Dive tourism in Luganville, Vanuatu: shocks, stressors and vulnerability to climate change

Luganville is a developing dive tourism destination region (DTDR) in Vanuatu, which relies on tourism. This article reports on the shocks and stressors faced by Luganville’s dive tourism sector and climate change’s exacerbation of these. The study’s methodology was based on rapid rural appraisal and case study principles, involving methods of semistructured interviews, group discussions, and personal observations. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Key shocks identified include cyclones, earthquakes, effect on demand due to media footage, and changes to international flights. Main stressors were starfish outbreaks and environmental degradation. Unlike the indigenous communities, expatriates show little concern for the potential impact of climate change, presenting response challenges that must incorporate different perspectives to develop effective adaptation options. Special Issue : scuba diving touris

Tourist Experience and Fulfilment: insights from positive psychology

What makes life worth living? Many people would argue that it is fulfilling experiences. These experiences are characterised by feelings of joy and pleasure, positive relationships and a sense of engagement, meaning and achievement. Tourism is arguably one of the largest self-initiated commercial interventions to promote well being and happiness on the global scale but yet there is absence in the literature on the topic of fulfilling tourist experiences from psychological perspectives. Drawing on insights and theories from the research field of positive psychology (the study of well being), this is the first edited book to evaluate tourist experiences from positive psychology perspectives. The volume addresses the important topic of fulfilment through the lens of the world's largest social global phenomenon tourism. In doing so, the book refreshes and challenges some aspects of tourist behaviour research. The chapters are grouped under three broad sections which reflect a range of positive psychological outcomes that personal holiday experiences can produce, namely; happiness and humour; meaning and self-actualisation and health and restoration. The book critically explores these fulfilling experiences from interdisciplinary perspectives and includes research studies from wide range of geographical regions. By analysing the contemporary fulfilling tourist experiences the book will provide further understanding of tourist behaviour and experience. Written by leading academics this significant volume will appeal to those interested in Tourism and Positive Psychology

Navigating Life-Course Transitions Through Tourism: A Dual Pathway Framework of Senior Wellbeing and Resilience

Seniors are particularly susceptible to mental health challenges when navigating life-course transitions, such as retirement or bereavement. Despite this, the potential of tourism to build resilience and enhance the wellbeing of seniors remains underexplored and conceptually underdeveloped. Drawing on positive psychology, this research critically examines how wellbeing derived from tourism contributes to seniors’ resilience against life-course adversities. Implementing a sequential two-phased research design combining biographical interviews with focus groups, guided by autobiographical sketches, this research unveils the compensatory and protective pathways through which each dimension of senior tourists’ wellbeing aids them in navigating life-course transitions. The manuscript proposes a dual pathway framework of senior tourist wellbeing and resilience. Complementing this, the manuscript innovates by presenting tourism-based interventions designed to enhance seniors’ resilience, aligning with the global healthy aging agenda purported by the United Nations. Future research should examine how tourism-based interventions mitigate the adverse impacts of navigating life-course adversities

Re‐thinking tourist wellbeing: An integrative model of affiliation with nature and social connections

Research on positive psychological outcomes of tourism has experienced exponential growth. However, a critical dimension of tourist wellbeing, affiliation, remains underexplored and conceptually underdeveloped. This study draws on 26 in-depth interviews with international tourists to Fiji to explore the influence of affiliation with nature and social connectedness on tourist wellbeing. Findings demonstrate the integral role of travel companionship, tourist affiliation with nature and connection with local people as critical determinants of positive psychological outcomes. An integrative model across the domains of gaze, practice and reflection is developed to demonstrate how affiliation with nature and social connectedness influence tourist wellbeing. Future research should explore the multi-sensual character and the therapeutic potential of tourist social encounters and interactions with nature and subsequent implications for tourist wellbeing

Generation tourism: towards a common identity

The purpose of this article is to highlight the implications of the indiscipline of tourism academia for a new generation of tourism academics. Generation Tourism is characterised by scholars with a multi-disciplinary education associated with a broad field of study and commonly considered to lack the advantages of a discipline-focused education with its strong theoretical and methodological foundations. The problem this article addresses relates to how new generations of scholars and their views on knowledge creation achieve ascendancy in ways that move on from existing paradigms and earlier cohorts of scholars. Our main argument is that Generation Tourism scholars would benefit from a more clearly developed and common academic identity. To begin the critical conversation around the identity of Generation Tourism we outline five possible points of departure. These points are: (1) learning from historical developments in parent disciplines; (2) spearheading inter-disciplinary scholarship; (3) working towards theoretical developments; (4) embracing mediating methodologies and (5) forming tourism nodes and networks. Recognising these as starting points rather than final statements, we hope that the conversation about Generation Tourism identity will continue in other forums

