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The holiday-related predictors of wellbeing in seniors
Marlène Mélon
a
, Stefan Agrigoroaei
a
, Anya Diekmann
b
and Olivier Luminet
a,c
a
Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;
b
Institute for Environmental Management, Land-use Planning and Tourism, Université libre de Bruxelles,
Brussels, Belgium;
c
Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS), Brussels, Belgium
ABSTRACT
There has been an increase in research on the relationship between
holidays and wellbeing in the last decade. However, only a few
studies have investigated this association in seniors and the impact
of holiday-related predictors of wellbeing is understudied. The aims
of this study were to: 1) compare the profile of senior tourists and
senior non-tourists on socio-demographic indicators, health,
physical activity, and social relations, 2) compare the profile of
senior tourists and senior non-tourists on wellbeing, after adjusting
for control variables, and 3) examine the impact of holiday-related
predictors (frequency, mean duration, frequency of physical, social,
cognitive and relaxing activities, degree of perceived health
benefits) on wellbeing of senior tourists, over and above the role of
various relevant covariates. A sample of 4130 seniors (M
age
= 68.2
years, SD = 5.8, range 60–85) filled out a questionnaire related to the
last holiday, daily activities, health, and wellbeing. Results showed
that senior tourists were younger, more educated, wealthier, and
healthier than senior non-tourists. In addition, the levels of
wellbeing were higher in senior tourists compared to senior non-
tourists, after adjusting for control variables. Hierarchical regressions
analyses revealed that frequent holidays, a greater frequency of
social and cognitive activities, as well as the degree of perceived
health benefits were associated with higher wellbeing.
RESUMEN
Ha habido un incremento en la investigaciónsobre la relación entre las
vacaciones y el bienestar durante la última década. Sin embargo, sólo
unos pocos estudios han investigado esta asociación en los mayores y
el impacto de los predictores relacionados con las vacaciones y el
bienestar está sin estudiar. Los objetivos de estudio eran: 1)
comparar el perfil de los mayores turistas y no-turistas en cuanto a
indicadores socio-demográficos, salud, actividad física y relaciones
sociales; 2) comparar el perfil de los mayores turistas y no turistas en
bienestar, tras ajustar las variables de control; y 3) examinar el
impacto de los predictores relacionados con las vacaciones
(frecuencia, duración media, frecuencia de las actividades físicas,
sociales, cognitivas y de relax, grado de beneficios percibidos en la
salud) en el bienestar de los turistas mayores, más allá del rol de
varias covariaciones relevantes. Una muestra de 4.130 mayores
(M
edad
= 68,2 años, SD = 5.8, rango 60–85) completaron un
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 20 December 2017
Accepted 11 April 2018
KEYWORDS
Seniors; tourism benefits;
leisure; wellbeing;
participation in activities
PALABRAS CLAVES
seniors; beneficios del
turismo; ocio; bienestar
MOTS-CLÉS
Seniors; avantages
touristiques; loisirs; bien-être
关键词
老年人;旅游益处;休闲;幸
福感
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
CONTACT Marlène Mélon marlene.melon@uclouvain.be Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université
catholique de Louvain, Place Cardinal Mercier, 10, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
JOURNAL OF POLICY RESEARCH IN TOURISM, LEISURE AND EVENTS, 2018
https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2018.1470184
cuestionario relacionado con sus últimas vacaciones, actividades
diarias, salud y bienestar. Los resultados mostraron que los turistas
mayores eran más jóvenes, con mayor nivel de educación, con
mayores ingresos y gozaban de mayor salud que los mayores no-
turistas. Además, los niveles de bienestar eran superiores en los
turistas mayores comparados con los no-turistas, tras ajustar las
variables de control. El análisis de regresiones jerárquicas reveló que
las vacaciones frecuentes, una mayor frecuencia de actividades
sociales y cognitivas, así como el grado en el de beneficios
percibidos para la salud estaban asociados con un nivel de
bienestar más elevado.
RÉSUMÉ
La recherche sur la relation entre lesvacances et le bien-être a connu
un grand développement au cours de la dernière décennie.
Cependant, seules quelques études se sont penchées sur cette
association parmi les personnes âgées et il n’y a pas eu d’études sur
l’impact des prédicteurs de bien-être liés aux vacances. Les objectifs
de cette étude étaient: 1) de comparer le profil des touristes seniors
et les seniors non-touristes sur les indicateurs
sociodémographiques, la santé, l’activité physique et les relations
sociales, 2) comparer le profil des touristes seniors et des seniors
non-touristes en ce qui concerne le bien-être, après ajustement en
faveur des variables de contrôle, et 3) examiner l’impact des
facteurs prédictifs liés aux vacances (fréquence, durée moyenne,
fréquence des activités physiques, sociales, cognitives et relaxantes,
degré des bénéfices pour la santé) sur le bien-être des touristes
seniors en tenant compte du rôle de diverses covariables
importantes. Un échantillon de 4 130 seniors (Moyenne = 68,2 ans,
écart-type = 5,8, intervalle de 60 à 85) a rempli un questionnaire
portant sur les dernières vacances, les activités quotidiennes, la
santé et le bien-être. Après ajustement tenant compte des variables
de contrôle, les résultats ont montré que les touristes seniors étaient
plus jeunes, plus éduqués, plus riches et plus en santé que les
seniors non-touristes. De plus, les niveaux de bien-être étaient plus
élevés parmi les touristes seniors que chez les seniors non-touristes.
Les analyses de régressions hiérarchiques ont révélé que des
congés fréquents, une plus grande fréquence d’activités sociales et
cognitives, ainsi que le degré d’avantages pour la santé étaient
associés à un bien-être plus élevé.
