travelers were key to promoting the equilibrium of the model. The unit price of shared bicycles has a greater impact on users, and the irregular parking ratio changes have a greater impact on the benefits of travelers compared to the benefits of the metro system. In order to promote bicycle–metro integration and enhance the attractiveness of metro transportation, policies designed for participants should be integrated with dynamic evolution.

A comparative analysis of determinants, characteristics, and experiences of four daily trip types

The positive utility of travel (unrelated to the destination) and travel satisfaction have been discussed in travel literature, but a research gap exists in comparing if and how travel benefits might differ among commuting, shopping, leisure, and undirected trips (those without a destination, undertaken for the purpose of the trip itself). By specifying the varying benefits of each trip type (or determining whether there is a variation), the positive utility of travel can be better understood, potentially identifying strategies for improving travel satisfaction and, in turn, subjective well-being. This paper considers these four trip types (commuting, shopping, leisure, and undirected) by evaluating differences in beneficial aspects of travel (improving physical health, improving mental well-being, enjoying scenery, and social contact), travel satisfaction, and characteristics (mode, distance, duration, frequency) among 1122 daily travel trips using survey data (n = 332) from Flanders, Belgium. Results indicate that, 1. though taken least often, undirected trips are the most important to physical activity, 2. undirected and leisure trips are most associated with positive utility of travel, and 3. trips to a leisure destination are the most satisfying. This investigation offers information regarding how experienced utility might differ when considering the context of the destination, and how satisfaction with different trips might relate to overall well-being.