Spa Executive May 2024

The importance of travel
for wellbeing
We know from separate studies, particularly
the Harvard Study of Adult Development,
that relationships are the main key to
happiness overall. And travel can help with
that. According to a 2020 Amex Trendex
study from American Express, 91% of
respondents say that the ability to travel is
important to their overall happiness, while
86% say travel is important to maintaining
healthy relationships with family and friends.
But that’s obviously not all it’s good for.
A 2022 study by Japanese researchers
designed to investigate the effects of a winter
vacation on individuals’ wellbeing found that
people who traveled had higher subjective
levels of wellbeing than those who did not.
The authors wrote that the findings
underline the importance of taking vacations
and savoring recovery experiences while off
work. They also highlighted the importance
of “mastery experiences,” which are activities
performed that distract from one’s job
by providing challenging experiences
and learning opportunities in other areas
and offer opportunities to experience
competence and proficiency. “People place
a high value on learning new skills and
knowledge and hard-won experiences while
on vacation, and such experiences may help
improve wellbeing,” they wrote, also noting
that simply experiencing something out of
the ordinary enhances wellbeing.
Another study backs up the idea that
the more we travel the happier we are. A
2021 study from the School of Hospitality
Business Management at Washington State
University found that frequent travelers are
happier with their lives than people who
don’t travel at all. Researchers found that
survey participants who reported regularly
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traveling at least 75 miles away from home
reported being about 7% happier when
asked about their overall wellbeing than
those who reported traveling very rarely or
not at all.
“While things like work, family life and friends
play a bigger role in overall reports of
wellbeing, the accumulation of travel
experiences does appear to have a small yet
noticeable effect on self-reported life
satisfaction,” study author Chu-Chu Chen
said. “It really illustrates the importance of
being able to get out of your routine and
experience new things.”
Finding of previous research by Chen found
that taking a leisure trip provides
opportunities for relaxation, detachment
from work, mastery experience, and
personal control. The research examined
the role of tourism experiences as a stress
reliever and as recovery and found that
these trips had positive effects on life
satisfaction. Short trips were found to help
people recover from work stress, while
longer trips provide more opportunities for
recovery experiences.
The role of novel experiences
in happiness
Some of the benefits are derived from a
human desire to seek out new experiences.
A 2021 study from New York University
found that new and diverse experiences are
linked to enhanced happiness, and that this
relationship is associated with greater
correlation of brain activity. The results,
authors said, revealed a previously unknown
connection between our daily physical
environments and our sense of wellbeing.
“Our results suggest that people feel
happier when they have more variety in
their daily routines – when they go to novel
places
and have a wider array of experiences,” said
researcher Catherine Hartley.
The study tracked people by GPS and
found that those who had more variability
in their physical location reported feeling
more positive: “happy,” “excited,” “strong,”
“relaxed,” and/or “attentive.” Subjects also
underwent MRI scans and results showed
that people for whom this effect was the
strongest exhibited greater correlation
between activity in brain regions associated
with the processing of novelty and reward.
Collectively, these studies underscore the
significant positive impact of travel and
vacation planning on overall happiness and
wellbeing. Whether it’s the anticipation, the
variety of new experiences, or the act of
traveling itself, each aspect contributes to
enhancing life satisfaction and mental health.