摘要
在过去的十年之间，对假期与健康之间关系的研究有所增加。然
而，只有少数研究调查了老年人和幸福感的关系，幸福感的假期
相关的预测指标没有得到充分的研究。这项研究的目的是：1）
比较老年游客和老年非游客在社会人口指标、健康状况、身体活
动和社会关系的情况，2）在调整控制变量之后，比较老年游客
和老年非游客的幸福感的状况，3）研究假期相关的预测指标
（频率，平均持续时间，身体、社交、认知和放松活动的频率，
感知健康效益的程度）对老年游客幸福感的影响，以及各种相关
协变量的作用。在一个 4,130名老年人的样本中（中位数= 68.2
岁，标准差= 5.8，范围60–85）填写了与上次假期、日常活动、
健康和幸福感有关的问卷。结果显示，老年游客比老年非游客更
年轻，受教育程度更高，更富有，更健康。此外，调整控制变量
后，老年游客的幸福感水平高于老年非游客。层次回归分析显
示，经常度假，社交和认知活动的频率较高，以及感知健康益处
的程度与较高的幸福感有关。
2M. MÉLON ET AL.
Introduction
For a long time, tourism has been mainly considered an economic activity. However, with
the increasing number of studies on social tourism and the association with wellbeing,
tourism research has shifted to a more social science approach. Thus, tourism started to
be considered a social force (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2006), robustly connected to individuals’
wellbeing and health. As argued by Smith and Diekmann (2017), tourism studies have
extended over time to other disciplines such as psychology and have become more
focused on wellbeing in the last few decades. Taking a holiday
1
contributes to the
quality of life as they favor social interaction, personal development and individual iden-
tity (Richards, 1999). In that perspective, some authors describe the wish to depart for a
holiday as a primary desire essential to the quality of life and as a psychological need to slip
away from daily life pressure and/or boredom (Richards, 1999; Urry, 1995).
To date, the links between holidays and wellbeing of people have been demonstrated in
literature (Chen & Petrick, 2013). However, there are few studies that have been focused
on the potential benefits of holidays on wellbeing in seniors (Balderas-Cejudo, Leeson, &
Urdaneta, 2017; Ferrer, Sanz, Ferrandis, McCabe, & Garcia, 2016; Gu, Zhu, Brown,
Hoenig, & Zeng, 2016). Many tourism studies investigated the profile of the senior
market (e.g. Alén, Losada, & de Carlos, 2017) but little is known about the links
between the factors associated with holiday experiences and wellbeing in senior tourists.
This study contributes to the tourism literature by providing a psychological perspec-
tive on the relationship between holidays and wellbeing in a large sample of seniors. The
first approach will consist in comparing the profiles of senior tourists and senior non-tour-
ists on various factors such as socio-demographic indicators, health, general physical
activity, and social relations. Second, the association between taking holidays and well-
being will be examined after adjusting for control variables. In addition, this study
responds to a gap in knowledge by exploring the unique contributions of various
holiday-related factors, such as type of activities, duration, frequency and perceived
benefits, on wellbeing of senior tourists, over and above the role of relevant covariates.
Below, we provide a review of the literature on the links between holidays-related
factors and wellbeing of seniors and a description of objectives of this study, following
by a description of the method used and data analyses performed. We then present find-
ings from our analyses in relation to research questions, discuss these findings and provide
a short conclusion on key findings of this study.
Literature review and objectives
Research has shown that holidays contribute positively to health and wellbeing of people
(Diekmann & McCabe, 2016; Wei & Milman, 2002). Multiple studies have documented
the positive association between holidays and wellbeing (e.g. De Bloom et al., 2010;
Gilbert & Abdullah, 2004; Wei & Milman, 2002), life satisfaction (e.g. Sirgy, Kruger,
Lee, & Yu, 2011), quality of life (e.g. Dolnicar, Yanamandram, & Cliff, 2012; Kim, Woo,
& Uysal, 2015; Richards, 1999; Sirgy, 2010), positive emotions (e.g. Mitas, Yarnal,
Adams, & Ram, 2012) and happiness (e.g. Nawijn, 2011). According to Minnaert and
Schapmans (2009), tourism participation can be considered as a form of social interven-
tion tool. Indeed, as pointed out by several studies, holidays have the potential to bring
JOURNAL OF POLICY RESEARCH IN TOURISM, LEISURE AND EVENTS 3
benefits to disadvantaged and even excluded individuals’wellbeing such as the senior citi-
zens (e.g. Dann, 2001; McCabe & Johnson, 2013; Minnaert & Schapmans, 2009). However,
despite an increasing number of studies conducted in recent years (Ahn & Janke, 2011;
Ferrer et al., 2016; Gu et al., 2016; Hunter-Jones & Blackburn, 2007; Jia et al., 2016;
Kim et al., 2015; Moal–Ulvoas & Taylor, 2014; Morgan, Pritchard, & Sedgley, 2015;
Nimrod, 2008; Nimrod & Rotem, 2010,2012; Staats & Pierfelice, 2003; Toepoel, 2013;
Wei & Milman, 2002), the relationships between holidays and seniors’wellbeing is
still unclear (Balderas-Cejudo et al., 2017; Chen & Petrick, 2013; Gu et al., 2016). Specifi-
cally, the existing literature is characterized by a large, heterogeneous spectrum of opera-
tionalizations of wellbeing such as psychological wellbeing (Wei & Milman, 2002), life
satisfaction (Ferrer et al., 2016), quality of life (Kim et al., 2015), happiness (Staats & Pier-
felice, 2003), mood state (Jia et al., 2016), affects (Staats & Pierfelice, 2003) or self-rated
health (Gu et al., 2016). In psychology, wellbeing has widely been conceptualized as
including two main components (Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003): a positive evaluation of
one’s life (i.e. life satisfaction, the cognitive component) and everyday positive feelings
and moods (i.e. happiness, the affective component). However, in the previous studies,
these two components of wellbeing were not systematically taken into account. Another
limitation of the majority of the existent studies is that they did not focus on the
holiday-related factors specifically associated with wellbeing of senior tourists. Indeed,
only a limited number of studies have examined the specific role of different holiday-
related activities (e.g. physical, social, cognitive, relaxing) for wellbeing in senior citizens
(Kim et al., 2015).
