Does Travel Make You Happier? What a Booking.com Survey Found

Originally published 2020-03-04.

Can a holiday make you happier than your wedding day? In a survey commissioned by Booking.com, 49 percent of travellers said it could. The research, released in November 2016, questioned 17,157 adults in 17 countries and found that many people rate trips among their happiest experiences, and that simply planning a holiday lifts the mood of most respondents. Those numbers are striking, but they describe how people feel about travel, not proof that a trip beats marriage or parenthood. Academic research tells a more nuanced story, especially about how long the holiday glow lasts.

Here is what the survey actually found, how much weight it can bear, and what independent studies say about getting the most happiness out of time away.

What the Booking.com survey asked, and who answered

Booking.com commissioned an independent research firm to poll about 1,000 adults in each of 17 markets: the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Russia, the United States, Canada, Brazil, China, Japan, India, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. Everyone surveyed had taken at least one domestic or international holiday in the previous year. Fieldwork ran from 9 September to 4 October 2016.

That last detail matters. The sample consisted of people who travel, interviewed by a travel company. It is a useful snapshot of travellers' attitudes, but it is not a scientific measure of what makes humans happy.

The headline findings

When respondents compared holidays with major life events, a large share put travel on top:

• 49% said a holiday made them happier than their wedding day.
• 51% preferred a trip to a date with their partner.
• 50% said it beat landing a new job.
• 45% rated it above getting engaged.
• 29% said it brought more happiness than having a baby.

Travel also came out ahead of shopping for things. Seventy percent said experiences from travel bring longer-lasting happiness than material possessions, 56 percent would choose a holiday over new clothes, jewellery or gadgets, and 48 percent would put a trip ahead of home improvements. More than three-quarters, 77 percent, said they book a holiday specifically to cheer themselves up.

Why planning a trip feels so good

Some of the most interesting numbers concern the time before departure. In the survey, 72 percent said researching destinations made them excited, and 56 percent felt happiest at the moment of booking. Eight in ten enjoyed looking at maps and reading about places to visit, 79 percent liked scrolling through photos of destinations and accommodation, and 61 percent kept reading reviews of a hotel even after booking it. Just over half enjoyed planning and shopping for a holiday wardrobe, and 39 percent said they thought about an upcoming trip at least once a day.

Once the trip began, the first day stood out: 87 percent counted it among their happiest moments, and 83 percent said the same about first seeing their accommodation. Sixty-two percent felt a rush of happiness when they switched on their out-of-office message.

What independent research says

Peer-reviewed studies support part of this picture and complicate the rest.

Anticipation is real. A 2010 study led by Jeroen Nawijn of Erasmus University Rotterdam, published in Applied Research in Quality of Life, followed 1,530 Dutch adults, 974 of whom took a holiday during the study period. People with a trip ahead of them were happier than those without one, and the researchers suggested that looking forward to the break was a major reason.

The afterglow is short. In the same study, returning holidaymakers were, on average, no happier than people who had stayed home. Only those who described their holiday as very relaxing showed a small boost, mostly in the first two weeks back, and it had faded by about eight weeks.

Experiences tend to beat things. Psychologists Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich found in a well-known 2003 paper that people generally get more lasting satisfaction from experiential purchases than from material ones. Experiences become part of who we are, are easy to share with others and are harder to compare unfavourably with what neighbours have. That fits the survey's 70 percent figure.

We adapt quickly. The idea of the "hedonic treadmill," introduced by Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell in 1971, describes how people tend to drift back to a fairly stable level of happiness after good and bad events alike. A holiday is a lift, not a permanent change in baseline.

Common myths about travel and happiness

• "Travel is proven to be better than marriage." No. The survey recorded preferences of a self-selected group answering a travel company's questions. People's feelings about their wedding or children are complex, and comparing them with a beach week is not a scientific ranking.
• "Every trip gives you a health boost." Rest and new experiences can reduce stress, but a stressful, rushed or expensive trip can do the opposite. There is no guaranteed medical benefit, and anyone dealing with low mood or exhaustion should talk to a doctor rather than rely on a holiday.
• "The longer and further, the happier." Research on anticipation suggests that frequency and planning matter at least as much as length and distance.

How to get more happiness from your holidays

Putting the survey and the research together suggests a few practical habits:

• Plan early and enjoy the wait. Since anticipation is a big part of the pleasure, booking ahead gives you weeks or months of looking forward.
• Take shorter breaks more often. If the glow fades within a few weeks, several smaller trips may lift your mood more across a year than one long one.
• Prioritise rest. The only lasting post-holiday boost in the Dutch study came from very relaxing trips. Leave room in the schedule.
• Protect the transition back. A free day between returning and starting work can soften the drop.
• Know what you enjoy. For some people it is discovery, for others time with family or simply a change of scenery. Choosing trips around that preference matters more than following lists.
• Bring the feeling home. Local day trips, a new restaurant or a weekend walk can deliver some of the same novelty without a plane ticket.

Travel clearly brings real joy to many people, and the Booking.com numbers capture that enthusiasm well. The most useful lesson, though, may be that the happiness starts long before departure and depends more on how you travel than on comparing a trip with life's big milestones.

Sources: Booking.com press release (29 November 2016); ScienceDaily: Vacationers happier, but most not happier after a holiday (Nawijn et al., 2010); Wikipedia: Hedonic treadmill.