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Savouring tourist experiences after aholidaySebastian Filepab, Dan Caoc, Min Jiangd & Terry DeLacyd

a Department of Tourism, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56,Dunedin 9054, New Zealandb Centre for Tourism and Services Research, College of Business,Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australiac School of History, Culture and Tourism, Sichuan NormalUniversity, No. 5 Jingan Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu 610068,Chinad Centre for Tourism and Services Research, College of Business,Victoria University, P.O. Box 14428, Melbourne, Victoria 8001,AustraliaPublished online: 14 Oct 2013.

To cite this article: Sebastian Filep, Dan Cao, Min Jiang & Terry DeLacy (2013) Savouring touristexperiences after a holiday, Leisure/Loisir, 37:3, 191-203, DOI: 10.1080/14927713.2013.842731

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2013.842731

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Leisure/Loisir, 2013Vol. 37, No. 3, 191–203, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2013.842731

Savouring tourist experiences after a holiday

Sebastian Filepa,b*, Dan Caoc , Min Jiangd and Terry DeLacyd

aDepartment of Tourism, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand; bCentrefor Tourism and Services Research, College of Business, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria,Australia; cSchool of History, Culture and Tourism, Sichuan Normal University, No. 5 Jingan Road,Jinjiang District, Chengdu 610068, China; dCentre for Tourism and Services Research, College ofBusiness, Victoria University, P.O. Box 14428, Melbourne, Victoria 8001, Australia

(Received February 2013, final version received July 2013)

Currently, there are no major models of savouring in leisure and tourism studies. Thispaper reports on an exploratory study that investigated how tourists reminisce about,or retrospectively savour, their holiday experiences. We aimed to identify which pos-itive emotions are experienced by tourists when they reminisce about past holidayevents and what types of tourist experiences are associated with their positive emo-tions. Using thematic content analysis, we examined 181 written travel blogs of a groupof Chinese independent tourists following their trip to Australia. The emotion of joy wasthe most savoured emotion, followed by interest, contentment and love. Joy, interest andcontentment were most commonly linked to experiences that involved observations ofnatural scenery, while love was the emotion that was linked to acts of kindness with thelocals. The study reported in the paper supports existing knowledge on the relationshipbetween experiencing positive emotions and being in nature.

Keywords: positive; emotions; memories; savouring; well-being

Peu d’études de tourisme et/ou de loisirs ont exploré l’expérience de la dégustation.Ce papier présent une enquête qui examine la façon dont les touristes évoquent leursexpériences de vacances. Plus spécifiquement, nous avons cherché à identifier quelstypes d’expériences touristiques sont associés avec leurs émotions positives. En utilisantl’analyse de contenu thématique, nous avons examiné 181 écrites de blogue de voyaged’un groupe de touristes chinois indépendants, suite à leurs voyages en Australie. Lajoie fut l’émotion la plus décrite, suivie par l’intérêt, le contentement et l’amour. La joie,l’intérêt et la satisfaction étaient les émotions les plus souvent liées à des expériencesqui s’applique a des observations de paysages naturels, tandis que l’amour est l’émotionqui été liée à des actes de bonté avec les gens locaux. Cette étude démontre la relationentre les émotions positives et les êtres naturels.

Mots-clés: émotions positives; souvenirs; bien-être

Introduction

Psychology has traditionally been dominated by a focus on distress and dysfunction(Diener, 1984); however, the recent emergence of positive psychology as an integrativeresearch domain (Seligman, 2011) has led to fresh interest in understanding positive sub-jective experiences (Bryant, 2003). Within this new research context, there is a renewed

*Corresponding author. Email: sebastian.filep@otago.ac.nz

© 2013 Canadian Association for Leisure Studies / Association canadienne d’études en loisir