Tourists' happiness through the lens of positive psychology

The purpose of the thesis is to contribute to knowledge in tourism studies by linking\ud fresh concepts from psychology to tourist behaviour studies. The research field is\ud called positive psychology and stems from organised initiatives by mainstream and\ud prominent psychologists since the year 2000. The broad aim of positive psychology\ud is to investigate what makes life worth living and the central preoccupation is with\ud what human happiness means and how it can be measured.\ud \ud The thesis is divided into six chapters. Following an introductory chapter on\ud happiness, a detailed literature review covers key themes of positive psychology,\ud youth travel, cultural tourism, tourist motivation, tourist satisfaction and\ud methodological creativity. Each of the themes is divided into smaller sections in\ud which recent and salient works are discussed. Knowledge gaps related to the overall\ud theme of tourist happiness are identified in the review of these themes. To close the\ud gaps, the thesis then addresses three questions:\ud \ud 1) How can a positive psychology approach to understanding human motivation\ud contribute to a sound theory of tourist motivation?\ud 2) How can flow state methods from positive psychology contribute to a better\ud understanding of tourist satisfaction?\ud 3) How can the answers to the first two questions contribute to a conceptualisation of\ud a happy tourist?\ud \ud Three studies are presented and analysed through a positive psychology lens in\ud chapters 3, 4 and 5 to broadly address these questions. The studies analyse the\ud experiences of a group of Australian study-abroad university students in relation to\ud their travel year in Spain. The first and the last studies were conducted in Sydney\ud and the second study was conducted in Spain. The first is a motivation study which\ud consisted of a smaller qualitative investigation and a separate quantitative,\ud supportive study. Travel motives of the student group were investigated qualitatively\ud through an analysis of "a perfect day" at a destination. Using personal narrative\ud essays, travel motives of relationship/belonging, safety/comfort, curiosity/mental\ud stimulation and self-development were identified through this positive psychology\ud lens. In the supportive context study, motives of a group of backpackers were\ud investigated through motivation scales. It was shown that the students' travel motives \ud are similar to the motives of these other youth travellers. The essay approach thus\ud eases the measurement of motivation. It is shown that through descriptions of perfect\ud days similar travel motivations can be uncovered as in a more complex survey. By\ud simplifying the measurement (employing the simple question which is universal in its\ud application and is not culture, age nor gender specific) the positive psychology\ud approach contributes to a sound theory of tourist motivation.\ud \ud The second study is an analysis through in-depth interviews of the students'\ud immediate conscious experiences at Spanish cultural heritage sites. The aim of this\ud study was to identify immediate satisfaction themes from on-site experiences of the\ud students at these sites. It is shown that the students' immediate satisfaction is\ud characterised by challenge-skill balance, total concentration, autotelic (intrinsically\ud rewarding) events, time transformation and the related themes of mindfulness, object\ud focus, personal experience, calm/tranquility and discovery. It is further demonstrated\ud that the flow model from positive psychology was useful in uncovering this layer of\ud satisfaction and that it contributes to the overall picture of tourists' happiness.\ud \ud The last study is an analysis of the students' memorable experiences in Spain. These\ud experiences were analysed through personal narrative essays. It was found that the\ud satisfaction themes of challenge-skills balance and autotelic events featured in the\ud students' memorable experiences. Evidence of eudaimonia and surprise was also\ud uncovered. These themes, together with those identified in the motivation and the onsite\ud study further contribute to the exploratory picture of tourists' happiness.\ud \ud The sixth and final chapter recaps the contribution of the three studies and presents\ud a preliminary overview of tourists' happiness. Tourists' happiness through the lens of\ud positive psychology is a product of the travel motivations for relationships and\ud belonging, safety and comfort, curiosity and mental stimulation and a motive for\ud personal development. The tourists' happiness is also about the on-site and\ud memorable experience themes identified in the satisfaction studies. These tourist\ud experience themes are all linked to the three dimensions of happiness from positive\ud psychology: meaning, engagement and positive emotions. It is recommended that\ud future tourism research relevant to the issue of tourists' happiness and the positive\ud psychology field should be conducted. Suggested future research studies are: a\ud challenge-skill balance study, a positive emotions and meaning "study, a positive\ud psychology study on tourism education and a study of benefits of travel to tourists'\ud health

'Flow', sightseeing, satisfaction and personal development: exploring relationships via positive psychology

This conceptual paper begins with a short description of positive psychology and its\ud salient, 'flow' theory. It then briefly discusses previous research of 'flow'. A lack of\ud research of this optimal state in the tourism field and particularly in non-physical\ud activity tourism settings is highlighted. In this context, three key topics are identified\ud and discussed: the 'flow' state as a tool for understanding optimal sightseeing\ud experiences; the 'flow' state as a mechanism for understanding on-site tourist\ud satisfaction; and the 'flow' state as a function of tourists' personal development. The\ud paper concludes with a research agenda for tourism researchers interested in the 'flow'\ud model