Meaningful tourism experiences and the cultivation of wellbeing effects: transformative practice of posttraumatic...

Travel following major traumatic events can serve as a catalyst for meaning reconstruction and enhanced wellbeing; however, empirical evidence supporting this relationship remains limited. This study examines how reflective and meaningful tourism experiences foster gratitude and multidimensional wellbeing in the post-pandemic context.

A sequential mixed-methods design was employed. Study 1 involved semi-structured interviews with 20 tourists to examine the psychological impacts of prolonged pandemic-related trauma and to identify meaningful tourism experiences. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Building on these qualitative insights, Study 2 developed and validated a scale measuring meaningful tourism experiences, and subsequently administered a survey to 714 respondents. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with bootstrapping was used to test the relationships among meaningful tourism experiences, gratitude, tourism wellbeing, and overall wellbeing.

Study 1 identified seven themes associated with pandemic-related trauma and tourism experiences. Among them, a core theme of meaningful tourism experiences comprised five dimensions: pleasure, freedom, personal growth, creating memories, and examining life. Study 2 confirmed this five-dimensional structure and demonstrated that such experiences significantly enhanced both eudaimonic and hedonic tourism wellbeing, as well as state gratitude. Eudaimonic tourism wellbeing and state gratitude mediated the effects on both subjective and psychological wellbeing, whereas hedonic tourism wellbeing mediated only subjective wellbeing. Trait gratitude also positively predicted wellbeing outcomes.

This study advances the understanding of tourism as a pathway to enhancing wellbeing after collective trauma and offers both theoretical and practical implications for designing transformative experiences.