Want happiness? Plan a vacation, University of Alabama researchers say

Roger Cooper takes a picture of his wife Lori and 10 year-old daughter Jamison on South Beach in Miami, Florida, on Saturday Jan. 5, 2013, before the Alabama-Notre Dame national championship game. [Staff file photo]

Endless summer surfers, Elvis in the movies, the Go-Gos, Jack Johnson and Jimmy Buffett would probably agree with this premise: Beach people live the sunniest lives.

But it turns out to be the road ahead that brings the most joy, according to a study by a pair of University of Alabama researchers. Yes, beaches were named most often as desired destinations, in the study of 1,040 travelers from around the United States, but it’s travel itself, the escape from routine, that creates joy.

The traveler can climb mountains, sail cruise ships, or hike parks, said Jay Waters, a UA instructor in advertising and public relations, who created the study with Jameson Hayes, an associate professor and director of UA’s Public Opinion Lab.

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“The commonality among all those destinations is ‘I’m going some place I love; I’m getting away from work,’ ” Waters said. Movement is crucial, because the so-called “staycation,” time off where a respondent remains at or near home, didn’t yield the same positive reaction results.

“It’s the act of vacating your life” that leads to joy, Hayes said. According to their work, people mentally time-travel forward to upcoming getaways. “But it wasn’t until they actually booked the next trip that it affected their happiness.”

The study focused on people between 25 and 55, because the researchers didn’t want the more free nature of retirement, or the differing expectations of college kids, to skew results. Though limited in nature by it being the first year — Waters and Hayes hope to make this an expanding, annual survey — income levels of the surveyed ran roughly with that of the national average. Those who displayed the most indicators for happiness tended to travel between 15 and 21 days per year.

Life’s a beach

The life is a beach supposition began with Mike Ragsdale, founder of 30A, a media and lifestyle brand inspired by the scenic highway that runs along Walton County’s beaches. Ragsdale, who earned his bachelor’s in communications from UA in 1991, and his master’s in advertising and public relations in ’93, commissioned the study.

In formative days of the Internet, Ragsdale helped establish user-generated content ideas, co-founding some of AOL’s most popular communities, including comedy site Hecklers Online, video-game community Antagonist Games Network, and sci-fi/fantasy community Zealot. He and his family are also avid travelers, but 30A was built on his love for small-town Gulf Coast living. Its products include media channels such as 30A.com, 30A Radio, southwalton.com and Beach Happy magazine, through which he promotes socially responsible beach dwelling.

“Mike, as you would expect, is a very happy guy,” Hayes said. Once residents of suburban Birmingham, the Ragsdales talked so often about their love for the beach, their daughter encouraged them to put plans in motion. When not circling the globe, they reside along the Emerald Coast, where 30A was founded.

“He’s very happy because he travels all the time,” Waters added. Ragsdale sent some survey numbers he’d found, along with a few broad questions, and the researchers took it from there, seeking the relationship between travel and happiness.

“The curious thing, the thing that he thought was true, that beach people were happier than other people … didn’t turn out to be true,” Waters said. “Beach people were not happier than other people, like those who prefer the mountains, or cruise line vacations.

“Really, it’s just about any kind of getting away.”

Beaches were mentioned as the favored destination prominently, at 34.2 percent of respondents, but those same folks were as likely to choose other travels in addition. Those who vacation may sometimes follow patterns, but on another trip, they tend to vary the choices.

“Everyone’s taking all the opportunities,” Waters said. Most of the surveys were completed last fall, before Omicron variants were known to be on the rise.

“So some people were thinking ‘In 2022, we’re home free,’ ” he said. “So we did see that people were intending to travel more.”

And despite outbreaks and ongoing pandemic concerns, the marketplace is showing those people’s intentions are being fulfilled.

“Even with infection rates five times what they were last summer, hotels are full, airlines are full,” Waters said. “It’s validating the information that people were moving forward.”

Souvenirs and memories

And that “moving forward” vector is important, because it turns out looking back on vacations past doesn’t provide the same emotional lift.

“We thought perhaps reminders, souvenirs, when we use these apps or tokens we bought, these bumper stickers or whatever, would have a more positive effect,” Hayes said. “But thinking backward doesn’t affect happiness in the same ways. Thinking ahead does, the booking and planning. The looking backwards kind of washed out the effect.”

They puzzled about that for some time, Waters said, reflecting back with fondness on recent travels with his wife.

“But there is a little bit of nostalgia, a little bit of regret: ‘I can’t repeat that,’ ” he said. “Whereas our upcoming trip to Banff (in Alberta, Canada), there’s no downside to that. There isn’t that melancholy of ‘I might not be there again.’ “

There’s a sweet spot for souvenirs, corresponding to any backwards-looking happiness, Hayes said. People who brought home arms-full didn’t register as joyfully as those who stuck with two or three small, specific things. Those tend to be bumper stickers, ringtones, and any kind of display you can put on your desk, a visual reminder, he said. That’s something they plan to dig into more in future studies, the effects of past travel on happiness.

Other areas they’d like to dive down toward include the differences between tourists — people who view travel as entertainment — as opposed to travelers, those who see venturing experiences as life enhancements.

“Also, ‘How did that become my favorite place?’ We couldn’t really get to that, this time around,” Waters said. “Even though I may have a favorite place, why don’t I keep going back? At what point does it become part of my life, do I become less a traveler and a more a part-time resident? The salt loses its flavor, kind of thing.”

Comparing results with other psychological happiness studies, this UA-30A work finds those who travel express more general joy in life. And to ramp up the pleasure, Waters said, keep one eye on the horizon.

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