Some scholars did explore the possible mechanisms that could explain the potential
benefits of holidays on seniors’wellbeing. Although the psychological dimension of well-
being was not considered, Gu et al. (2016) recently suggested possible mechanisms that
can explain the potential benefits of holidays on seniors’self-rated health: increase of cog-
nitive functioning (e.g. learning experiences, interpersonal communication), frequency of
exercises (e.g. walking), social interactions, self-esteem, personal development, and
decrease of perceived stress (thanks to escaping of the stressful routine environment). Par-
ticipation in activities during the holidays represents an important factor associated with
the wellbeing in senior tourists (Kim et al., 2015; Nimrod & Rotem, 2010,2012;Wei &
Milman, 2002). The increase of the frequency of activities on holidays has often been
reported in studies to explain the potential benefit of a holiday on seniors’wellbeing
(Kim et al., 2015). The activity theory (Havighurst, 1961) postulates that ‘being involved
and maintaining the activities and social interactions of middle age for as long as possible
is essential to wellbeing’(Nimrod & Rotem, 2012, p. 380). Wei and Milman (2002) con-
sidered the number of activities practiced on holidays (range 0–18) and found a positive
association between this factor and wellbeing in a sample of 84 senior tourists. Nimrod
and Rotem (2010) highlighted that the more the seniors (age range 50–88) participated
in various activities (e.g. educational, physical, cultural, spiritual, etc.) during their last
holidays, the more they reported various associated benefits (e.g. general enjoyment, exci-
tement, social bonding, relaxation). Nimrod and Rotem (2010) showed that irrespective of
the type of activities (e.g. physical, educational, non-physical) that seniors practiced during
holidays, the psychological benefits (such as excitement and relaxation) were present and
were relatively similar from one senior to another. In another study, Nimrod and Rotem
(2012)showedthatholiday-relatedactivitiescharacterizedbynewexperienceswere
4M. MÉLON ET AL.
associated with the benefits gained from the tourism experience because they represent
opportunities for personal development, which contribute to deepen the sense of
meaning in life and then lead to a higher level of wellbeing (Nimrod & Kleiber, 2007).
In addition, tourism experiences provide opportunities to promote social interactions
in later life (e.g. Caradec & Petite, 2008; McCabe & Johnson, 2013; Morgan et al., 2015;
Toepoel, 2013). Toepoel (2013) showed that seniors (age range 55–75+) who went at
least once on holidays over the last 12 months reported lower scores of loneliness com-
pared to seniors who did not go. Many other studies found relationships between social
activities practiced on holidays and lower levels of loneliness, the creation of new social
interactions and the satisfaction with social contacts in seniors (e.g. Caradec & Petite,
2008; Ferrer et al., 2016; Nimrod & Rotem, 2012; Toepoel, 2013). Moal–Ulvoas and
Taylor (2014) highlighted how taking holidays helps senior tourists to improve their
relationships with others. These authors suggested that seniors are more open-minded
during the holidays, therefore allowing them to better understand others and deepen
relationships with them (for example, they communicate and laugh more than in everyday
life). Leisure activities such as holiday participation reinforce the feeling of being con-
nected to others (social connectedness, Toepoel, 2013), which in turn contributes to a
higher feeling of social inclusion (Ferrer et al., 2016; Gu et al., 2016; McCabe &
Johnson, 2013; Minnaert, Maitland, & Miller, 2009; Morgan et al., 2015; Toepoel, 2013).
Together, these different psychosocial mechanisms could help to explain how holidays
may be beneficial for seniors’wellbeing. Overall, on holidays, seniors tend to be more
relaxed and more available to reflect on their life and to appreciate advanced age
(Moal–Ulvoas & Taylor, 2014). Holidays generate a set of positive emotions (Mitas
et al., 2012) that allow seniors to reassess their lives in a brighter light and to develop strat-
egies to better cope with the stressors (such as bereavement, illness, and body changes) that
occur more often, on average, at their age (Moal–Ulvoas & Taylor, 2014).
Despite the evidence that specific holiday-related activities and experiences have the
potential to explain the association with wellbeing, another limitation of the previous
studies is that they did not focus on frequency, duration, and perceived health benefits
of holidays on wellbeing, although they were identified as important predictors of
seniors’health and wellbeing in leisure research (e.g. Chang, Wray, & Lin, 2014; Chen
& Petrick, 2014; Chen, Stevinson, Ku, Chang, & Chu, 2012; Williamson, 2016).
Besides studies that have investigated the relationships between holidays and wellbeing,
others researchers have examined personal and social factors associated with the partici-
pation of seniors citizens in holidays (Ferrer et al., 2016). Some tourism studies have
addressed the profile of senior tourists compared to senior non-tourists. For example,
there is evidence that both personal (e.g. age, gender, income, health status, lifestyle)
and social factors (e.g. social relations) are related to the probability of going on holidays
(e.g. Ferrer et al., 2016; Gu et al., 2016). These studies showed that those who had at least
one holiday during the last year were more likely to be younger, female, to engage more in
leisure activities in everyday life, to have a higher socioeconomic status and better self-
rated health compared to senior non-tourists. However, to the best of our knowledge,
no studies analysed the difference between both groups in terms of wellbeing, after adjust-
ing for various relevant covariates such as socio-demographic indicators, health status and
the frequency of physical and social activities in everyday life.
JOURNAL OF POLICY RESEARCH IN TOURISM, LEISURE AND EVENTS 5
As part of a broader research project focused on the consequences of senior’s holiday
participation (BEST
2
), the current study looked more particularly at the relationships
between holidays and wellbeing in a large sample (N= 4130) of seniors. We systematically
explored the relationships between holiday-related factors (frequency, mean duration, fre-
quency of physical, social, cognitive, and relaxing activities, degree of perceived health
benefits) and wellbeing in senior tourists, after adjusting for relevant control variables
(socio-demographic indicators, self-rated health, general physical activity, and social
relations). The specific research questions of this study were the following:
(1) How do the profiles of senior tourists and senior non-tourists differ on socio-demo-
graphic indicators, self-rated health, general physical activity, and social relations?