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interest in research on the importance of positive reminiscence to well-being (Bryant,2003). In the following pages, we examine how tourist experiences are savoured by indi-viduals when they positively reminisce about their holidays, a topic that has thus far beenneglected by researchers. Savouring is important because, as a cognitive form of emotionregulation, it is used to maintain and extend positive emotional experiences (Bryant, 1989).A theoretical model of savouring (Bryant, 2003) suggests that positive emotions (love,interest, joy and contentment) are maintained and extended while savouring because theydraw attention to anticipation of upcoming positive events, appreciation of current plea-surable events and reminiscence about past positive experiences (Tugade & Fredrickson,2004). Emotions, such as love, interest, joy and contentment, are complex feelings thatcomprise multiple components ranging from the purely subjective to the purely physio-logical (Lucas, Diener, & Larsen, 2009). By looking at how these emotions are regulatedthrough savouring, we are better able to understand their contribution to leisure, tourismand well-being. An important link between positive emotions, savouring and tourist expe-riences has been highlighted by Tugade and Fredrickson (2004). They suggested thatsavouring prolongs the duration of positive emotional experiences when thinking aboutthe impending arrival at a summer destination (anticipation), when savouring pleasurablemoments with friends during a vacation (current pleasant events) and when relishing thememories of a great holiday after returning home (reminiscence). Through a study oftourists’ written reviews of their holiday experiences, this paper examines how touristsreminisce about (or retrospectively savour) their holiday experiences. Before outlining ourexploratory study, we review literature on positive emotions in relation to tourist experi-ences and we define positive emotions; this review situates the study within the larger bodyof knowledge related to positive emotions in leisure, tourism and the pursuit of well-being(Seligman, 2011).

Positive emotions in relation to tourist experiences

Positive emotions are intense feelings at the forefront of each individual’s mind that areintrinsically desirable and pleasant (Fredrickson, 1998). It is understood that tourist experi-ences are characterized by heightened emotional states (Brunner-Sperdin, Peters, & Strobl,2012; Hosany & Gilbert, 2010), which may lead us to believe that tourist experiences areoften intrinsically desirable and pleasant. A small number of previous studies in tourismhave investigated the relationship between emotions and overall satisfaction (del Bosque &San Martin, 2008), as well as determinants of post-consumption emotions (Muller, Tse, &Venkatasubramaniam, 1991). Yet, while research into dark tourist experiences and negativetourist emotions (such as fear and hatred) is well established (Dann, 1998; Institute for DarkTourism Research, 2012; Stone & Sharpley, 2008), few leisure or tourism researchers haveexamined positive emotions in the context of their fields (Mitas, Yarnal, Adams & Ram,2012). This research gap is critical to address in order to better understand the contributionof positive emotions to leisure experiences (Han & Patterson, 2007). More than this, theexploration of this research gap may lead toward a more holistic view of tourist well-being,as will be demonstrated in the concluding section of the paper.

Those who have examined positive emotions in the context of tourism have tendedto adopt a peak model (Clawson & Knetsch, 1966; Graburn, 2001) of positive emotions,suggesting that positive emotions peak during the onsite travel phase and decline after-wards (Mitas et al., 2012). In the study by Mitas et al. (2012), findings show that positiveemotions overall, and joy and interest in particular, increase in the period leading up toleisure travel, peak during leisure travel and decline afterwards. Similarly, in Nawijn’s

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study (2010), a holiday happiness curve was developed, where it was argued that peopleexperience the value of holidays in waves; affective happiness peaks during a holiday anddrops soon after as positive emotions quickly dissipate. The implication of both the peakmodel and the happiness curve is that positive emotions are only of temporary personalvalue to tourists, as pleasure effects quickly disappear. Here, we challenge this implica-tion by highlighting the value of recalled (or retrospectively savoured) positive emotionalexperiences. Studies of tourist recollections through theoretical lenses of memory work(Small, 1999), mindfulness–mindlessness (Moscardo & Pearce, 1986) and autobiographies(Hammond & Fivush, 1991) have not focused on investigations of positive emotions of joy,interest, contentment and love. Mitas et al. (2012) highlight that retrospective measures ofpositive emotions may be superior for predicting choice and there is a need for assessing thelonger-term effects of positive emotions arising from leisure and travel. Goossens (2000)has also found that experiential processes such as daydreaming play a key role in desti-nation choice behaviour. Hence, understanding positive emotions retrospectively becomescrucial in further developing the peak model (Graburn, 2001), the literature on destinationchoice prediction (Goossens, 2000), as well as deciphering the longer-term, well-beingeffects from leisure travel (Mitas et al., 2012).

