Moving Beyond Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

Tourism research on topics such as happiness, quality of life of tourists, and tourist wellbeing has flourished in recent years. This literature clarifies the subjective value of tourist experiences, provides new directions for tourism branding and promotion, and opens doors to fresh research on the potential benefits of tourist experiences to mental health. Subjective well-being theory has been typically used by tourism researchers to help conceptualize and measure tourist happiness. In lay terms, this theory suggests that happiness is life satisfaction and pleasure; the theory is popular and useful but cannot explain tourist happiness. To craft a more complete picture of tourist happiness, a deeper qualitative appreciation of meaningful tourist experiences and special and engaging tourist moments is required. This brief critique highlights the problems of conceptualizing tourist happiness and suggests an alternative approach to the subjective well-being theory.

Positive psychology & tourism: a systematic literature review

“…This is in accordance with Zhang (2013), who acknowledges that studies that link tourism and wellbeing are not the norm. (Filep, 2014b); (Jenkins & Romanos, 2014); (Kruger, Saayman, & Ellis, 2014); (Lee, Kruger, Whang, Uysal, & Sirgy, 2014); (Moscardo, 2014). Coghlan, 2015); (Kim, Lee, Uysal, Kim, & Ahn, 2015); (Mnguni & Giampiccoli, 2015); (Morgan, Pritchard, & Sedgley, 2015); (Tuohino & Honkanen, 2015); (Willis, 2015).…”

“…Reference Location Paper aim(s) (Filep, 2014b) NM "This literature clarifies the subjective value of tourist experiences, provides new directions for tourism branding and promotion, and opens doors to fresh research on the potential benefits of tourist experiences to mental health" (p. 266). (Gholipour et al, 2016) Multi-countries "This paper investigates whether a nation's happiness can be viewed as an asset that attracts international tourists" (p. 251). )…”

“…Kruger et al (2014) found that, in a particular setting of tourism event, it was the features of the event per se and the development of relationships that most increased the visitors' life satisfaction and happiness. Filep (2014b) argued that to conceptualize tourist happiness in terms of subjective wellbeing is difficult since a) it is hard to explain meaningful holiday experiences through it and b) it cannot clearly explain people's engagement with local experiences. For Filep (2014b) the authentic happiness model is more accurate to explain tourist happiness.…”

Effects of Service Fairness and Service Quality on Tourists’ Behavioral Intentions and Subjective Well-Being

“…Parallel to the economic outcome of tourism development (Dagger & Sweeney, 2006;Zeithaml, 2000), socio-psychological benefits and outcomes of tourism development have recently attracted increasing attention from researchers. Studies following this trend include those on tourist QOL (Andereck & Nyaupane, 2011;Dolnicar et al, 2012Dolnicar et al, , 2013Neal et al, 2007), tourist SWB (Filep, 2012;Gilbert & Abdullah, 2004;McCabe & Johnson, 2013), daily happiness during vacation (Nawijn, 2011), corporate social responsibility in tourism (Sheldon & Park, 2011), among others. Comparatively, tourist SWB could be singled out as the best proxy to represent the sociopsychological benefit of tourism on tourists.…”

“…The importance of SWB, which as a concept comprises personal happiness and life satisfaction (Ferrans & Powers, 1992;Sirgy, Samli, & Meadow, 1982;Yuan, 2001), prevails in post-industrial societies (Dagger & Sweeney, 2006). Recently, research on happiness, QOL, and SWB in tourism has attracted a growing interest among tourism researchers (Filep, 2012;Uysal, Perdue, & Sirgy, 2012). However, despite such an emerging research trend, studies on tourist SWB still remain limited in number (McCabe & Johnson, 2013).…”