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A study of the impact of the expectation of a holiday on an individual's sense of well-being

Surrey European Management School, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK Tel: +44 (0)1483 873981; Fax: +44 (0)1483 259511; D.Gilbert{at}surrey.ac.uk

Junaida Abdullah

Surrey European Management School, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK Tel: +44 (0)1483 873981; Fax: +44 (0)1483 259511

This paper offers an investigation into what effect the expectation of holiday taking has on the sense of well-being of UK tourists. The well-being of the tourist is currently an under-researched area. This sphere of study is related to research which attempts to accountfor the perceived negative and positive affects regarding the state of affairs and the subjective judgments of an individual's lIfe domain.¹ As such, a study incorporating applications of well-being assessment is an important addition to the study of tourism. This study investigates whether anticipation of a holiday affects or changes the well-being of the tourist. The research design includes a non-holiday control group in order to identify whether there is any significant diference between the well-being of a holiday-taking group and a group who are not going on a holiday. Thefindings indicated signficant diferences between the holiday-taking group and the non-holiday-taking group in terms of current effect, their global well-being (lfte as a whole) and in three specific life domains: family, economic situation and health. It appears that those who are waiting to go on a holiday are much happier with their life as a whole, experience less negative or unpleasantfeelings and thus enjoy an overall net positive effect or pleasantfeelings. The holiday-taking group are also happier with their family, economic situation and health domains compared to the non-holiday-taking group. However, the effect is not strong enough to affect all the specific life domain aspects, such as the realm of nation. The overallfinding is that the anticipation of afavourable event (holiday trip) has affected the respondents' subjective well-being equilibrium. It is argued that this is because the respondents' level of effect (hedonic) has changed positively, thereby increasing their well-being. This in turn makes themfeel much happier and hence experience more pleasantfeelings.

Key Words: psychology • tourism • holiday • well-being • consumer behaviour

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