Tourism and Existential Transformation: An Empirical Investigation

Couched in the context of the experience economy 3.0, this research conceptualized transformations as changes in existential authenticity and anxiety, and phenomenologically explored the essence of a transformative tourist experience and subsequent long-term changes. This research uncovered nine chronologically ordered themes in which existentially oriented concerns were prevalent. It found that tourists did not reflect on existential givens in situ until a triggering episode initiated the meaning-making process. Existential anxiety felt post-trip was found to motivate tourists to resolve pertinent existential dilemmas and to initiate meaningful life changes. Participants sustained enhanced existential authenticity and became more sensitive to existential anxiety in their lives thereafter.

[1]  C. Prahalad,et al.  Co-creation experiences: The next practice in value creation , 2004 .

[2]  A. H. Maslow,et al.  Cognition of being in the peak experiences. , 1959, The Journal of genetic psychology.

[3]  Kennon M. Sheldon,et al.  Social roles as mechanisms for psychological need satisfaction within social groups. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  Natan Uriely,et al.  Drugs and Tourists’ Experiences , 2005 .

[5]  L. Farrand.  THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. , 1897, Science.

[6]  C. Rogers.  On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy , 1961 .

[7]  S. L. Ross.  Transformative Travel an Enjoyable Way to Foster Radical Change , 2010 .

[8]  M. Kernis,et al.  The role of authenticity in healthy psychological functioning and subjective well-being. , 2002 .

[9]  C. Weems,et al.  Paul Tillich's theory of existential anxiety: A preliminary conceptual and empirical examination , 2004 .

[10]  J. H. Gilmore,et al.  Welcome to the experience economy. , 1998, Harvard business review.

[11]  J. C’de Baca,et al.  Quantum change: ten years later. , 2004, Journal of clinical psychology.

[12]  Lorraine Brown.  Tourism: a catalyst for existential authenticity. , 2013 .

[13]  Graham Brown,et al.  Wellness tourists: in search of transformation. , 2011 .

[14]  Stephen Joseph,et al.  The Authentic Personality: A Theoretical and Empirical Conceptualization and the Development of the Authenticity Scale , 2008 .

[15]  E. Cohen.  A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences , 1979 .

[16]  Doreen Meier.  THE GENEALOGY OF MORALS , 2001 .

[17]  J. Kottler.  Making Changes Last , 2001 .

[18]  A. Mengers.  The Benefits of Being Yourself: An Examination of Authenticity, Uniqueness, and Well-Being , 2014 .

[19]  T. Hora,et al.  Existential psychotherapy. , 1962, Current psychiatric therapies.

[20]  J L Schwettman,et al.  The courage to be. , 1978, The EMT journal.

[21]  Tom Pyszczynski,et al.  A Terror Management Theory of Social Behavior: The Psychological Functions of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews , 1991 .

[22]  S. Deutsch,et al.  Caregiver's Anticipatory Grief in Dementia: A Pilot Study , 1991, International journal of aging & human development.

[23]  R. Peterson,et al.  In Search of Authenticity , 2005 .

[24]  Linda L. Price,et al.  River Magic: Extraordinary Experience and the Extended Service Encounter , 1993 .

[25]  Jason Loh.  Inquiry into Issues of Trustworthiness and Quality in Narrative Studies: A Perspective , 2015 .

[26]  Lorraine Brown.  The Transformative Power of the International Sojourn: an Ethnographic Study of the International Student Experience , 2009 .

[27]  Ning Wang,et al.  Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience , 1999 .

[28]  T. Stickle,et al.  Existential Anxiety in Adolescents: Prevalence, Structure, Association with Psychological Symptoms and Identity Development , 2006 .

[29]  W. Miller,et al.  The phenomenon of quantum change. , 2004, Journal of clinical psychology.

[30]  A. Giorgi,et al.  A Qualitative Effort to Describe Experience Scientifically Review ofThe descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: A modified Husserlian approach , 2009, History & Philosophy of Psychology.

[31]  Iis P. Tussyadiah.  Toward a Theoretical Foundation for Experience Design in Tourism , 2014 .

[32]  Magnus Englander,et al.  L’uso dell’intervista nella ricerca descrittiva fenomenologica nel campo delle scienze umane (The interview: Data collection in descriptive phenomenological human scientific research) , 2010 .

[33]  S. Filep,et al.  Moving Beyond Subjective Well-Being , 2014 .

[34]  E. Podolsky.  The meaning of anxiety. , 1953, Diseases of the nervous system.

[35]  K. Hefferon,et al.  Leaving It All Behind to Travel , 2013 .

[36]  W. Miller,et al.  Quantum change: Toward a psychology of transformation. , 1994 .

[37]  Chaim Noy.  THIS TRIP REALLY CHANGED ME Backpackers' Narratives of Self-Change , 2004 .

[38]  Jillian M. Rickly-Boyd.  Lifestyle climbing: Toward existential authenticity , 2012 .

[39]  D J Pesut.  Deep change. , 2001, Nursing outlook.

[40]  M. Kernis,et al.  A Multicomponent Conceptualization of Authenticity: Theory and Research , 2006 .

[41]  E. Carnegie,et al.  Pilgrimage: Journeying Beyond Self , 2006 .

[42]  B. A. Smith.  Existentialism , 1972 .

[43]  Xinran Y. Lehto,et al.  An existential conceptualization of the vacation cycle , 2015 .

[44]  J. Sartre,et al.  Being and Nothingness , 2022 .

[45]  K. Russell,et al.  Predictors of Interpersonal Growth in Volunteer Tourism: A Latent Curve Approach , 2010 .

[46]  Hyounggon Kim,et al.  Touristic quest for existential authenticity. , 2007 .