Classifying and interpreting positive emotions

A key theory that has been used to define human positive emotions is the broaden and buildtheory. The basic premise of Fredrickson’s (2001) broaden and build theory is that experi-encing positive emotions has an expansive effect on individuals. According to Fredrickson(2001), when people experience joy, interest, contentment and love, they form better friend-ships and coalitions are more likely to cement. Joy is characterized by playing, pushingthe limits and being creative; interest is about urges to explore, take in new informa-tion and new experiences; contentment is about sitting back and appreciating current lifecircumstances; and finally, love is about experiencing the above three emotions in closerelationships (Fredrickson, 2001). Joy urges play behaviour and makes people more cre-ative (Frijda, 1999), interest facilitates the pursuit of novel information and experiences(Fredrickson, 1998), and contentment leads to a more coherent and positive self-image(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Fredrickson, 1998).

Our exploratory study of savouring involves the examination of positive emotions expe-rienced by a group of Chinese tourists. Using Fredrickson’s (2001) theory, the positiveemotions of joy, interest, contentment and love have previously been documented withChinese individuals, albeit not yet in tourism contexts (Gao & Tong, 2010; Ma, 2006; Ren& Ye, 2005). Wang and Guo (2008) conducted two studies with Chinese respondents usingthe broaden and build theory. Their results show that compared with neutral or negativeemotions, the positive emotions promoted cognitive flexibility of the respondents. Theseresults were consistent with those of Western studies on the effects of positive emotionson cognitive control. Ma, Li and Liu (2005) have also identified the four key positive emo-tions in Chinese individuals and applied the theory to education. They have shown that thepresence of joy, interest, contentment and love improves students’ efficiency in learning.It was hence appropriate to extend Fredrickson’s (2001) classification and interpretation ofpositive emotions to our tourism study with Chinese respondents.

Aim

We conducted an Australian-based study with a group of Chinese independent tourists. So,the aim of our exploratory study was to understand which of the four positive emotions (joy,

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interest, contentment and love) were the most common when Chinese tourists reflected ontheir Australian holiday experiences, and which tourist experiences were associated withthose four emotions (e.g., enjoying food or observing Australian fauna). It is estimatedclose to 40% of all travel by Chinese tourists to Australia is undertaken by independenttourists (Tourism Research Australia (TRA), 2011).

Method

To meet the aim of evaluating positive emotions in the group of Chinese indepen-dent tourists following their Australian holiday, two main methodological options wereconsidered: (1) self-report measures (typically brief questionnaires and checklists), and(2) non-self-report measures (e.g., observer reports, facial measures and physiologicalmeasures) (Lucas et al., 2009; McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1971; Russell, Weiss, &Mendelsohn, 1989). While most non-self-report measures are costly and outside the realmof the social science world of leisure and tourism, the self-report measures are generallyconsidered reliable, valid, easy and quick to administer.

We evaluated positive emotions retrospectively through self-reported travel blogs, in asimilar manner to the work of Pearce (2011) on tourists’ emotional reactions to poverty.Schaad (2008) comments that the internet fosters “an authenticity in the accounts thatretain the style, idiosyncrasies and biases of the writers while at the same time allow-ing for the free expression of perceptions without artistic affectation” (p. 201). Travelblogs, as part of user-generated content (UGC) play an increasingly important role forinformation search and travel planning behaviour related to destination choices, trans-portation and accommodation options (Akehurst, 2009). They also serve as platforms forpersonal reflections on holiday experiences after a trip. Blogs are therefore replacing writ-ten travel diaries, which were once frequently used to record special holiday memories(Akehurst, 2009).