(2) Do senior tourists have higher scores of wellbeing than senior non-tourists, after
adjusting for control variables?
(3) What are the holiday-related factors (frequency, mean duration, frequency of phys-
ical, social, cognitive and relaxing activities, degree of perceived health benefits)
that significantly account for wellbeing in senior tourists, over and above the role
of relevant covariates?
With respect to the first research question, in line with previous studies (e.g. Ferrer
et al., 2016; Gu et al., 2016), we expected tourists to be younger, female, to frequently par-
ticipate in leisure and exercise, to have a higher socioeconomic status and higher self-rated
health scores compared to senior non-tourists. In addition, we also expected tourists to
report higher levels of wellbeing when compared to non-tourists, after adjusting for
control variables. To the best of our knowledge, the last research question has not yet
been addressed in seniors, using comprehensive wellbeing measures. Thus, our goal was
to explore the specific components of holiday experiences and their predictive role for
wellbeing in senior tourists.
Method
Participants
A sample of 31,799 French-speaking seniors was selected from the database of a health
insurance company in Belgium, a social tourism provider and intermediary (Diekmann
& McCabe, 2011). This health insurance company is the largest in Belgium (holding
41.1% of the Belgian market share in 2016). Participants were contacted by email and
invited to respond to an online survey about the last holiday, their health and their well-
being between October and December 2015. The inclusion criteria were: being between 60
and 85 years old, having no functional limitations (based on the Katz score
3
; Katz, Down,
Cash, & Grotz, 1970), having no psychiatric and mental disorders, and not having been
hospitalized for more than a month during the past year. A total of 5617 seniors filled
out the questionnaire (response rate = 18%
4
). As some questionnaires contained more
than 5% of missing data (i.e. the threshold considered as consequential; Schafer, 1999),
the final sample size was N=4130 (representing a response rate of 13% of the original
sample). Compared to the original sample (N= 31,799), the final sample (N= 4130)
showed similar age and gender distributions. In terms of age, in the final sample 65%
6M. MÉLON ET AL.
were aged 60–69, 30% were aged 70–79, and 5% were aged 80–85. In the original sample,
these proportions were 66%, 26% and 5%, respectively. Regarding gender, the final sample
comprised of 39.5% of women and 60.5% of men while the original sample had 39.8% and
60.2%, respectively. The higher proportion of men in the final sample could be explained
by two observations: the original sample provided by the health insurance company was
initially more represented by men (60.2%) and men are more likely than women to
respond to online tourism surveys whatever their age (Dolnicar, Laesser, & Matus, 2009).
The descriptive analyses (Table 1) revealed that the mean age of participants was 68.2
years (SD = 5.8) and they have attended in school for an average of 12.61 years (SD = 4.24).
The majority of the respondents were men (60.5%), living with a partner (66.8%), retired
(84.9%) and had a net monthly income per household between 1601 and 3000 euros
(52.7%). Participants also reported good general health and wellbeing (M= 3.67, SD
= .82; M= 3.61, SD = .71, respectively, measured both on a five-point scale).
Table 1. Characteristics of respondents.
Variables n M SD
Age (years) 4130 68.2 5.8
Education (years) 4130 12.6 4.24
Gender (% of men) 2500 60.5
Household composition 3981
Partner (%) 66.8
Alone (%) 25.4
Children (%) 2.7
Partner and children (%) 4.9
Living in a community (%) 0.2
Retired 4130
Yes (%) 84.9
Net monthly income per household (in euros) 4051
Less than 1000 (%) 1.8
Between 1000 and 1600 (%) 23.7
Between 1601 and 2200 (%) 26.5
Between 2201 and 3000 (%) 26.2
Between 3001 and 5000 (%) 19.6
Over than 5000 (%) 2.2
General physical activity
a
4130 4.09 1.35
Social relations
Frequency of social contacts
b
4130 5.41 .93
Quality of social contacts
c
4130 4.14 .83
Self-rated Health
General health
d
4130 3.67 .82
Number of health symptoms (from a list of 11) 4130 2.20 1.75
Functional limitations
e
4107 2.50 1.26
Self-rated memory failures
f
4130 2.50 .88
Wellbeing 4130 3.61 .71
Life satisfaction
g
4130 3.46 .79
Happiness
h
4130 3.77 .75
Notes: n: sample size, M: mean, SD: standard deviation.
a
1 = less than four times a year, 2 = two to three times a year, 3 = one to two times a month, 4 = one to two times a week, 5
= three to six times a week, 6 = over six times a week.
b
1 = never, 2 = a few times a year, 3 = one to four times a month, 4 = one to three times a week, 5= three to six times a
week, 6 = each day of the week.
c
From 1 = not at all satisfied to 5 = totally satisfied.
d
From 1 = very poor to 5 = very good.
e
From 1 = never to 5 = very often.
f
From 1 = never to 5 = always.
g
From 1 = not at all satisfied to 5 = totally satisfied.
h
From 1 = very unhappy to 5 = very happy.
JOURNAL OF POLICY RESEARCH IN TOURISM, LEISURE AND EVENTS 7
Measures
Socio-demographic indicators
Respondents completed questions about their gender, age, household size and composition
(single, with a spouse, with children, with a spouse and children, living in a nursing home),
professional status (retired or professionally active), years of education, and monthly net
income in euros per household (less than 1000, 1000–1600, 1601–2200, 2201–3000,
3001–5000, over 5000). The detailed characteristics of respondents are presented in Table 1.
Holidays and holiday-related activities
Respondents answered questions about the frequency and mean duration of holidays
taken during the past 12 months, as well as their characteristics: destination, organized
travel (yes or no), travel companion(s) (alone, partner, others), the frequency of partici-
pation in various activities (physical, social, cognitive, relaxing)
5
and the degree of per-
ceived health benefits. The frequency of holidays in the past 12 months was measured
on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (no holiday) to five (over 3 holidays). The mean dur-
ation of holidays was the ratio between the total number of nights spent on holidays and
the number of holidays taken in the past 12 months. The frequency of participation in
various activities performed during the last holiday was assessed on a five-point scale
ranging from one (never) to five (very often). Finally, the degree of perceived health benefits
related to the last holiday (‘Do you think that your last holiday has had a positive impact
on your health?’) was assessed on a five-point scale ranging from one (not at all) to five (a
lot). The detailed characteristics of holidays in senior tourists are presented in Table 2.
