The benefits of travel might begin long before the journey itself starts.
Regular travel makes people happier overall, with people who frequently travel more than 75 miles from home being around 7 percent happier overall.
Dr Chun-Chu Chen, the study’s first author, said:
“While things like work, family life and friends play a bigger role in overall reports of well-being, the accumulation of travel experiences does appear to have a small yet noticeable effect on self-reported life satisfaction.
It really illustrates the importance of being able to get out of your routine and experience new things.”
The findings are based on a survey of 500 Taiwanese adults about their travel experiences over the previous year.
They were asked how much time they spent planning, how many times they went away and how satisfied they were with their lives in general.
Just over half reported going on at least four pleasure trips per year.
The results showed that people who frequently discussed their travel plans were more likely to go on regular trips.
People who travelled more frequently reported greater overall satisfaction with their lives.
Dr Chen said:
“This research shows the more people talk about and plan vacations the more likely they are to take them.
If you are like me and chomping at the bit to get out of dodge and see someplace new, this research will hopefully be some additional good motivation to start planning your next vacation.”
Of course, not everyone travels for pleasure.
Many are required to travel for work and this can be considerably less enjoyable.
Frequent, long-distance travel has been linked to high levels of stress and loneliness and long-term health problems by research.
This helps to show that travel is more than just moving from one place to another: the pleasure comes from the meaning we ascribe to it.
Related
The study was published in the journal Tourism Analysis (Chen et al., 2020).
