Chun-Chu Chen

Health and Wellness Benefits of Travel Experiences A Literature Review

Tourism has been widely regarded as a mentally and physically healthy pursuit. Thus, recent studies in tourism have paid more attention to the benefits of travel experiences. However, most studies pertaining to the topic have been conducted in the fields of organizational behavior and health science. Therefore, this research attempts to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on the health and wellness benefits of travel. The results revealed that positive effects of travel experiences on perceived health and wellness have been demonstrated by multiple studies. These benefits have been found to gradually diminish after a vacation. It was also found that there is a lack of research demonstrating the positive effect of travel experiences on physical health. Based on these findings, directions for future research are addressed.

Social Biases of Destination Perceptions

This research examines how destination perceptions are socially constructed in the context of international tourism. Building on social identity theory, this research proposes that the process of international stereotyping might be triggered when two countries have conflicts, resulting in the formation of negatively biased country and destination images. The results show that individuals who have higher identification with their own country (guest country) might possess poorer evaluations of the host country. The results further indicate that biased perceptions are fairly solid in that they might not be dispelled after actual visitation. The results of this research provide evidence that destination image might be a collective construction and that biased destination perceptions might be determinant factors influencing destination choice decisions.

Tourism Experiences as a Stress Reliever Examining the Effects of Tourism Recovery Experiences on Life Satisfaction

The effect-recovery theory (Meijman and Mulder 1998) and the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll 1998) suggest that taking a leisure trip provides opportunities for relaxation, detachment from work, mastery experience, and personal control. This research examined the role of tourism experiences as a stress reliever, particularly focusing on the underlying psychological experiences associated with recovery. Further, this research examined how these recovery experiences during a leisure trip influence perceived life satisfaction after the trip. It was found that all four dimensions of tourism recovery experiences had positive effects on life satisfaction. The results also revealed that even a weekend getaway can help people to recover from work stress, while longer trips provide more opportunities for recovery experiences.

Cross-Strait Tourism and Generational Cohorts

This study utilized generational cohort theory to enhance understanding of the motivation and destination image of Mainland Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan (i.e., cross-strait tourism). With 350 Chinese tourists traveling to Taiwan, unique characteristics of four generations were identified (e.g., the Republican generation was more highly motivated to visit friends and relatives than the other generations, the Social Reform generation had greater hedonic motivation for visiting Taiwan than either the Consolidation or the Republican generations). The inconsistent characteristics between cohorts could be attributed to generational differences in past historical experiences. Thus, findings suggest that an individual’s life experience could play an important role in forming an image of the destination where the experience is related to, and also suggest that cross-strait tourism, one of the unique contexts of quasi-states tourism between politically divided countries, has a strong generational component, and tourism policies between such countries must take this into account.

The Salient and Organic Images of Taiwan as Perceived by Mainland Chinese Tourists

This research investigates the salient and organic images of Taiwan as perceived by Mainland Chinese tourists. Using the method of free elicitation to ask respondents to describe freely their holistic, psychological and unique images of Taiwan, this research obtained abundant marketing information from 57 potential visitors and 59 actual visitors. The results show that Taiwan is perceived to be a beautiful island with attractive nature and culture. The results also reveal that cultural proximity makes Taiwan a sentimental destination for the Mainland Chinese. The above results provide evidence that free elicitation is an effective method of measuring destination image.

The Roles of Perceived Travel Benefits, Importance, and Constraints in Predicting Travel Behavior:

Previous studies have demonstrated the experiential, health, and relaxation benefits of leisure travel. Building on the model of attitude importance, this research further examined how Americans perceive travel benefits and how their perceptions influence their travel behavior. The results showed that the three factors of travel benefits—experiential, health, and relaxation benefits, had positive effects on frequency of travel through perceived importance of traveling. These findings suggest that the tourism industry can encourage the public to purchase more tourism services by showing them tourism provides benefits beyond satisfaction and enjoyment. However, it was also found that perceived travel constraints had negative effects on travel behavior through perceived travel benefits and importance of traveling, which suggests that it is crucial for employers to understand the benefits of travel and encourage their employees to use their vacation days.

Antecedents and Consequences of Work-Related Smartphone Use on Vacation: An Exploratory Study of Taiwanese Tourists

Given the proliferation of smartphone use, more and more people feel obligated to stay connected to work during evening hours, weekends, or vacations. Therefore, building on work–family border theory (Clark 2000), which suggests the blending of work and nonwork domains can result in work–family interference, this study investigated the potential problems of work-related smartphone use on vacation. Derived from a sample of 500 Taiwanese smartphone users, results revealed that nearly 40% of respondents used their smartphones for work during their most recent vacation, while a majority reported negative impacts as a result of using smartphones for work purposes on vacation. Several factors influencing whether people would choose to use smartphones for work during vacation were also identified. These findings provide important theoretical and practical implications.

Developing a Market-Specific Destination Image Scale: a Nomological Validation Approach

This study intended to develop a scale to measure the image of a destination as perceived by tourists from a specific market. Based on Echtner and Ritchies framework of destination image, cognitive image was conceptualized as the composite of common image and two salient dimensions—unique and atmospheric images. The scales measuring these three constructs were validated within the theoretical framework of attitude theory. The results showed that all three constructs had significant effects on affective image and travel intention, while travel intention could be better predicted by two salient dimensions. These findings highlighted the importance of capturing salient dimensions and attributes in the process of scale development.

The impact of country and destination images on destination loyalty: a construal-level-theory perspective

ABSTRACT This study examined the impact of a stereotypical image of a country and the image of a tourism destination on destination loyalty. In particular, this study compared these impacts between two groups of destinations – long- and short-haul international destinations – from the perspective of construal-level theory. Data were collected from 500 Taiwanese tourists in 2014 and analyzed through multiple steps, including MANOVA, ANOVA, CFA, and SEM with multi-group analysis. The results showed that both a widely held image of a country and a destination image are likely to affect tourists’ loyalty to a destination; however, country stereotyping plays a more important role than the destination image does in predicting the behavioral intention to visit a long-haul destination. Theoretical and practical implications for marketing of international destinations are provided.

The discriminant effect of perceived value on travel intention: visitors versus nonvisitors of Florida Keys.

This research attempts to examine the relationships between perceived value and travel intention while comparing the differences between previous visitors and nonvisitors of the Florida Keys. Results from a sample of 565 respondents revealed that perceived value had a positive association with travel intention, while high perceived value did not always lead to high travel intention. As shown in this research, many previous visitors did not want to visit the Florida Keys in the foreseeable future because they wanted to visit other destinations. This article concludes with recommendations for the tourism industry to maintain the perceived novelty of their products.