Wellbeing
As in a previous study (Galinha & Pais-Ribeiro, 2012), we created a global measure of well-
being based on the definition suggested by Diener et al. (2003). We created a composite
score of wellbeing including both cognitive (life satisfaction) and affective components
(happiness). Life satisfaction was assessed by adopting the French version (Blais, Valler-
and, Pelletier, & Brière, 1989) of the Satisfaction with Life Scale ([SWLS], Diener,
Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), a measure widely used in studies on the relationships
between tourism experiences and wellbeing (e.g. Chen, Petrick, & Shahvali, 2016; Ferrer
et al., 2016; Gilbert & Abdullah, 2004; McCabe & Johnson, 2013; Staats & Pierfelice,
2003; Sirgy et al., 2011). Respondents answered to five items on a five-point scale
ranging from one (not at all agree) to five (strongly agree). The five items of this question-
naire yielded a Cronbach’s alpha of .87 and they were averaged to obtain the SWLS score.
Happiness was measured by the first item (‘To what extent do you feel happy or unhappy?’)
adopted from the Happiness Measure ([HM], Fordyce, 1988). Respondent answered on a
five-point scale ranging from one (very unhappy) to five (very happy). The HM index
measures the affective component of wellbeing and is well known to have good psycho-
metric properties in terms of reliability, construct and discriminative validity (Jarden,
2011). According to Diener (1984), HM should be more adopted in studies using wellbeing
measures. SWLS and HM scales are reported in psychology literature as reliable assess-
ments of wellbeing (Jarden, 2011). In this study, the cognitive (life satisfaction) and affec-
tive (happiness) components were highly inter-correlated, (r= .69, p< .001), reinforcing
the utility of combining these dimensions into a unique composite score of wellbeing.
8M. MÉLON ET AL.
Self-rated health
Respondents provided multiple indicators of health: general health, the number of health
symptoms, the degree of functional limitations, and self-rated memory problems. General
health (‘How do you rate your overall health?’) was assessed on a five-point scale ranging
from one (very poor) to five (very good). The number of health symptoms (‘Which health
problems do you have currently?’) was based on a list of the 11 most common diseases in
both genders of the Belgian population over 65 years of age (i.e. hypertension, cholesterol,
diabetes, thyroid problems, arthritis, arthritis, back pain, urinary disorder, eye disorders,
osteoporosis, prostate disorder) and other health problems added for the current study
(i.e. asthma, insomnia, difficulty moving, other). The degree of functional limitations
(‘Have you been limited for at least six months because of a health problem in activities
that you practice everyday?’) was assessed on a five-point scale ranging from one (never)
to five (very often). Finally, the degree of self-rated memory failures (‘Do you have
memory problems in your everyday life?’) was assessed on a five-point scale ranging
from one (never) to five (always). These indicators were adapted from the Belgian
Health Survey (Scientific Institute of Public Health, 2013) except for the indicator of
self-rated memory failures (Van der Linden, Wyns, von Frenckell, Coyette, & Seron, 1989).
General physical activity
Respondents reported the frequency of physical activity in their everyday life (‘Do you
practice physical activity such as sports, gardening, walking, etc.’) on a six-point scale
Table 2. Characteristics of holidays in senior tourists.
Variables M SD
Holidays in the last 12 months
Frequency of holidays in the last 12 months
1 holiday (%) 37.6
2 holidays (%) 30.9
3 holidays (%) 16.6
Over 3 holidays (%) 14.9
Mean duration of each holiday in the last 12 months (days) 6.85 5.77
Last holiday
Destination
France (%) 47
Mediterranean Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece, etc.) (%) 23
Belgium (%) 12
Other countries in Europe (Netherlands, Germany, etc.) (%) 11
Rest of the world (Africa, etc.) (%) 7
Organized travel
Yes (%) 19.9
No (%) 80.1
Travel Companion(s)
Alone (%) 7.4
Partner (%) 69
Others (%) 23.6
Perceived health benefits of the last holiday
a
4.10 1.00
Physical activities
b
3.73 1.23
Social activities
b
2.28 1.33
Cognitive activities
b
3.41 1.26
Relaxing activities
b
2.94 1.21
Notes: N= 2661.
M: mean, SD: standard deviation.
a
From 1 = not at all to 5 = a lot.
b
From 1 = never to 5 = very often.
JOURNAL OF POLICY RESEARCH IN TOURISM, LEISURE AND EVENTS 9
(one = less than four times a year, two = two to three times a year, three = one to two times
a month, four = one to two times a week, five = three to six times a week, six = over six
times a week). This item was adapted from the Dijon Physical Activity Score that has
been validated in French in healthy seniors (Robert et al., 2004).
Social relations
Two indicators were used to assess the frequency and quality of social relations. The fre-
quency of social contacts was assessed by one item (‘Usually, how often do you have contact
[face-to-face, telephone] with other people such as your spouse, children, friends, acquain-
tances, personal caregiver, etc.?’) on a six-point scale (one = never, two = a few times a
year, three = one to four times a month, four = one to three times a week, five = three to
six times a week, six = each day of the week). Quality of social contacts was assessed by
one item related to perceived social support (‘How satisfied are you with the support of
these people in your everyday life?’) on a five-point scale ranging from one (not at all sat-
isfied) to five (totally satisfied). These questions were adapted from the Belgian Health
Survey (Scientific Institute of Public Health, 2013).