Travel blog analysis is a less orthodox self-report method than the scales and checklistsin evaluating emotions, but the use of blogs was more appropriate for the purposes of thisstudy. Travel blogs better meet equivalence of constructs criteria between cultures than thequantitative measures (Mio, Barker, & Tumambing, 2009; Pedrotti, 2011). Pedrotti (2011)notes three types of equivalence in cross-cultural research: (1) conceptual equivalence (aparticular construct, such as emotion, may not have the same meaning in different culturalgroups), (2) linguistic equivalence (we may not be able to use a particular measure acrosscultures due to language differences) and (3) metric equivalence (different cultures mayendorse specific ends of a continuum on a metric scale).

Travel blogs do not impose definitions of positive emotions on respondents, ensur-ing conceptual equivalence. While the broaden and build theory (Fredrickson, 2001)informed the travel blog analysis, respondents freely described their sense of joy, inter-est, contentment and love. Linguistic equivalence was also addressed in this study, astravel blogs are not designed by a researcher (like the self-report checklists and the ques-tionnaires). Native Chinese speakers are the blogs’ authors and, therefore, native Chinesespeakers helped analyze the blogs to ensure linguistic equivalence. Metric equivalence wasmet. The travel blogs allowed for free expression and no scale items were used.

Furthermore, travel blogs are an authentic source of information (Schaad, 2008).Authors often have no vested interest in the product and no intention to manipulate thereaders, so desirability bias (exaggerating responses to please the researcher) is elimi-nated (Langer & Beckman, 2005). Independent tourists frequently use internet social mediafor travel information because the opinions and accounts of personal product experiences

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found on an internet forum are likely to be judged as trustworthy accounts from fellow con-sumers (Pearce, Murphy, & Brymer, 2009). Analyses of travel blogs were hence adoptedfor this investigation due to the strengths outlined above.

Data analysis

We searched for and documented evidence of joy, interest, contentment and love by adopt-ing the same definitions Fredrickson (2001) used in her broaden and build theory paper.For joy, we found evidence of playing, pushing the limits and being creative in the partic-ipants’ travel blogs. For interest, descriptions of urges to explore, take in new informationand new experiences and expand the self were investigated. For contentment, descriptionsof sitting back, appreciating current life circumstances were analyzed. Finally, evidence ofexperiencing the above three emotions in close relationships uncovered the love emotionin these travel blogs.

Our analysis of the blogs was conducted during the whole month of April 2011 – apopular month for independent Chinese tourists to Australia. As many international travelblog websites are used by native English speakers (e.g., Travelblogs.com or Lonely Planet’sThorn Tree), the selected website for this study was www.qyer.com. This website pro-vides travel blogging and pre-booking services for over one million Chinese independenttourists (Qiongyou, 2012). Stories that featured in the Australian section of the websitewere selected for the analysis; a total of 400 stories were identified in this section; whileall 400 stories were initially reviewed, 181 Australian stories were complete and containedall demographic information. Therefore, 181 travel blogs were ultimately chosen. As inPearce’s (2011) travel blogs analysis, the basis for the selection of the stories was to ensurea comprehensive data set, similar to the sample sizes used when representative and randomsamples are drawn from published marketing studies of tourists’ attitudes (Pearce, 2011;Veal, 2000).

The data were analyzed thematically through the NVivo 8 software (QSR InternationalPty Ltd., Doncaster, VIC, Australia) (Crowley, Harre, & Tagg, 2002). For the purposesof this analysis, quotes were defined as excerpts from travel blogs of up to 100 words inlength. Two native Chinese tourism researchers, trained in qualitative data analysis, firstindependently decided on the choice of quotes from the travel blogs that resembled thefour positive emotions. Fredrickson’s (2001) definitions of joy, interest, contentment andlove were used as the guide. The final quotes were determined following analysis by a thirdtourism researcher who is familiar with the broaden and build theory. The concept of theo-retical saturation guided the analysis (Krueger, 1994; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Dominantthemes consistently recurred after the analysis of the first 40 blogs. The use of multiplecoders was akin to procedures by Mitas, Qian, Yarnal and Kerstetter (2011) in their studyof tourists’ positive emotions. The percentage of matching codes for commonly codedmaterial was 90%.

