Enhancing Joy in Travel

Enhancing Joy in Travel

Removing Obstacles to Satisfaction

Virginia Murphy-Berman
Enhancing Joy in Travel: Removing Obstacles to Satisfaction

Copyright © Virginia Murphey-Berman, 2021.

Cover design by Charlene Kronstedt

Interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd., Chennai, India

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

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First published in 2021 by

Business Expert Press, LLC
222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.businessexpertpress.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-94944-321-9 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-1-94944-322-6 (e-book)

Business Expert Press Tourism and Hospitality Management Collection

Collection ISSN: 2375-9623 (print)

Collection ISSN: 2375-9631 (electronic)

First edition: 2021

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 Description
Why do so many people love to travel, but sometimes come away unhappy
and disappointed in their trips? What can people in the travel industry do
to prevent such discontent and promote optimal travel experiences? As a
clinical psychologist and an avid traveler, I wanted to write a book that
offers fresh perspectives on these questions.
Readers will learn a new way of thinking about the nature of travel
and about solutions to common travel problems. Strategies informed by
psychological theory and research that travel providers can use to enhance
their clients’ positive travel encounters are given.
Questions explored include: How do travelers’ personalities impact
travel satisfaction? Why can seeking perfection in travel and trying to
keep up with the often-unrealistic depictions of travel on social media
undermine travel joy? What can be done to overcome travel fatigue and
boredom? How can travelers prepare for trips in ways that spark excite-
ment and receptivity for what is to come? And what can enhance the
enjoyment trips give travelers long after their trips are over?
This book is a must read for those in the hospitality and travel indus-
try (both students and professionals) and general readers who want to
better understand the complexities of the psychology of travel. It will
serve as an invaluable guide to all who would like to learn what it means
to travel well.

Keywords
travel; tourist industry; hospitality industry; travelers; tourists; stages
of travel; art of travel anticipation; travel receptivity; travel reminiscing
and reflecting; personality and travel; character strengths and travel; big
data; customization of travel; travel as experience; happiness; well-being;
savoring; person-environment fit
 Contents
Preface��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ix
Acknowledgments�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi
Introduction����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xiii

Section I Setting the Stage�������������������������������������������������������� 1

Chapter 1 Travel Over Time�����������������������������������������������������������3
Chapter 2 Travel at Its Best�������������������������������������������������������������7

Section II Achieving Positive Travel Outcomes������������������������ 13

Part I Pre-Trip Anticipation���������������������������������������������� 15
Chapter 3 Setting Expectations�����������������������������������������������������17
Chapter 4 Increasing Trip Readiness���������������������������������������������23
Chapter 5 Fostering Pre-Trip Excitement��������������������������������������29
Chapter 6 Facilitating Environmental Fit I�����������������������������������35
Chapter 7 Facilitating Environmental Fit II����������������������������������43
Case Study 1 Pre-Trip Anticipation���������������������������������������������������50

Part II The Actual Trip�������������������������������������������������������� 53

Chapter 8 Ameliorating Travel Fatigue������������������������������������������55
Chapter 9 Mitigating Comparison Tendencies������������������������������63
Chapter 10 Reducing Travel Habituation I�������������������������������������71
Chapter 11 Reducing Travel Habituation II������������������������������������77
Chapter 12 Facilitating Use of Time�����������������������������������������������83
Chapter 13 Promoting Traveler Engagement����������������������������������89
Chapter 14 Enhancing Experiences of Awe�������������������������������������95
Case Study 2 The Actual Trip������������������������������������������������������������99

Part III Post-Trip Well-Being���������������������������������������������� 101

Chapter 15 Supporting Use of Mementos�������������������������������������103
Chapter 16 Helping Travel Story Sharing�������������������������������������109
Chapter 17 Promoting Travel Journaling��������������������������������������113
viii Contents

Chapter 18 Assisting in Post-Trip Knowledge Extension���������������117

Case Study 3 Post-Trip Well-Being��������������������������������������������������121