Data analysis
The data analyses were performed using IBM 23.3 SPSS Statistics (IBM Corp. 2015). The
first research question was examined by conducting independent-samples t-tests (Chi-
Squared tests for categorical variables) to compare senior tourists who went at least
once on holidays in the last 12 months and senior non-tourists on socio-demographic
indicators, self-rated health, general physical activity, and social relations. For the
second research question, a one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed
to compare scores of wellbeing in senior tourists and non-tourists, while taking into
account the control variables (socio-demographic indicators, self-rated health, general
physical activity, and social relations). Finally, the third research question was explored
using a hierarchical multiple regression model with the following blocks of predictors:
(1) control variables (age, gender, education years, income, general health, health symp-
toms, functional limitations and self-rated memory failures, general physical activity
and frequency and quality of social relations), and (2) holiday-related factors (frequency,
mean duration, frequency of physical, social, cognitive and relaxing activities and degree of
perceived health benefits). All collinearity statistics were within accepted limits (Field,
2009; Myers, 1990), with the tolerance values for each predictor between .60 and .97
and the VIF values between 1.04 and 1.67. Finally, the assumption of the independence
of errors was met with a value of 1.91 for the Durbin-Watson statistic, which is within
the acceptable range (between 1.50 and 2.50, as suggested by Hair, Anderson, Tatham,
& Black, 1998).
Results
How do the profiles of senior tourists and senior non-tourists differ?
In the present sample, 2661 respondents (64.4% tourists) had taken at least one holiday
during the last 12 months before the survey, and 1469 (35.6%) were considered non-
tourists. The detailed characteristics of holidays in senior tourists are presented in Table 2.
10 M. MÉLON ET AL.
The results of comparisons between senior tourists and senior non-tourists (Table 3)
revealed significant differences in terms of socio-demographic indicators (except for the
gender), general physical activity, and social relations. Senior tourists were significantly
younger, better educated, wealthier, more engaged in physical and social activities in
their everyday life, and more satisfied with their social relations than senior non-
tourists. In addition, senior tourists reported significantly higher scores on general
health and lower scores on health symptoms, functional limitations, and self-rated
memory failures.
Do senior tourists have higher scores of wellbeing than senior non-tourists, after
adjusting for control variables?
There was a significant difference between senior tourists and senior non-tourists in terms
of wellbeing, after adjusting for control variables (socio-demographic indicators, self-rated
health, general physical activity and social relations), F(1, 4015) = 123,94, p< .001, ηp
2
= .03. The senior tourists had higher scores of wellbeing (M= 3.78, SD = .61) than
senior non-tourists (M= 3.31, SD = .77) over and above the control variables.
What are the holiday-related factors that significantly account for wellbeing in
senior tourists?
As showed in Table 4, the results of the hierarchical multiple regression showed that
holiday measures explained an additional 4% of the variation of wellbeing over and
above the other significant predictors in the first block, [F(7, 2569) = 21.47, p< .001].
Block two showed that the more often seniors went on holidays, the more they perceived
that the holidays had health benefits. In addition, the more they practiced holiday-related
social and cognitive activities, the higher their wellbeing scores were. However, the dur-
ation of the holidays and the frequency of holiday-related physical and relaxing activities
were not significantly associated with wellbeing of senior tourists.
Table 3. Comparisons between senior non-tourists and senior tourists.
Variables
Senior non-tourists Senior tourists
n M/% SD n M/% SD df t/χ
2
pd
Socio-demographic indicators
Gender (% of men) 916 62.4 1584 59.5 1 χ
2
= 3.17 .08
Age 1469 69.06 6.28 2661 67.74 5.46 2689.74 6.77 <.001 .22
Education years 1469 11.62 4.26 2661 13.15 4.12 2941.49 −11.21 <.001 .37
Net monthly income per household 1449 2.99 1.07 2602 3.70 1.14 3156.61 −20.01 <.001 .64
General physical activity 1469 3.75 1.56 2661 4.27 1.17 2393 −11.14 <.001 .38
Social relations
Frequency of social contact 1451 6.19 3.76 2640 7.53 4.63 3526.86 −10.01 <.001 .32
Quality of social contact 1469 3.85 .98 2661 4.19 .85 2670.49 −11.07 <.001 .37
Self-rated health
General health 1469 3.42 .87 2661 3.81 .76 2686.98 −14.60 <.001 .48
Health symptoms 1469 2.42 1.88 2661 2.08 1.66 2725.93 5.71 <.001 .19
Functional limitations 1460 2.85 1.33 2647 2.30 1.18 2711.10 13.21 <.001 .44
Self-rated memory failures 1469 2.58 .92 2661 2.45 .85 2843.92 4.45 <.001 .15
Notes: n: sample size, M: mean, SD: standard deviation, df: degrees of freedom, t: paired-sample t-tests, χ
2
: Chi-squared
tests, p:p-value, d: Cohen’s d (effect size).
JOURNAL OF POLICY RESEARCH IN TOURISM, LEISURE AND EVENTS 11
Additional predictors of wellbeing
As presented in Table 4, the final model of hierarchical regression analyses accounted for
35% of the total variance of wellbeing. Being older, being a man, having a higher income,
feeling healthy, feeling physically active, having more social contacts, and being satisfied
with the support of one’s social contacts were significantly related to higher wellbeing.
Discussion
As expected, the results showed that when compared to senior non-tourists, senior tourists
were significantly younger, better educated, wealthier, more engaged in physical and social
activities in everyday life and reported better health. These findings confirm those pre-
sented in recent studies that highlighted significant differences between older tourists
and non-tourists (Ferrer et al., 2016; Gu et al., 2016). Second, the present study found
that senior tourists had higher levels of wellbeing than senior non-tourists, after adjusting
for control variables (socio-demographic indicators, self-rated health, general physical
activity and social relations). Third, we found that holiday-related factors predicted
greater wellbeing in senior tourists over and above the role of relevant covariates. Our
results are in line with previous studies that showed a positive association between
holiday participation and health and wellbeing in seniors (e.g. Ahn & Janke, 2011;
Ferrer et al., 2016; Gu et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2015; Nimrod & Rotem, 2012; Wei &
Milman, 2002). This study provided a better understanding on the relationships
Table 4. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis predicting wellbeing in senior tourists.
