Tourists, Tourism and the Good Life

Citation

Korstanje, M.E. (2012), "Tourists, Tourism and the Good Life", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 162-164. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111211197863

Even though considerable attention has been drawn to human emotions in psychology and psychiatry, today there is a gap that helps scholars understand how, by means of experiences, the cognitive system and emotions are articulated. In this context the existing tourism‐related research has been historically interested in developing new methods and theories to explain why, how and under what circumstances we experience pleasure and happiness. However, these studies do not take into account the connection of sadness in such a process, nor its significance to the onset of happiness.

Based on the assumptions that the travel is a cross‐culture experience, Phillip Pearce, Sebastian Filep and Glenn Ross consider that positive experiences led by travel merits being a fertile source of analysis in psychology research. Engagement and meaning are two key concepts for readers to understand the development of this intriguing book. In terms of connectivity, that way, trips can be deemed as a connection between anticipation (expectance), satisfaction (engagement) and meaning (experience). This human desire is repeatedly examined throughout all chapters of this valuable work. The first section refers to the main aspects, limitations and approaches of psychology in the study of tourism issues. Second, the authors weave a robust framework to illustrate the experience of ordinary people in what a good life represents. The goals of this project are twofold; on the one hand it provides readers with an understanding about the psychological reasons that trigger the tourist‐travel. On another hand, Pearce, Filep and Ross shed light on the value of wellbeing not only to determine under what conditions a good life are possible, but also to bring new methods to make education more efficient.

The reading of this project stimulates interesting thoughts regarding the possibilities of psychology in tourism fields. To some extent, positive psychology researchers have historically contributed in the study of psychological wellbeing, happiness and good experiences. These contributions are brilliantly studied in this insight chapter, most likely one of stronger of entire book. Nonetheless, the world of emotions sometimes seems to be very hard to grasp even for psychologists. From Wundt or Skinner to Freud, a wide range of psychologists emphasized the need to comprehend not only the human forces behind our behaviour in daily life, but also how that pleasure worked. These types of interests paved the pathways to the advent of a psychology of tourism.

Important studies on this perspective remind us that memory and boredom, as mental processes, are often enabled depending on the state of novelty or surprise in subjects. It is interesting to note the primary concerns in Pearce, Ross and Filep appear to be the discovery of new theories to expand the knowledge of psychological motivations. Therefore, Abraham Maslow's theory about the hierarchies of needs is cited and discussed in every chapter that compounds this book. The heritage of Maslow in the inception of the psychology of motivation has been of paramount importance for psychology of tourism. In addition, it is explored the contributions of the different founding scholars, who had, in recent years, made tourism a scientific discipline of research. However, one might speculate that there has been a sufficient predominance of positive psychology and its methodologies which should be debated. New methods and techniques should be introduced in the advance of tourism‐related education. The profundity of emotions requires news innovative and all‐encompassing methods beyond the classic scales and close‐ended questionnaires. The question to what extent tourism contributes to a good life or a memorable experience is addressed in the successive chapters where the concept of Generation T is placed under the lens of scrutiny. This generation has certainly contributed to the mobility and technology advance worldwide.

Seen in perspective, Tourists, Tourism and the Good Life seems to be structured in two different sections containing four chapters which can be read independently with the primary theme of the book. Part one encompasses topics related to ethics, individual emotions, positive psychology and the influence of wellbeing among host community members as well as the reactions and perspectives of individual residents along with mass tourism. Rather, the second section is aimed at debating to what extent tourism alleviates the deeper problems materialism engenders and impedes hosts' wellbeing. Basically, this is the strongest and striking side of this work simply because it denounces the pervasiveness of tourism as a generator of wellbeing and wealth but at higher costs not every stakeholder may absorb. The lack of material dependence that tourism generates in local communities sometimes has serious negative impacts for community and its environment.

In the foregoing, this book makes interesting contributions make to the field of education and training for tourism and hospitality. Nevertheless, to some point it loses sight of the primary goal illustrated on the preface. As many tourism‐related studies concentrated in psychology, Pearce, Filep and Ross fail to explain the connection between happiness, experience and wellbeing simply because they ignore the pivotal role played by sadness, trauma and repression in the articulation of what an experience represents for the human mind. Pleasure and hedonism are overemphasized over other aspects of emotions such as fear or sadness. Scholars who want to delve into positive emotions derived from travels should take into consideration how trauma operates. Furthermore, Maslow (1954) was widely criticized because the hierarchy of needs does not correspond with empirical fieldwork. Depending on the environment and context, Maslow trivialized the fact that human beings, unlike animals, developed the uncanny ability to alternate grounding and superior needs at the same time. The supposed lineal prosecution among need, motivation and satisfaction seems to be false or at least an adequate belief.

This book characterizes ultimately a surface examination of the history of psychology and psychiatry leaving behind their most important clinical legacy. As given in the previous argument, the authors go through to conceptual theories which have nothing to do with the clinical psychology of emotions. After all, this effort represents a new promising understanding of the tourism field, but unfortunately ends in a similar quandary as other already existing books. How might scholars connect the cognitive system to the deep world of emotions seems to be an unresolved quest in tourism‐related research. This valuable book is intended for practitioners, policy‐makers, scholars and advanced students whose interests go through the psychology of emotions, the sense of wellbeing and travel experience.