Findings

To gain a preliminary profile, study participants’ demographic information was first col-lected. While the demographic data (age, gender, length of stay, expenditure) was collected,all information remained anonymous. The visitor profile analysis revealed that 57% ofthe blog writers are female. The average length of stay in Australia for the whole sample

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was 12.5 days (length of stay varied from 3 days to 90 days). The most popular destina-tions were Sydney, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, Brisbane, Cairns, the Gold Coastand Tasmania. More than 60% of the 181 tourists travelled to four to seven of the abovedestinations.

The positive emotions analysis followed. Tourist experiences were linked to each pos-itive emotion. The choice of experiences (e.g., interaction with fauna or appreciation ofnatural scenery) was based on TRA’s key tourist experiences of Chinese tourists (TRA,2011). The analysis refers to various aspects of the tourist experience (e.g., environment,food, facilities and activities) among others, so the experience was considered in a holisticway.

Direct quotes corresponding to each positive emotion were identified. Results are sum-marized in Table 1. The table lists the four emotions, shows coding interpretations foreach emotion from Fredrickson (2001), exemplary quotes that state how each emotion wasexpressed and lists key savoured tourist experiences. To strengthen the linkage of eachemotion to a particular type of savoured experience, the percentage next to each emotionshows the frequency that emotion was identified at least twice. For example, the positiveemotion of love was identified at least twice in 65% of the blogs or in 118 out of the181 blogs.

Any missing percentages relate to a variety of experiences that were excluded fromthe table, as they could not be classified based on TRA (2011). For instance, the expe-riences that relate to interest in the table add up to 75%, so 25% relates to a variety ofother unclassified experiences. Some of these other experiences included diverse shoppingencounters, wine tasting memories and exciting casino visits. For each emotion, Chinesekeywords were determined based on the Fredrickson’s (2001) descriptions of the emotions.Keywords and descriptions helped identify the emotions. The involvement of the multiplecoders ensured congruence. Keywords consisted of the following: excited, happy, joyful,enjoyable, intoxicated and stunning (for joy); discovering, first time, interested, curious,surprised, never before (for interest); satisfied, content, perfect, just right (for contentment);and general references to enjoyable anniversaries, weddings, honeymoons, relationshipswith locals and other tourists (for love).

Joy

Evidence of joy was found at least twice in all 181 travel stories. Joy tended to be related toappreciation of Australia’s natural scenery (parks and nature reserves, the coast, the beach)(43%); this is how one respondent described joy, as demonstrated by the keyword happy:

I like that the seats are placed everywhere around the Botanical Gardens in Sydney. I wasreally happy to read a book in the garden with the warm sunshine and the breeze. The childrenwere running around the park. The trees were green. The sea in the background was blue. Thewaves were white.

In half of the joy quotes that related to the natural scenery, excitement about the beautyof regional towns was identified: “There are many beautiful small towns along the GreatOcean Road. We stopped at these towns to have a rest and were excited to enjoy the fasci-nating scenery.” In this case, the joy keyword excited was clearly recognized by the coders.Interactions with or observations of Australian fauna (12%) were also linked to the positiveemotion of joy and the keyword excited: “The koalas are so adorable. I was so excited totake photos of them.”

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Tabl

e1.

Sav

oure

dto

uris

texp

erie

nces

.

Em

otio

nP

ct.

Inte

rpre

tati

on(F

redr

icks

on,2

001)

Exp

ress

ions

ofem

otio

nsS

avou

red

expe

rien

ces

Pct

.

Joy

100

Feel

ing

play

ful,

aliv

e,ex

peri

enci

ngin

ner

glow

“Iw

asre

ally

happ

yto

read

abo

okin

the

gard

enw

ith

the

war

msu

nshi

nean

dth

ebr

eeze

.”N

atur

alsc

ener

y43

Faun

a12

“The

koal

asar

eso

ador

able

.Iw

asso

exci

ted

tota

keph

otos

ofth

em.”