Wellbeing
Model 1 Model 2
Steps and predictors variables B SE B βB SE B β
Step 1: Control variables
Age .01 .00 .10*** .01 .00 .11***
Gender −.06 .02 −.05** −.09 .02 −.07***
Years of education .00 .00 .01 −.00 .00 −.01
Income .10 .01 .19*** .09 .01 .16***
General health .25 .02 .31*** .22 .02 .27***
Health symptoms −.02 .01 −.06** −.02 .01 −.06***
Functional limitations −.01 .01 −.02 −.01 .01 −.03
Self-rated memory failures −.09 .01 −.13*** −.08 .01 −.12***
General physical activity .04 .01 .07*** .03 .01 .05**
Frequency of social contacts .05 .01 .07*** .05 .01 .06***
Quality of social contacts .14 .01 .18*** .13 .01 .17***
Step 2: Holiday-related factors
Frequency .07 .01 .13***
Mean duration .00 .00 .00
Physical activities −.01 .01 −.02
Social activities .03 .01 .06***
Cognitive activities .02 .01 .04**
Relaxing activities .01 .01 .01
Perception of health benefits .07 .01 .12***
R
2
.31*** .35***
ΔR
2
.04***
Notes: Gender: 1 = men, 2 = women.
SE: standard error, B: unstandardized regression coefficient, β: standardized regression coefficient, R
2
: R-squared, ΔR
2
:R-
squared change.
*p≤.05; **p≤.01; ***p≤.001.
Valid N= 2588 (listwise).
12 M. MÉLON ET AL.
between holidays and wellbeing by exploring the unique contribution of various holiday-
related factors on wellbeing. Among the holiday-related factors, higher holiday frequency,
frequency of social and cognitive activities, and degree of perceived health benefits were
associated with higher levels of wellbeing.
The results showed differences in the contribution of the multiple holiday-related pre-
dictors of wellbeing. The frequency of holidays was found to be a significant predictor of
wellbeing while mean duration was not. In other words, our findings suggest that it could
be more beneficial to go on holidays several times over a year rather than to go once for a
longer duration. Although multiple studies showed that the frequency of leisure activities
was positively associated with seniors’wellbeing (e.g. Kelly et al., 2014; Kuykendall, Tay, &
Ng, 2015; Windle, Hughes, Linck, Russell, & Woods, 2010), to the best of our knowledge,
our study is the first to highlight that the frequency of holidays is associated with seniors’
wellbeing. A possible interpretation is that each holiday is associated with developing a
specific personal project, which generates positive affect before departure (e.g. Chen &
Petrick, 2013; Hagger & Murray, 2014; Moal–Ulvoas & Taylor, 2014; Lawton, Moss,
Winter, & Hoffman, 2002; Nawijn, Marchand, Veenhoven, & Vingerhoets, 2010). In
this context, the more often seniors go on holidays, the more they develop personal pro-
jects and associated positive emotions in their everyday life.
Among the different types of activities practiced on holidays, social activities (e.g. group
activities) represented the most important predictor of respondents’wellbeing. This
finding supports other studies that have shown the benefits of holiday-related social activi-
ties (e.g. new social interactions, social sharing, satisfaction with social contacts, restoring
and/or deepening relationships with others) on the reduction of loneliness (Toepoel,
2013), social inclusion (Ferrer et al., 2016; Gu et al., 2016; McCabe & Johnson, 2013; Min-
naert et al., 2009; Morgan et al., 2015) and senior tourists’wellbeing (Ferrer et al., 2016;
Hunter-Jones & Blackburn, 2007; Moal–Ulvoas & Taylor, 2014; Nimrod & Rotem,
2012). Many studies have demonstrated that the participation in social activities improves
seniors’wellbeing (e.g. Adams, Leibbrandt, & Moon, 2011; Dupuis, 2008; Levasseur et al.,
2015; Litwin & Shiovitz-Ezra, 2011; McAuley et al., 2000; Menec, 2003; Tsai & Wu, 2005).
Indeed, seniors are more likely to experience greater loneliness in their everyday life com-
pared to younger individuals, especially due to retirement and/or other factors associated
with the ageing process such as the death of close ones (Gibson & Singleton, 2012). Social
participation represents an adaptive strategy to counter social deficits related to ageing
(e.g. Balderas-Cejudo et al., 2017; Silverstein & Parker, 2002).
Cognitive activities performed on holidays (e.g. reading, orienting, planning) rep-
resented another significant predictor of senior tourists’wellbeing. To the best of our
knowledge, this is also the first study showing a positive association between cognitive
activities practiced during the holidays and wellbeing of senior tourists. This result is con-
sistent with previous studies observing this association in everyday life (e.g. Allward,
Dunn, Forshaw, Rewston, & Wass, 2017; Chang et al., 2014;Olazaran et al., 2010; Pail-
lard-Borg, Wang, & Winblad, 2009). For instance, Paillard-Borg et al. (2009) showed
that cognitive activities (e.g. writing, playing music) enhanced the wellbeing of seniors
more than did physical and recreational activities (e.g. watching TV). However, the under-
lying mechanisms of the effect of cognitive activities on wellbeing are not well known. As
indicated by Gu et al. (2016), we can suggest that multiple cognitive activities practiced
during the holidays (e.g. orienting oneself in a new town, activity planning, learning
JOURNAL OF POLICY RESEARCH IN TOURISM, LEISURE AND EVENTS 13
new information) may cognitively stimulate senior tourists, which generates a greater
sense of wellbeing. This idea should be further explored in future research.
Finally, our results also revealed that the perception of health benefits related to holi-
days significantly predicted senior tourists’wellbeing. Chen and Petrick (2014) showed
that the more tourists perceive that holidays have health benefits, the more they go on
holidays. These authors suggest that the perception of health benefits associated with
holiday experiences increases the perceived importance of holidays in everyday life (i.e.
increased attention to information and discussions about future holidays), thereby
improving the likelihood of going on holidays. As described above, several studies have
shown that the frequency of leisure activities is associated with seniors’wellbeing. There-
fore, it may be the case that in our study, the more senior tourists perceived the health
benefits of various leisure activities practiced on holidays, the more they engaged in
these activities, and the happier they were as a result.
