Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 faculty of tourism, science and culture university, tehran, iran

2 Associate Professor /Department Tourism Science and Culture University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor/Department Tourism Science and Culture University, Tehran, Iran

10.22054/qjsd.2025.83791.2645

Abstract

In recent decades, tourism studies, due to their interdisciplinary nature, have increasingly focused on well-being from both theoretical and methodological perspectives, prioritizing the examination of tourists' well-being in research agendas. Despite several decades since the introduction of the term "well-being in tourism," as conceptualized by Pearce, the concept remains fragmented and ambiguous. Given that well-being can have long-term physical and psychological effects on all aspects of human life, defining it as a goal of tourism appears to be an accepted endeavor.This study, which is developmental-applied in purpose and qualitative in method, aims to explain the concept of well-being in tourism. It employs a documentary and library research approach for data collection and utilizes meta-synthesis to analyze the views of theorists in order to identify the concept and dimensions of well-being in tourism. The study population includes all English-language research related to well-being in tourism from 1990 to 2024.The findings reveal that while hedonic well-being, eudaimonic well-being, subjective well-being, psychological well-being, quality of life, and more recently transformative and meaningful experiences have been examined as aspects of well-being in tourism studies—and are occasionally used interchangeably—they differ in terms of their concepts and dimensions.The results can enhance managers' understanding of tourist well-being and provide practical guidelines for managers, planners, and policymakers in developing tourism at national and regional levels and well-being for planning for community members.

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