Careen Yarnal

Casting Off An Exploration of Cruise Ship Space, Group Tour Behavior, and Social Interaction

Growth in tourism during the past 20 years means more people are using physical spaces away from home for vacation. Yet research on vacation spaces is noticeably absent. Focusing on a cruise ship, the primary purpose of this article is to draw attention to how social interaction in a group vacation context intersects with vacation experiences. A secondary purpose is to introduce space and how it can extend thinking about the role that tourism spaces play in the development of social interaction. The results indicate that individuals use cruise ships to feel at ease and comfortable with themselves, as well as in control and liberated. They also develop social interactions during a cruise and make “playful” spaces on the cruise ship. Using these themes, the authors highlight limitations in current conceptualizations of tourism behavior. The authors also suggest how cruise lines might use the study to create more meaningful passenger experiences.

Beyond fun and friendship: the Red Hat Society as a coping resource for older women

ABSTRACT How older women cope with challenges and losses in later life influences not only their physical health but also their psychological wellbeing and quality of life. The purpose of the analysis reported in this paper was to understand how participation in a womens leisure-based social group – the Red Hat Society® – serves as a coping resource for older women. The Society is an international organisation of women aged 50 or more years and has the mission to ‘celebrate the silliness of life’. The Society currently has an estimated one million members in 30 countries. To understand the ways that social group participation may contribute to older womens health and wellbeing, this paper examines the dynamics of leisure-based coping with positive emotions as the focus. Based on an analysis of responses to an open-ended question about meaningful experiences associated with being involved in the Red Hat Society, the sample of 272 members identified the main reasons for their involvement as chronic and acute stressors, challenging life transitions and daily hassles. In addition, they described four ways that participation helped them to manage these stressors: as a context for social support, emotional regulation, sustaining coping efforts, and meaning-focused coping. The results are discussed in relation to theory and previous evidence on the role of positive emotions and leisure in coping.

Taking a "peak" at leisure travelers' positive emotions.

There is ample evidence to suggest that positive emotions lead to valuable life outcomes. This study examines daily positive emotion development before, during, and after a leisure travel experience. The study measured positive emotions on a daily basis in 25 mature adult participants before, during, and after two leisure travel experiences. Consistent with the “peak” model in previous research, positive emotions overall—and joy and interest in particular—increased before leisure travel, were elevated during travel, and declined afterward. Implications for practice include managing positive emotions before and after leisure travel. Future research should consider positive emotions in other populations and other leisure experiences.

Blowing Open the Serious Leisure-Casual Leisure Dichotomy: What's In There?

Serious leisure and casual leisure have served as two contrasting concepts for describing leisure experiences. The purpose of this article is to reevaluate the traditional dichotomy of serious leisure-casual leisure in light of accumulated empirical evidence. Greater theoretical attention to the interconnectedness and continuity between the two concepts is advocated. Findings from an on-line survey with a group of women engaged in informal social leisure experiences were examined. Viewed through a multidimensional conceptual framework, which includes 13 dimensions ranging from effort to self-actualization to socialization and fun, the complexity of leisure experience reflects a continuum rather than a dichotomous conception. Further suggestions about delineating the interrelations among dimensions of leisure experience are discussed.

I did not have time to play growing up... So this is my play time. It's the best thing i have ever done for myself: what is play to older women?

Little is known about play in older womens leisure lives. An examination of The Red Hat Society®, a leisure-based social group, expanded an understanding of play by including older womens viewpoints. Because of the absence of literature about emotion and friendship in both play theory and evolutionary theory, our research questions included: how do older women define play, and what are the outcomes of older womens play? Three themes about womens play emerged from data analysis (a) a context for fun, laughter, and feeling good, (b) the chance to be silly and goofy, and (c) positive public reaction to play. Results are discussed by extending current conceptualizations of play theory and evolutionary theory and the roles of play in older womens leisure lives and their health and well-being.

Missing the Boat? A Playfully Serious Look at a Group Cruise Tour Experience

This manuscript fuses play, repeat behavior, and cruise tourism. First, I used a play lens to focus on an overlooked segment of the travel industry—mass cruise tourism. Second, I shifted the conceptual emphasis from the individual tourist to an exploration of why many members of a group cruise tour keep repeating the same experience. Third, in addressing the criticisms that most conceptualizations of tourism gloss over much of what is really going on for most people during the tourism process and empirical data on play are limited, I undertook a participant observation study of an annual group cruise tour. I used a dialectical approach to capture the complexities of cruise tourism behavior.

Therapeutic landscapes and postcolonial theory: a theoretical approach to medical tourism.

This paper draws on two conceptual frameworks, therapeutic landscapes and postcolonial theory, to discuss aspects of medical tourism not addressed in extant literature. Building on the intersection between postcolonial and therapeutic landscapes scholarship, it highlights inequalities related to the production of national therapeutic landscapes located in postcolonial regions as well as their discursive (re)positioning as medical tourism destinations. As a framework, therapeutic landscapes can facilitate an understanding of medical tourism sites as curative spaces which combine modern and alternative forms of medicine with travel and leisure. Postcolonial theory critiques the economic, moral and cultural tensions emerging from the intersection between corporations that provide cheaper and more attractive medical services, and the nations on the periphery struggling to offer high medical standards that may not be accessible to their own local populations. In an effort to enhance scholarship on medical tourism, these conceptual frameworks are offered as points of departure, rather than sites of arrival, through which critical dialog on medical tourism can be sustained and broadened.

I Could Probably Run a Marathon Right Now : Embodiment, Space, and Young Women's Leisure Experience

This research uses Camp Blaze, a firefighting camp for young women, to explore ways that the body and processes of embodiment are integral to learning about firefighting. We also address the role that the leisure space of the camp plays in simultaneously constraining and enabling young womens use and understanding of their bodies. Analysis of observational, interview, and photo data revealed that learning about firefighting involved several interconnected processes of embodiment. Results include how the processes of embodiment operated and the importance of learning and social context.

The role of playfulness in the leisure stress-coping process among emerging adults: an SEM analysis

A benefit of playfulness is facilitating stress coping, and leisure has been identified as a coping strategy. However, no research has examined whether playfulness facilitates using leisure to cope with stress. The process theory of stress coping shows that using leisure to cope with stress is a process involving not only coping strategies, but also emotional response and comprehensive coping outcomes. However, no study has used the process theory to examine the role of playfulness in the leisure stress-coping process. This study surveyed 195 university students about their psychological stress, playfulness, emotions and quality of life. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. Results suggest that being more playful leads university students to seek companionship through social leisure and to enhance mood through leisure pursuits but not use leisure to escape from stress. Results also support the process theory of stress coping by showing that personal factors like playfulness as well as emotional response and more comprehensive coping outcomes are important in the coping process.

Functional support associated with belonging to the Red Hat Society®, a leisure-based social network.

Abstract Researchers have addressed the structure of leisure-based social networks but have given little attention to their functional outcomes, especially among older women. A leisure-based social network popular among older women but little studied is the Red Hat Society®. Thus, we chose to address how older women describe the functional support they receive from one leisure-based social network, the Red Hat Society®. Data were gathered from more than 4,000 members. The findings indicated that functional support is multidimensional (e.g., spending time with friends, attention from others) and with few exceptions, positive. In addition, the functional support is primarily emotional and social in nature rather than informational and financial, as has previously been reported in social networks research.