The findings have allowed to better grasp the factors accounting for wellbeing during
ageing from a psychological perspective and their link with holidays. The results
support the claims of social tourism researchers and practitioners to promote social
tourism and to facilitate holiday participation, notably through social tourism provision.
The comparison of seniors going on holidays and non-tourists clearly points out the
benefits of holidays. This suggests that seniors should be made aware of the protective
and beneficiary aspects for their health and wellbeing. Additionally, based on our findings,
the tourism industry should develop more services adapted to seniors in order to comply
with their specific needs and preferences. To this end, guidelines about the specific needs
of seniors and their preferences in terms of types of activities could be created for tourism
providers. At the societal level, the findings of this study could serve as evidence for
encouraging public authorities to facilitate the access of holiday resources for low-
income seniors. As showed by some studies, this strategy may have a beneficial effect
on various aspects of the health and wellbeing of those people. Through tourism,
seniors get the opportunity for social encounters and meet new people. Moreover, holidays
help them to get out of their isolation, and be more physically active. They can forget about
financial problems and others sources of worry during the time of the trip and focus their
attention on more positive sides of their life (Ferrer et al., 2016; Medaric, Gabruc, &
Sedmak, 2016; Morgan et al., 2015). Recent literature on social tourism widely recognizes
potential benefits of holidays as an integral part of active ageing and a major form of inter-
vention in social care (Medaric et al., 2016; Minnaert & Schapmans, 2009).
The results of the current study should be considered in light of several limitations.
Firstly, our sample is not representative of the Belgian population of elderly people,
especially considering the method of recruitment performed exclusively by a single
health insurance company (albeit the largest in Belgium) and the online nature of the
questionnaires. Indeed, 37% of Belgian adults aged between 65 and 75 years have never
used Internet (Statbel, 2017b), which excluded a large proportion of this population
from our study. Moreover, the sample was dominated by men whereas the opposite is
found in Belgian population aged over 65 years (Statbel, 2017a). Secondly, the cross-sec-
tional design does not allow us to draw any conclusions regarding the directionality of the
association between holiday participation and wellbeing. Thirdly, that is possible that the
validity of the measures has been affected by the retrospective nature of this study that
could have generated memory bias. Finally, our findings should not be considered as an
14 M. MÉLON ET AL.
agenda for policy. For example, one should not only focus on the practice of social and
cognitive activities during holidays simply because these were the activities with the stron-
gest associations with wellbeing. In addition, the ageing population is known to be a het-
erogeneous group (Lowsky, Olshansky, Bhattacharya, & Goldman, 2014), especially in
terms of personal needs and interests. As such, seniors need to find personally fulfilling
leisure experiences that give meaning to their lives (Gibson & Singleton, 2012).
Future research should consider longitudinal designs to explore the influence of a
holiday on seniors’health and wellbeing. Additionally, pre–post designs could eliminate
potential baseline differences and increase the validity of measures by limiting memory
bias. There is also a need to investigate the mechanisms that underlie the relationship
between the different types of social and cognitive activities practiced on holidays and
senior tourists’wellbeing. Finally, future research could investigate how long the benefits
of a holiday last for in seniors.
Conclusion
The research aims have been met by providing valuable data on holiday-related predic-
tors of seniors’wellbeing. The results of this study showed, as expected, that senior
tourists had a different profile than senior non-tourists: they were younger, more edu-
cated, wealthier, and healthier. In addition, their levels of wellbeing were higher com-
pared to senior non-tourists, after controlling for socio-demographic indicators,
health, physical activity, and social relations. The findings also showed that holidays sig-
nificantly contribute to higher wellbeing scores over and above the role of relevant cov-
ariates. The analyses of significant holiday-related predictors of wellbeing showed that
the more often seniors went on holidays, the more they practiced holiday-related
social and cognitive activities and the more they perceived that holidays had health
benefits, the higher their wellbeing scores.
Notes
1. Holidays refer to all journeys for pleasure including at least four consecutive nights away
from home (World Tourism Organization [WTO], 1995).
2. Bien-être, Emploi, Santé et Tourisme social in collaboration with Université libre de Bruxelles
(ULB) and funded by the Walloon region (Belgium) –Germaine Tillon funding on social
innovation.
3. The Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living assesses the ability to
perform activities of daily living independently. Patients are scored on a four-point scale
for independence in each of six functions (bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, conti-
nence, feeding). The scores range from one (totally independent) to four (totally depen-
dent). People with a score of three or four on at least two criteria of the scale were
excluded from the mailing list.
4. This percentage corresponds to the average level of responses obtained by the Mutualité
Chrétienne in previous surveys.
5. The different activities were presented using specific examples: physical activities (e.g. visits,
walks, gymnastics, aqua gym, dance), social activities (e.g. workshops, group games, group
excursions), cognitive activities (e.g. reading, word games, itinerary planning) and relaxing
activities (e.g. getting a massage, lying on a deckchair, taking a nap).
JOURNAL OF POLICY RESEARCH IN TOURISM, LEISURE AND EVENTS 15
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Germaine Tillion Grant [number 1318182] for Social Innovation
(BEST project) in collaboration with Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) from the Walloon region
(Belgium) and the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) accorded to Olivier Luminet.
We thank Mutualité Chrétienne for the recruitment of participants. We would also like to thank
Betty Chang for her proofreading of the paper, and Aurélie Van der Haegen, Djouaria Ghilani,
Elke Vlemincx, Giorgia Zamariola, Jessica Morton and Valérie Broes for their helpful comments
on the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This work was supported by the Germaine Tillion (walloon region) [grant number 1318182] for
Social Innovation (BEST project) in collaboration with Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) from
the Walloon region (Belgium) and the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) accorded
to Olivier Luminet.
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