It doesn’t matter if you travel with a backpack or if you stay in a luxury hotel: each travel experience can positively affect your health and give you a significant boost to endorphins. For many people, the joy it brings can outweigh other vital events in their lives, such as getting married or having a child. And research has shown that people enjoy travel so much that they even top the list of things that bring them the most happiness in life!
To obtain the right results, a research company interviewed 17,000 people from 17 countries so that they could adopt a more diversified attitude towards travel. Respondents confirmed that very little could replace a vacation in terms of happiness. For example, 77% of people said they book vacations when they need to immediately lift their mood.
The most intriguing part of the study is that people said they value travel more than their partner and even the happy events in their lives. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed said they felt a higher level of happiness during planning and vacations than at their wedding!
Almost half of those surveyed said that hanging out with their partner does not lift them as much emotionally as traveling. Forty-five percent said that getting engaged does not provide them with as much emotional stimulation as traveling. Even having a baby does not provide 29% of respondents with an endorphin rush!
It has also been found that people enjoy new experiences more than having a lot of material things. Seventy percent of respondents said that going on vacation provides them with satisfaction that lasts longer than the happiness they get from buying things.
It seems that people are ready to sacrifice their comfort for new travel experiences. For example, 56% of respondents prefer to go on vacation rather than buy new clothes or gadgets, and 48% of them are willing to postpone home improvements to visit new places.
Surprisingly, percent of respondents just start planning a vacation to feel happier. For example, 80% feel more excited when they look at a map and choose the places they want to visit7.
Six out of ten respondents feel an emotional boost when they read hotel reviews and imagine their future trips. However, nothing can replace shopping: more than half of those questioned said that buying vacation clothes was one of their best mood lifters!