The End���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������123
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������125
About the Author��������������������������������������������������������������������������������137
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������139
 Preface
We live in times of great material wealth and abundance where we have
an unprecedented number of options available to us to add convenience
to our daily lives. Interestingly, at this same time that we have so many
ways to make our lives more comfortable at home, we have actually been
spending more and more money on traveling away from home. Although
there may be some changes in how and why we travel in the aftermath of
the coronavirus pandemic, the psychological needs that travel fulfills are
not likely to be greatly altered. Travel is not something we do to get away
from our lives, but rather something we pursue to fully embrace life. We
may travel a bit differently in the future, but the joy in the memorable
experiences it can bring will not be diminished. This is the case whether
our trips take us only a few miles away from our homes or halfway around
the world.
Because travel is so important to us, I wanted to write a book that
would help us better savor the benefits it can provide. I bring my own
considerable experience with domestic and world travel to this topic and
the opportunities that I have had to live for different periods in a variety
of foreign countries. Through these encounters, I have personally wit-
nessed some of the best and the worst that travel has to offer. I have seen
how travel can immeasurably improve our lives, and I have observed how
truly disastrous some trips can be.
In addition to my personal experience with travel, I also bring to this
topic my longtime work as a clinical psychologist and a professor who has
taught and done research on what promotes a sense of well-being in life.
Through my studies and discussions with students in classroom debates
on this topic, I learned that happiness is often derived not from the big
things that happen to us in life, but rather from daily, small occurrences
that take place and that touch us in some special way. This is true in
travel, as well, and we will come back to this idea again and again as
we explore what causes our trips to be either joyful encounters or
disappointing failures.
x Preface

In all of this, there will be an appreciation that what we, as travelers,

are looking for is not cookie-cutter sameness, but rather something
that feels real and vivid that is addressed uniquely to us. This book will
examine how we and travel providers alike can work collaboratively to
facilitate this goal. When it is achieved, travel can become truly magical.
 Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge my husband, John, for so patiently putting
up with me during the time I spent working on this book. I say this fully
aware that a person writing a book is not always the easiest person to be
around. John has been my partner on a great number of travel journeys,
and many of the stories in this book reflect some of the wonderful experi-
ences we have had together on our trips. Besides being my favorite travel
companion, John is also my best writing critic and my most supportive
sounding board for ideas. He read numerous draft versions of this book,
and his comments and suggestions made my work much stronger. I have
no words to thank him enough for that.
 Introduction
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but
in having new eyes.
—Marcel Proust

Over the past years, more and more of us have traveled for pleasure and
business than ever before. Tourism has, in fact, become a huge world-
wide industry. For instance, data from the World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO 2020) indicated that in 2019 there were 1.5 billion people
who traveled internationally. This represented a four percent increase
from the previous year and a 68-fold increase from data available in 1950
(Roser 2020). Not only were more of us traveling, in general, but we were
taking more frequent trips throughout our lifetimes (Opperman 1995),
with many of us embarking on more than one holiday per year. Export
earnings generated from travel are significant, topping 1.7 trillion dollars
in 2019 (UNWTO 2019). Of course, the current coronavirus pandemic
has temporarily interfered with our ability to travel, and how that will
alter travel patterns in the future is unknown. What is clear is that the
desire for travel will never diminish, nor will our wanderlust to explore
our world decrease. Travel is a dream for a significant number of us that
will never die. While many of our trips are undoubtedly very enjoyable, a
significant number fail to live up to the often unrealistically high expec-
tations we have for them. Many of us, in truth, are sometimes secretly
disappointed that our dream vacations are not always completely perfect,
or we feel a sense of letdown after our much-anticipated trips are over and
we have to go back to our pre-trip lives. This may occur despite the fact
that we are spending more and more money on traveling than ever before
(Fox 2019), and more and more resources are available to help us plan
our trips (Adams 2016).
In this book, we talk about why we may so often be disappointed
even with seemingly picture-perfect travel agendas and the most won-
derful travel accommodations. This is a book about how we and those
xiv Introduction

in the travel industry can work together to curtail this disappointment

and maximize positive travel experiences. It is a book about the kinds of
behavior and thinking that people (both travelers and travel providers)
often engage in during traveling that either promote satisfaction and hap-
piness or lead to discontent and misery. We explore what can be done to
increase the happiness and decrease the discontent. Our exploration will
be grounded in research from the fields of tourism studies and positive
psychology, the latter of which looks at the conditions under which indi-
viduals experience optimal functioning and flourishing in life (Gable and
Haidt 2005; Seligman 2011).
At its heart, traveling well is all about increasing our responsiveness to
what is positive in our surroundings and enhancing our ability to encoun-
ter authentic moments. Guaranteeing success in travel is not about creat-
ing ideal places or the most exotic travel environments. Rather, it is about
learning how to build settings and promote experiences that allow us to
thrive on our own terms.

