The Nature of Pleasure in Pleasure Travel

Abstract

It is indeed ironic that despite the importance of pleasure as a central theme in both the practice and theory of travel, there is a critical absence of knowledge from which to theoretically and conceptually situate this concept in our field. Given this current state, the purpose of this paper is to undertake a general survey of literature on pleasure, incorporating knowledge from a number of diverse fields including philosophy, evolutionary biology, psychology, neuroscience, social psychology, sociology, and tourism. More specifically, the paper examines sensory or qualitative forms of pleasure and these are compared and contrasted with emotional or attitudinal forms of pleasure, including satisfaction, enjoyment and aesthetics. These different types of pleasure are later organized into a conceptual framework and linked with different temporal frames of pleasure, including anticipatory, on-site, and remembered temporal contexts. This arrangement, along with the interdisciplinary nature of the work, is viewed eis a point of departure for further research in the area.

Keywords:

• tourism
• pleasure
• sensory
• aesthetic
• enjoyment
• satisfaction