Academic Journal Article (Transformational Tourism and Experience Research).
https://www.emerald.com/jtf/article/8/3/282/248717/Transformational-tourism-a-systematic-literature
After exploring the barriers that may restrict Autistic adults from travelling, I wanted to investigate the reason access to independent travel matters. My project has repeatedly described backpacking and independent international travel as potentially transformative experiences. However, I recognised that I needed to understand what tourism researchers mean by 'transformation' rather than relying on the general assumption that travel automatically creates confidence or personal growth. I chose this paper because it systematically examines transformational-tourism research published between 1978 and 2020. The authors identified 194 scholarly sources and investigated the types of tourism, research methods and concepts associated with transformation.
One of the first things that stood out was how broad and unsettled the idea of transformational tourism remains.
The review connects transformation with:
The paper also found that qualitative research was more common than quantitative research within this area. The authors suggest that one reason may be the difficulty of creating reliable ways to measure a subjective and potentially long-term process. This immediately supported Ben’s concern about my earlier research question. It would be difficult to prove that a single design intervention caused someone to undergo personal transformation.
Theme 1: Transformation is not a guaranteed outcome.