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Research Reveals Secrets Of ‘That Holiday Feeling’
It’s like falling in love and passing exams – returning to work is like paying taxes
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We’ve all experienced that ethereal ‘holiday feeling’, but new research published today has for the first time pinpointed the definitive high points of the holiday experience – it’s comparable to falling in love and passing exams.
A ground-breaking study conducted over the summer for Expedia.co.uk by leading behavioural psychologist Dr Aric Sigman got to the heart of the holiday experience.
Five groups of holidaymakers – a young family, a co-habiting couple, young professionals, a retired couple and a lone traveller – used heartbeat monitors and a series of psychological questionnaires to record their holiday experience from the moment they booked their trip to their first day back to the daily grind.
The findings pinpointed five clear moments which had significant effects on people’s emotional and physical state relative to the average baseline heart rate of 71.5 bpm:
Falling in love – with your hotel room: the defining moment is walking into your hotel room for the first time. Travellers experienced such a rush of excitement, happiness and anticipation that the physical effects were comparable to those that occur when someone starts to fall in love with a prospective partner: 89.2 bpm
Water Rates: the first trip to the beach or pool caused a rise to 87 bpm. This is comparable to night out on the town with close friends
Check-in: a combination of anticipation and excitement raised heartbeats to an average of 86.6 bpm, comparable to opening exam results
Flight Flutter: the Captain’s announcement that you’re about to land causes excitement in most – and perhaps fear in others – at 83.2bpm
Slow Beat: by mid-holiday the relaxation response set in, bringing heart rates to their lowest foreign levels of 74.6bpm. This is similar to watching the clouds go by instead of doing the gardening
Equally, we’re all familiar with the back to work blues. But it may surprise you to know that your stress and depression levels rise by nearly 50% on the first day back to work – an experience as painful as paying taxes:
Back Beat: getting back to the stressful daily grind caused peoples’ heart rates to soar to 82bpm, 16 per cent higher than when the whole study began. This is equivalent to paying household bills or taxes
Drop to the Shop: men were decidedly non-plussed with pre-holiday shopping and reacted with a sluggish heart response of 68 bpm, comparable to watching paint dry. Their female counterparts felt differently at 82bpm
Expedia.co.uk commissioned the study into the ‘Highs and Lows of a Holiday’ as part of its ongoing quest to get to the bottom of what makes individual travellers tick and to help them create their perfect trip.
Dermot Halpin, managing director of Expedia.co.uk, commented: “As a travel company we’ve always known that we’re offering people something that makes them feel good – now we know exactly why.”
About Expedia.co.uk Expedia, Inc. operates Expedia.co.uk in the UK and has localised versions for travellers in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Expedia, Inc. is part of IAC Travel, a division of IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IACI), formerly USA Interactive. Expedia and Expedia.co.uk are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Expedia.co.uk provides the tools and ideas to enable travellers to create and book their perfect trip: millions of published and discounted fares on over 450 airlines, a directory of more than 80,000 accommodation properties world-wide and 4 million rooms, car hire from the top rental companies, build-your-own packaging technology and a choice of pre-package holidays. The site also includes in depth destination guides and maps, a comprehensive travel information service, and links to relevant Web sites. |
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