Work

The impact of life adversity on destination preference

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: In periods characterised by pandemics, personal loss, or political upheaval, individuals often experience deep feelings of powerlessness. However, little is known about how such negative life events and the resulting powerlessness influence tourism destination preferences. Across three studies utilizing survey (Study 1), experiment (Study 2), and recall task methodologies (Study 3), this paper shows that negative life events reduce preferences for new destinations by heightening feelings of powerlessness and, subsequently, triggering personal nostalgia. Furthermore, when individuals experience powerlessness in response to a temporally distant (vs. recent) negative life event, they demonstrate an even stronger preference for familiar rather than new destinations. By integrating cognitive appraisal and construal-level theories, this research extends current literature by explicitly identifying powerlessness and personal nostalgia as sequential mediators forming a dynamic psychological pathway from life adversity to consumer choice. Ultimately, our findings broaden the theoretical understanding of personal nostalgia tourism as an appraisal-based coping mechanism and offer actionable implications for managers, detailing how to position familiar destinations as psychological refuges and leverage familiar anchors when marketing novel destinations to powerless consumers.

Source: Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2026.101580

Authors: Youlin Huang, Shicheng Li, Jinzhu Song

Institutions: South China University of Technology, Zhejiang Gongshang University

Language: English

Topic: Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,400