1st Edition

Tourists, Tourism and the Good Life

    242 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    242 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Tourism is arguably one of the largest self-initiated commercial interventions to create well-being and happiness on the entire planet. Yet there is a lack of specific attention to the ways in which we can better understand and evaluate the relationship between well-being and travel. The recent surge of scholarly work in positive psychology concerned with human well-being and flourishing represents a contemporary force with the potential to embellish and augment much current tourism study. This book maps out the field and then draws links between tourists, tourism and positive psychology. It discusses topics such as the issue of excess materialism and its fragile relationship with well-being, the value of positive psychology to lifestyle businesses, and the insights of the research field to spa and wellness tourism. This volume will interest those who study and practise tourism as well as scholars and graduate students in a range of disciplines such as psychology, sociology, business and leisure.

    Introduction to Chapter One  1. Scholarship in Psychology and Tourism  Section 1:  Introduction to Section 1 – Principally About Individuals  2. Flow and Tourist Satisfaction  3. Time, Tourism, Host Communities and Positive Psychology  4. Ethics, Tourism and Wellbeing  Section 2:  Introduction to Section 2 – Individuals and Tourism Contexts  5. Materialism in Tourism and its Alleviation Through Good Values  6. Lifestyle Businesses and Their Community Effects  7. Spa and Wellness Tourism and Positive Psychology  8. Summary, Synthesis and Future Directions.

    Biography

    Philip Pearce is a Foundation Professor of Tourism at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia and was appointed the First Professor of Tourism in Australia.

    Sebastian Filep is a Research Fellow in Travel and Wellbeing at the Centre for Tourism and Services Research of Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia.

    Glenn Ross is an Adjunct Professor of Tourism at James Cook University.