Structure of the Book

The book is divided into two main sections and 18 chapters. In Section I,
which serves as a foundational base for the rest of the book, a brief over-
view of the background and history of travel is given, and the nature of
the positive travel outcomes that we seek are defined.
In Section II, we turn to an examination of how achievement of the
outcomes for travel discussed in Section I can best be facilitated by those
in the travel industry and to an analysis of what types of obstacles have
to be overcome to make this happen. This second section is presented in
three parts, each with multiple chapters. In Part I, the anticipatory phase
of travel is explored, and ways that travel providers can work with us to
help make this aspect of travel positive and productive are discussed. In
Part II, strategies that travel providers can use to increase our satisfaction
during our actual trip experiences are examined. The post-trip experience
is turned to last in Part III.
Throughout the book, questions for discussion and hypothetical case
study problems are included. The purpose of these exercises is to facilitate
your ability to make links and connections between the chapter material
 Introduction xv

and your own experiences, either as a traveler or as someone in the travel

industry. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions or case
studies. Rather, they are provided to help you extend and apply the the-
ories and concepts that you read about to real-life travel issues. Working
on them will deepen your understanding of the key ideas in the book, so
they should not be skipped!
We will start with a general overview of travel in Chapter 1.
 Section I

Setting the Stage

 CHAPTER 1

Travel Over Time

(or I Never Understood
Why My Ancestors Hated Being
on the Road So Much!)

The world is a book and those who do not travel only read one page.
—St. Augustine

Travel: What is the Purpose?

As we begin to consider the idea of travel, it is helpful to start with a
brief reflection on why people travel at all. Probably every one of us has a
different explanation for why we either love or hate traveling. As we have
briefly discussed, the rewards of travel can be glorious, but the agonies can
be gut-wrenching as well. Given this, we might ask why we even bother
with travel unless it is completely necessary. Why don’t we just stay home
as much as possible and buy more and more products to increase our
comfort and pleasure? We could purchase a cozy bed, buy a great TV,
stock our pantries with food, acquire a nice fluffy robe and so on, and just
relax in our homes. Certainly, if we wanted to learn about the world and
foreign places or see beautiful sights, we could simply tune in to a variety
of travel or nature shows and never have to get up out of our chairs.
This then is the question. What are we looking for that is so important
that we will put up with all of the hassles and irritants that mark modern
travel? Why do we willingly leave the comfort of our homes to set out on
journeys to distant places to seek something where outcomes are uncer-
tain and rewards are often intangible? And why did people travel in the
past when being on the road was probably even more potentially perilous
4 Enhancing Joy in Travel

than it is now? To consider these kinds of questions, let’s first talk briefly
about the nature of travel and how it has changed over time.

Travel Today and Yesterday

To our distant ancestors, the notion of traveling undoubtedly had a very
different meaning than it does for us today. Travel then was often not just
emotionally challenging and tiresome, but also physically exhausting and
quite dangerous. Few people had the means or even the desire to roam the
world far away from their homes. Further, when people did travel, their
goals were usually quite instrumental and specific. For instance, people
traveled to locate food sources in times of famine, or they set out for reli-
gious reasons on holy pilgrimages to sacred shrines. Some traveled in order
to promote trade, or to try to recover from illness by visiting so-called
healing places (Csikszentmihaly and Coffey 2016). What people did not
do nearly as much as in the present time, though, was travel for the sheer
fun of it. This reason, in fact, would probably have never even occurred
to most ancient people. Of course, now we travel for many reasons that
would appear strange to our ancestors, and the things that give us satisfac-
tion in travel are quite diverse (Chen, Mak and McKercher 2011; Mos-
cardo 2011). For instance, we travel for what have been called push reasons
such as the desire to escape or to get away from the pressures of modern
life. We also travel for more external pull reasons such as the chance to
experience great adventures or to encounter beautiful places or simply
to relax (see Crompton 1979; Andersen, Prentice and Watanabe 2000).
Regardless of our specific motives, however, most of us want to travel
today to achieve some types of memorable experiences (Bowen and Clarke
2009; Pearce 2005; Schmitt 2003). This is important. It reflects a shift in
how travel has been construed from being a tiresome burden we have to
carry out for practical reasons to something we want to do to live our lives
more fully. But why is having memorable experiences so important to us,
and why are they so sought after? Let’s turn to that question next.

