Pre-travel anticipation as a catalyst of happiness—do demographics matter?

Abstract

Using a national survey with 72,533 samples, this study empirically tested whether pre-travel anticipation, actual previous travel experiences and a series of socio-economic and demographic factors could significantly influence the happiness and life satisfaction of Chinese travellers. The comparison between urban and rural Chinese travellers indicated that pre-travel anticipation, current income, expected income, gender, and marital status could positively influence the happiness of urban and rural Chinese travellers who plan to travel. Our results also showed that previous travel experiences did not affect the happiness of either urban or rural Chinese travellers.