Understanding tourist restoration: an integrated framework from the perspective of environmental change

ABSTRACT

Travel has long been recognized as a beneficial method for rejuvenating individuals who are feeling exhausted. Drawing inspiration from theories of restorative environments, this study utilizes semi-structured interviews to explore the mechanisms through which tourism contributes to restorative outcomes. The findings reveal that tourism plays a significant role in restoring individuals across various dimensions, including physiological, psychological, spiritual, and social aspects. By adopting an environmental change perspective, six key mechanisms of the restorative process have been identified: being physically and psychologically away from the everyday environment, environmental stimulation from tourist destinations, emotional regulation, mental adjustment, physiological improvement, and negative factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourist restoration
• restorative mechanism
• daily environment
• environment change
• attention restoration theory
• restorative environment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Zhejiang Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences under Grant number [24NDQN077YB], National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number [72202212], and Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences under grant number [2023N027].