Travel as Experience
Research suggests that we often gain more pleasure from actively expe-
riencing things than passively consuming products (Van Boven and
 Travel Over Time 5

Gilovich 2003). Experiences give us a deeper feeling of satisfaction and

provide us with more of a sense of meaning and accomplishment (see
Pine and Gilmore 1998, for a discussion of the experience economy).
In fact, some have suggested that what is most important these days is
not so much what particular services or goods are offered to us, but rather
what we can do with these goods and services, or how creatively we can
interact with them (Pine and Gilmore 2019). For instance, when we
travel instead of simply wanting to be passive participants on a tour, more
and more of us desire to be directly and actively involved in a variety of
tour activities. This means that in addition to simply listening to a talk on
how to make a certain type of bread given by a local guide on some excur-
sion to Germany, many of us appreciate having a chance to try out the
bread-making process ourselves. We also increasingly like to have choices
about what we see and do, and in this sense, often love occasions where
we can co-create our experiences with our travel providers (Mackenzie
and Kerr 2013). As an example, imagine a situation in which a tour guide
takes a group of us to a certain famous garden in some area because she
has learned that several people in our group have a particular interest
in plants and flowers. In this instance, both we and our tour guide
co-determine the travel agenda together.
Many of us, thus, want more participatory involvement in the process
of travel itself. This is the case whether we are searching for highly ener-
getic travel adventures or more quiet and serene experiences of rest and
escape. This is also the case whether we are embarking on more structured,
organized group tours, or prefer setting out on our own to explore our
world. Travel is increasingly becoming a dynamic, interactive encounter
between our travel providers and us as we engage with each other to facil-
itate optimal travel outcomes. We will look more at this process of active
engagement between us and our travel providers in subsequent chapters
of this book as we continue to examine what it means to travel well.

Chapter 1: Questions for Discussion

Before we turn to new themes, though, in order to think more about the
ideas presented in Chapter 1, please work on the following questions.
As you answer these questions, draw on your own personal experiences
and/or your experiences in some aspect of the travel industry.
6 Enhancing Joy in Travel

1. How has travel changed over your lifetime? In what ways would you
say it is different today than it was when you were a child? Is this a
change for better or for worse? Discuss.
2. What does the idea of memorable experience in travel mean to you?
Give some specific examples to support your answer.
3. As we have seen, many of us like to have more choices today over our
travel venues than we did in the past and often appreciate chances to
co-create experiences with our travel providers. Is this true in your
own travel experience or the experience of others you have known?
If yes, explain. What are the downsides of having more choices?
4. The idea of engaged versus more passive travel styles was also dis-
cussed briefly in this chapter. What sort of travel venues have you
been involved with that particularly lent themselves to the creation
of engaged travel opportunities? What does this idea mean to you?
Explain.

