Exploring tourists’ stress and coping strategies in leisure travel
Publication Date
12-1-2020
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Tourism Management
Volume
81
DOI
10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104167
Abstract
Leisure travel can mediate daily stress, but also provoke stress. Tourists experience multiple stress during their vacations. The aim of this study was to identify what types of stress tourists encounter during their travel experiences and what strategies they use to cope with stress. Using semi-structured interviews and participant observation, the study findings reveal that tourists encounter four major types of stress (i.e., service-provider-related stress, traveler-related stress, travel-partner-related stress, and environment-related stress) during their vacations and use many strategies (i.e., problem-focused and emotion-focused coping) to cope with stress. These findings not only contribute to tourism research by documenting specific types of stress in the travel context and exploring new insights into ways of coping with stress, but also provide suggestions for how tourism and hospitality professionals should modify programs/experiences in response to tourists’ stress and the need to cope with stress during travel experiences.
Funding Number
GD18XGL51
Funding Sponsor
National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences
Keywords
China, Emotion, Happiness, Intervention, Leisure, Pleasure travel, Stress coping, Well-being
Department
Hospitality, Tourism, and Event Management
Recommended Citation
Mingfang Zhu, Jie Gao, Linan Zhang, and Shenglang Jin. "Exploring tourists’ stress and coping strategies in leisure travel" Tourism Management (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104167