Wat

erac

tivit

ies

6C

ultu

rala

ctiv

itie

s6

Inte

rest

85S

ense

ofpo

ssib

ilit

yor

mys

tery

,fa

scin

atio

n,op

enne

ssto

new

idea

s“I

was

curi

ous

abou

tthe

low

-car

bon

way

toge

tth

efo

odfr

omth

eir

own

farm

.”N

atur

alsc

ener

y28

Faun

a27

“The

sear

eth

em

osti

nter

esti

ngan

imal

sin

the

wor

ld.”

Wat

erac

tivit

ies

11C

ultu

rala

ctiv

itie

s9

Con

tent

men

t65

Feel

ing

that

ever

ythi

ngis

righ

tas

itis

“Att

hem

omen

tof

suns

et,I

was

soto

uche

d.It

felt

just

righ

t.S

uch

abe

auti

fule

nvir

onm

ent,

such

adi

ffer

ente

xper

ienc

e!I

beli

eve

Iw

ill

rem

embe

rth

ism

omen

tfor

deca

des.

”

Nat

ural

scen

ery

69Fo

od21

Wat

erac

tivit

ies

7Fa

una

7L

ove

65E

xper

ienc

ing

the

othe

rem

otio

nsin

clos

ere

lati

onsh

ips

“Alo

calg

irlp

ulle

dov

eran

das

ked

ifw

ew

ere

OK

.Iw

asre

ally

mov

edth

ata

stra

nger

wou

ldgi

veus

aha

nd.”

Loc

als

48Fa

mily

,fri

ends

,11

part

ners

11“I

hope

that

whe

nm

yw

ife

and

Iar

eol

d,w

eco

uld

beli

keth

isol

dB

riti

shco

uple

.”ot

her

tour

ists

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Interest

Interest was expressed as a sense of possibility or mystery, fascination, feeling open andalive. As with joy, interest was a popular positive emotion. Evidence of interest was foundat least twice in 85% or 154 stories. Unlike joy, however, the interest quotes related lessto appreciations of the natural scenery (28% out of the 154 stories); there were also morereferences to water activities (snorkelling, swimming, diving and sunbathing) in the interestquotes (11%) than in the joy quotes (6%), as shown in this citation where the keywordinterested was picked up by the coders: “This was the third time I went snorkelling duringthe whole trip. I was interested to explore the beautiful coral reefs!”

Approximately 9% or 14 out of 154 blogs that contained the emotion of interest werelinked to descriptions of cultural activities, often involving visits to museums or nationalmonuments: “I was curious about this radio museum. It even had a radio which wasassembled during the World War II.” Here, the keyword that related to interest was curious.

Contentment

Contentment (feeling that everything is right as it is) was less popular than both joyand interest. It was, however, uncovered at least twice in 65% or in 118 travel blogs.The natural scenery descriptions again featured strongly. Unlike all the other emotions,contentment had the highest percentage of natural scenery quotes (69%). This quote, wherethe keywords just right were identified, describes the contentment with the natural scenery:

At the moment of sunset, I was so touched. It felt just right. Such a beautiful environment,such a different experience! I believe I will remember this moment for decades.

Food experiences (buying food and eating food) also featured strongly in the contentmentquotes. This is how a male respondent described his contentment with a meal, using thekeyword perfect: “During a nice meal, my wife suddenly said: Enjoy the view while youare having a perfect Chinese meal in Australia. We couldn’t have asked for more than that!”Quotes discussing contentment with food featured in 21% of the 118 blogs or in 25 blogs.

Love

Fredrickson (2001) defines love as experiencing the above three emotions in close relation-ships. References to descriptions of highly enjoyable encounters with locals, other touristsand travel companions were examined as well as any references to anniversaries, weddingsor honeymoons.