Notes
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 Index
Active involvement, 5 Guest loyalty programs, 75
Actual trip, case study, 99–100
Allocentric travel style, 45 Habituation
Allocentrics, 38 act of noticing, 79–80
Anchoring issues, 72 acts of kindness, 78–79
helping travelers, 73
Big Data approach, 44–45 personalization, 74–75
Big Five Theory of Personality physical environment’s basic
conscientiousnes, 37 comfort features, 74
introversion/extroversion, 37, 38 repeated exposure to things, 72
openness, 37 surprises, 77–78
traits, 36 travel options, 71–72
Health, 58
Caring attitude, 78 Health tourism activities, 58
Character virtues and strengths, Hotel amenities, 67
39–40
Comfort setting options, 74 Introversion/extroversion, 37
Communication patterns, 66–67
Conscientiousnes, 37 Journaling
Contextual or background advantages, 114
information, 25–26 documentary records, 113
narratives, 115–116
Direct in-person consultations, 67 ongoing narrative reflection, 113
Discoverers, 24 reaction capture, 113–114
Dreaming, 17–18 reviewing, 114
rich background information, 115
Environmental fit trip impressions recording, 114,
person-environment fit, 36–38 115
personality and value preferences,
43–48 Kindness, 78–79
Existential authenticity, 36
Experiential exercises, 27 Maximizing tendencies, 18–19
Experiential priming, 26–27 Mementos, 103–104
Memorable experiences, 7–8
Five-Factor Model of Personality, Mindfulness, 58–59
36–38
Flower arrangement, 91–92 Need satisfaction, 8–9
Negative comparisons
General Data Protection Regulation communication patterns, 66–67
(GDPR), 45 insidiousness, 63–65
Grand Canyon example, 96–97 unfairness assessments, 65–66
140 Index

Openness, 37 Realistic trip goals, 20–21

Optimal arousal theory, 83 Refresh packages, 57
Optimal functioning, 8–9 Relaxation and savoring, 59
Revitalization, 58
Peak and end rule, 86
Perfect trip, 123 Sanctuary environments, 58
Person-environment fit Self-diminishing aspect of awe, 95
Big Five Theory of Personality, 36–38 Self-drawings, 8
character virtues and strengths, Self-expansion, 7–8
39–40 Self-transcendence, 9
existential authenticity, 36 Short-term restorative situations,
Plog’s Model of Tourist Typology, 56–57
38–39 Social capital, 10
Personality and value preferences Self-diminishing aspect of awe, 95
Big Data approach, 44–45 Storytelling
information collection, 43–44 hotel-related travel memories, 111
travel environment, 47–48 reconnection process, 110
two travelers tale, 45–47 reconstruction process, 109–110
Physical mementos, 103 reunion sessions, 111
Picture post, 106 Strength-based approach, 39–40
Plog’s Psychographic Typology of Successful trips, 123
Tourists, 38–39 Surprises, 77–78
Positive emotions, nature of awe, 96
Post-trip knowledge extension Time pressures, 19–20
enduring moment, 119 Time usage
learning and exploring, 117–119 good pacing
Post-trip well-being customers’ desire, 85
case study, 121–122 guided tours, 85
creating scenes, 105–106 power of anticipation, 85
mementos, 103–104 responsiveness, 83
recollections, 104–105 restaurant experiences, 84
Pre-trip anticipation, 15 time sequencing, 86–87
case study, 50–51 Tour guide, 5
excitement Trait theory of behavior, 36–38
Bayeux tapestry museum, 31–32 Travel
Christmas memories, 30–31 active involvement, 5
New Mexico trip planning, 30 awe nature, 95–97
travel providers and enthusiasm, 32 as experience, 4–5
principles, 29 benefits, 7
Psychocentrics, 38 healing places, 4
Psychological dispositions, 124 need satisfaction, 8–9
Psychological flow purpose, 3–4
conditions, 91–92 push and pull reasons, 4
engagement and well-being, 89–90 self-expansion, 7–8
flow profiles, 92–93 social capital, 10
flow state, 90 social connections to others, 9–10
helping travelers, 92–93 Travel fatigue
Psychological well-being, 8–9 Caribbean island trip, 56
 Index 141

savoring idea, 58–60 experiential priming, 26–27

short-term, 56–57 facts and data, 23–25
wellness vacations, 58 practical arrangements, 23–24
Travel planners, 20–21 preparation preference, 26
Trip perfection, 19
Trip planning processes User-generated content (UGC), 106
imposed time pressures, 19–20
maximizing tendencies, 18–19 Values, 39
realistic trip goals, 20–21 Values in Action (VIA) characteristics,
trip dreaming, 17–18 44
Trip readiness
contextual or background
Wellness vacations, 58
information, 25–26