Review of optimism, creativity and spirituality in tourism research

Purpose - Optimism, creativity, and spirituality are important variables in Positive Psychology that can lead to better lives. The authors believe these are also fundamental concepts that can bring a new understanding of the tourism experiences, particularly in the current trend of the 'experience economy'. The study aimed to explore optimism, creativity, and spirituality from a Positive Psychology perspective on tourism settings to deepen the understanding of the state of the art and develop ideas for improvement of tourism research experiences Design - An extensive systematic literature review was developed anchored on PRISMA (2009) guidelines. The search engine Online Knowledge Library (B-On) was used and the search terms 'Optimism', 'Creativity' and 'Spirituality' crossed individually with 'Tourism', 'Travel' and 'Visitor'. In-depth analysis considering the chosen inclusion/exclusion criteria were undertaken concluding with a sample of 31 references. Findings - Overall, results showed a lack of optimism studies on tourism, leading to an urgent need to endeavor in the challenge of developing research. Creativity in tourism is mainly used as a background for the place and its culture and considers organizational, structural and product innovation development. Further, tourism can be seen as a spiritual activity seeking personal enrichment and fulfillment. Originality of the research - This study considers three variables not usually applied to tourism contexts as is clear by the low number of references found. The application of these and consequently of Positive Psychology on tourism is per se new, allowing the emergence of novel and important discussions on tourism.ARDITI - Agencia Regional para o Desenvolvimento de Investigacao, Tecnologia e Inovacao (Regional Agency for Development of Research, Technology and Innovation of Madeira) [M1420-09-5369-FSE-000001, Madeira 14-20

Exploring creativity and wellbeing characteristics of Portuguese tourists

The purpose of this study was to explore creativity and wellbeing characteristics in a sample of Portuguese tourists while simultaneously building a creative tourist profile. A sample of 857 Portuguese tourists with ages ranging from 17 to 76 years was used. The Creative Personality Scale short form and the Tourism Experience Scale were applied for data collection. The results indicated positive and significant correlations between wellbeing and creativity. Women showed higher levels of wellbeing. Older tourists performed better in creativity. Age had a significant influence only on creativity and not on tourists' overall wellbeing. Non-students obtained higher and significant scores for creativity, while overall wellbeing was not influenced by having a job (student vs non-student). A significant multiple linear regression model suggested that wellbeing and age are significant predictors of creativity in tourism settings. Wellbeing rankings showed positive emotions in first place, creativity in second place and meaning in third place. In conclusion, the results indicated that creativity and wellbeing are important factors for tourism experiences and that Portuguese tourists' psychological profile already shows evidence that unique and memorable experiences are essential in tourism destinations.ARDITI -the Regional Agency for Development of Research, Technology and Innovation of Madeira [M142009-5369-FSE-000001]FCT-Foundation for Science and TechnologyPortuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [UIDB/04020/2020]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio