Taking a cruise vacation has positive mental and emotional health benefits long after the getaway is over, a new study found.
While all vacations leave travelers feeling good, researchers decided to look at the specific benefits of a cruise.
They
found that the trip taps into three different types of wellbeing: the
emotional experience of a getaway, the relationship factor of meeting
new people and the thinking experience of seeing new places and
broadening the mind.
Researchers
suggest that the multifaceted features of a cruise trip make it more
stimulating and beneficial than a one-destination holiday, and
the effects linger up to six months after returning home.
Cruises are known for their wide array of
activities, travel to multiple destinations and luxurious accommodations
that about 25 million people worldwide experience each year.
Tourism
researchers from the University of China conducted a psychological
questionnaire on 317 tourists as they returned from a cruise vacation
and another group of 295 people who had taken a cruise six months
earlier.
The questions were
specifically designed to test the participant's own perceptions of
wellbeing, such as life satisfaction and emotional state of mind.
The
cruisers represented a wide range of ages, backgrounds and had traveled
with different cruise lines on a variety of routes from Korea to the
Caribbean.
Researchers evaluated three factors of the cruise experience: emotional experience, relational and thinking experience.
Short-term happiness from cruise travel was created mainly through emotional and relational experiences.
When considering emotional experience, relaxing and simply 'doing nothing' is important for many vacationers.
The relational experience refers to social interactions with family, friends, staff and meeting other vacationers on a cruise.
However,
the long-term happiness from cruising was largely derived from thinking
experience that came from traveling to new destinations.
Lead
author Jiaying Lyu of Zhejiang from the University in China,
said: 'Travel is a meaningful activity by which individuals gain
something important and valuable in life.'
'It
affirms self worth and price, facilitates self growth and self
motivation and searchers for inspiration and creation,' he added.
Researchers found that unless the
vacationers had experienced illness or some other disaster, the
short-term effects were generally positive for all three types of
wellbeing.
The findings published in
the International Journal of Tourism Research showed that six months
later after the cruise, participants were still experiencing positive
effects, particularly from the thinking experience side of their life
satisfaction.
Even if going back to a
daily routine had dulled the emotional experience, they were still
getting the mental health benefit of having traveled to new places which
previous studies have found can expand minds.
Jiaying
Lyu said: 'The results indicate that cruise holidays offer more value
than simply short-term hedonistic experiences and contribute to broader
aspects of life satisfaction and positive function.'
'In these cognitive processes, people find positive emotions and improved evaluation of life,' he added.
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