For 11% of the 118 blogs in which love featured, references to other tourists and travelcompanions (typically husband or wife) were identified:

The whole trip went smoothly. Thanks for all the people who have helped us. Thanks for thepure Australia which brought us good memories of our two-year anniversary travel. Speakingof the blog title, I’ve thought about a few not so sweet title options. But I finally chose this onewhich expressed my feelings of sweetness and admiration for my husband.

The most popular love quotes (57 out of 118 blogs or 48%), however, referred to situationsthat described contact with Australians:

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Two front wheels of our car got stuck in mud. A local girl pulled over and asked if we wereOK. I was really moved that a stranger would give us a hand.

So the exploratory results from Table 1 show that joy, interest and contentment were typi-cally linked to observations of Australia’s natural scenery (beaches, parks and the ocean),observation or interaction with Australian fauna (kangaroos and koalas) and water activ-ities (snorkelling, swimming, diving and sunbathing). Love was mostly experienced insituations that involved contact with the locals, as opposed to contact with other tourists ortravel companions. Joy was the most common positive emotion overall.

In line with Fredrickson’s (2001) work and the savouring model (Bryant, 2003), weuncovered some evidence of broadening and building. Half of the bloggers mentionedincreases in confidence and improved communication skills in their written reflections.This is how one female respondent expressed her confidence boost during her Australiantrip: “I chatted with an old lady. She told me that her son had been to China before. Shetold me my English was good.”

One-third of the participants referred to a sense of accomplishment during their trip.A Chinese female respondent noted: “While in Australia I planned the trips by myselfbecause my boyfriend was quite busy. I felt the sense of accomplishment.” A malerespondent added: “I learned a lot from the photo exhibition in this museum.”

Mitas et al. (2011) also found evidence of broadening and building in their study. Theyfound evidence of opening up and self-permission to play as forms of broadening, and ofsocial connections, close friendships and optimism as forms of building qualities for olderwomen. While an explicit exploration of broadening and building was beyond the scope ofour study, these broadening effects of the tourists’ emotions are noted for future research.

Conclusion

Currently, no major model of savouring in leisure or tourism studies exists. Thisexploratory study sheds light on how tourists retrospectively savour their holiday experi-ences, which in turn demonstrates how positive emotions can be maintained and extendedin the context of leisure and tourism and, ultimately, in the pursuit of well-being. Thistheoretical contribution to the field is grounded in the connections made by the respon-dents between types of experiences and the four key positive emotions. The results aresummarized in Table 2.

Table 2. Retrospective savouring outcomes.

Positive emotion Joy Interest Contentment Love

Presence whenrecollecting

Very Strong(100%)

Strong(85%)

Considerable(65%)

Considerable(65%)

Key savouredexperience

Observation ofnaturalscenery:green andcoastalsettings

Observation ofnaturalscenery:green andcoastalsettings

Observation ofnaturalscenery:green andcoastalsettings

Interaction with thelocals: acts ofkindness

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As Table 2 indicates, experiences that involve observing natural scenery (typicallygreen and coastal settings) are the most savoured experiences, as they are connected withexperiencing three out of four key positive emotions. The table also shows that joy andinterest are the most strongly savoured emotions. The very strong and strong presence ofjoy and interest supports the finding from an earlier study of subjective experiences ofleisure by Chinese respondents (Walker & Deng, 2003). In that study, interest was thehighest-rated emotion reported by Chinese during their rumi (interesting and absorbing)leisure experiences. Our results, together with those of Walker and Deng (2003), thus sup-port Chick’s (1998) argument that emotions in leisure are panhuman, although only interms of the emotion of interest.

This study’s findings also support the existing body of knowledge on the relationshipbetween experiencing positive emotions and being in nature. The finding is congruent withthe results of Farber and Hall (2007) that experiences in which wildlife and scenery wereexperienced (either as part of a social group or during a recreational activity) generatedsignificantly higher levels of positive affect. In a study by Rappe (2005), the influence ofa green environment on positive emotions of the elderly with dementia was considered ina nursing home environment. According to observations, garden plants in a nursing homereduced the effects of dementia on the elderly by stimulating their senses and creatingpositive emotions (Rappe, 2005). A study by Karmanov and Hamel similarly examinedhedonic well-being of tourists. Karmanov and Hamel (2008) examined the “natural ver-sus urban dichotomy” finding, as did Pretty, Peacock, Sellens and Griffin (2005), that theunpleasant rural scenes in their experimental study had a greater negative effect on moodthan unpleasant urban scenes. Rural areas that had been degraded significantly affectedwell-being while attractive, well-kept natural environments significantly improved hedonicwell-being. Our study builds on and extends knowledge from these previous studies in away that reinforces, in the context of leisure and tourism, the understood linkage betweenexperiencing positive emotions, natural environments and well-being.

As a further theoretical contribution, our study has found a particularly strong presenceof the emotion joy during the retrospective savouring process. The stories were written upto a month after the onsite experiences and this result suggests we might need to re-visitthe peak model argument that tourists’ positive emotions peak during the onsite travelphases and decline very soon afterwards (Mitas et al., 2012). While further retrospectivesavouring research is required, our finding that joy is present in an individual’s reflectionson holiday experiences long after the holiday events complicates and puts into question thepeak model argument.

There are also some practical implications of this research. It is widely argued thatblogs are a potential mechanism for destination marketers to learn about the attitudes oftheir target markets (Pan, MacLaurin, & Crotts, 2007; Wenger, 2008); this study sheds lighton the way Australia, as a tourism destination, could be promoted to independent Chinesetourists. Banyai and Glover (2012) highlight that travel blog monitoring is a cost-effectivemethod for marketers to assess the quality of their provision and improve a tourist’s overallexperience and promotion strategies. Pan et al. (2007) stress that blog analysis can alsobe a useful way to detect the strengths and weaknesses of a tourist destination comparedwith competitors. By studying the positive emotions of our Chinese cohort, we could gaina better understanding of Australia’s key strengths as a tourist destination and the appealof the overall Australian tourist experience to this growing market.

Despite the outlined theoretical and practical contributions, we have identified fourkey limitations to the study. First, further research should build on this exploratory study to

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closely align the emotions with the specific experiences of other types of tourists and ascer-tain if there are any demographic differences in reflections on the experiences of the fouremotions. Second, while the four reported positive emotions are most commonly discussedin leisure and tourism literature, other positive emotions do exist, some of which can andshould be identified in future studies. Third, a greater array of methods could be adoptedin future investigations to extend this preliminary evaluation. Lucas et al. (2009) advocatea greater use of multiple-method investigations to more thoroughly evaluate human emo-tions. In future studies, tourism researchers may wish to combine the retrospective travelblogs appraisals with onsite face-to-face measures for comparison of savoured emotionsacross time. Facial Action Coding system (Ekman & Friesen, 1978), for instance, allowsraters to make in situ judgements about emotions based on facial muscle movements. Thisin situ–retrospective comparison would allow for a more detailed evaluation of Bryant’s(2003) three phase savouring model in the context of tourist experiences. Lastly, conditionsthat encourage savouring need to be examined closely in future studies. These conditionscould include tourists’ levels of place attachment to destinations or their use of supportingtools that encourage positive reminiscence (e.g., photographs or pamphlets). It is also pos-sible that collection of data through travel blogs had an effect on the savouring outcomes.So it is worth examining if blogs encourage savouring for a longer period of time than moretraditional communication mediums (such as verbally sharing the experience with friendsand relatives).

Nonetheless, by preserving and analysing idiosyncrasies of our Chinese writers, wehope to have provided further insights into how emotional experiences are retrospectivelysavoured by tourists and what this means for maintaining and extending positive emo-tions. We also hope to have encouraged our colleagues to embark on new research intothe benefits of positive emotions and their contribution to leisure, tourism and the pursuitof well-being. A more comprehensive picture of tourist savouring could emerge followingthese future research endeavours.

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