Thomson Holidays Psychology of Travel Study1

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1. INTRODUCTION

It is known that holidays have a beneficial social and psychological impact on individuals.

However, little is known of the psychology behind what different people really enjoy

doing on holiday and why.

Commissioned by Thomson Holidays, this study is the first of its kind in the travel

industry, delivering groundbreaking findings using a unique multi-methodology approach

including EEG testing which measures electrical activity in the brain, and quantitative

research among a representative cross-section of the adult population.

Incorporating such rigorous and scientific techniques more commonly associated with

academic research, the Psychology of Travel report has discovered a contradiction

between what people say they want from their holidays and what scientific analysis

shows their brains are really engaged by.

These unique results were achieved by comparing and contrasting self-reported data

(what people say and think motivates them) with the neurological data (what can be

empirically shown to be firing in peoples brains, whether they are aware of it or not).

The study also analyses why such contradictions might occur and how we can start to

understand what different people really want from their holidays a key objective for

Thomson Holidays which prides itself on treating every holidaymaker as an individual.

Undertaken in partnership with leading consumer insight and brand strategy consultancy

Sparkler and consultant neurioscientist Dr Jack Lewis (PhD), the study lays bare the

requirements, desires and motivations of UK holidaymakers from booking their holiday

in the winter to boarding the aircraft home at the end of the summer.


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2. METHODOLOGY

The Thomson Holidays Psychology of Travel report has delivered groundbreaking

findings using a unique multi-methodology approach including EEG testing, quantitative

research among a representative cross-section of the adult population and qualitative

research with people who had also participated in the EEG experiment.

i. Electroencephalography (EEG)

An introduction to EEG

At the heart of the Psychology of Travel study is a unique experiment to discover what

people really want to be doing on their holiday. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used

to measure peoples engagement with a series of different images, representing different

holiday activities.

This work was carried out at the Mindlab International laboratory at the Sussex

Innovation Centre, based at the University of Sussex in Brighton between the 6th and

10th December 2010. Further input and analysis was provided by neuroscientist Jack

Lewis (PhD).


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Participants being prepared for the study by the lab technician


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Participants viewing images during the experiment

Having given their informed consent to the procedures, participants sitting in testing

booths were connected to EEG recording equipment and watched a series of images on

a 24 monitor.


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Participants wore an EEG Cap from Mindmedia NL allowing recording of 22 EEG

channels, and data was recorded on a Lifelines Trackit Mk2amplifier and recorder. Data

was synchronized to the stimuli by use of a serial trigger running from the computer that

displayed the test and triggering at the beginning and end of each stimulus, adding

markers to the recorded data for accuracy of timings.

The test consisted of two sections. First the participants took part in attention and

emotion calibration tasks. This was used to create attention and emotional engagement

baselines. They then took part in the main study.

To begin with, participants were played a recording of a narrator describing exactly how

the experiment was going to unfold. This was accompanied by a black screen. The

narrator also set the context of the experiment to get them in the right frame of mind,

asking them to imagine they were actually in each scene they were about to see. They

were also asked to consider how much they would actually enjoy doing the activities

depicted in each photograph.

The first set of three images was then shown a dummy run to acclimatise the

participants to the rhythm of the study. EEG data was not recorded for this set.

The study continued with the presentation of three consecutive images, each displayed

on screen for three seconds and each separated by a blank screen for two seconds.

Before each triplet of images the narrator would again set the scene to ensure

participants were fully engaged with the subsequent images. After each set of three

images had been shown, participants were asked to subjectively rate their preference for

the holiday type between 1 and 5 by calling out their answer to a technician. This was

continued until all of the holiday combinations had been shown and all had been rated.

EEG data was only analysed during the slide show phases, not during the rating.

Mindlab International uses a combination of psychological tasks and computer assisted

learning. The machine learns the differences in EEG brain activation patterns (power

and coherence from all 10-20 sites in 2Hz bands between 4Hz and 30Hz resulting in

several thousand channels).


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Visuals from NeXus 32 datacapture

The above image depicts the signal, detected by electrodes (FP1, FP2 etc) positioned

evenly across the scalp, as brain activity changes from moment to moment. Each

electrode measures electrical activity in nearby brain tissue, just the other side of the

skull, which results from thousands of highly-interconnected wire-like brain cells sending

millions of tiny electrical messages from one place to another.

Above the traces are several colour-coded maps illustrating the varying strength of

electrical activity within different frequency ranges (Delta, Theta etc) across the scalp

surface (plan view).

Essentially, the computer is trained to distinguish the patterns in the scalp cortical

electrical activity between two opposing states. The opposing states used are as follows:

ATTENTION: states of lower attention are trained using a simple task in which a number

of dots (between 7 and 12) are shown on screen for a duration of one second. The


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participant is required to do nothing but observe. To obtain a dataset corresponding to

high attention the same task is again repeated but in this instance the participant is

required to try and count the number of dots during the one second interval. This type of

attention can also be described as vigilance.

EMOTION: using a set of standardised video clips known to elicit high and neutral

emotional responses in the participant, he participant is required to view all of these clips

to provide a training set for the computer to learn. The term emotion, as used here, does

not relate specifically to either positive or negative emotion, but instead the strength of

emotion experienced. For example, happiness and disgust cannot be distinguished.

The two measures of active and emotional attention are combined in an unbiased

manner to produce the engagement metric. This value is scaled to lie between 0 and 10.

Engagement is a state of increased attention and emotional arousal, with 10 being highly

attentive and emotionally aroused (highly being defined by the above tasks) and 0 being

a state of low attention and little emotional arousal. There is no concept of emotional

valence in our definition, as the task was assumed not to elicit negative emotions from

the outset.

The stimulus

Initial team workshops led to exploration of specific dimensions of holiday preference.

Familiarity vs. adventure and hedonism vs. mind expansion were determined as key

dimensions. These two axes structured our stimulus space. We looked at 16 groups of

three images, each group representing a different type of holiday activity.


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Sample stimulus images across stimulus space as used in the EEG experiment

After measuring peoples brain engagement with the different image sets, they were

asked to subjectively rate each group of three images on a scale of 1 to 5. This was

recorded by a lab technician.

By recording both the objective brain engagement data and subjective response data we

are able to compare what people think they want from a holiday with what their brains

tell us actually engages them most.

The sample

The aim of the study was to find a robust way to investigate how different personality

traits impacted preference of holiday activity across the stimulus space. As a solid

foundation it was decided the Big Five personality traits should be drawn upon as a

starting point.

Adven-turous

Familiar

HedonisticMind-

expanding


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The Big Five is a well-established way of looking at personality difference through five

different personality traits: extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness

and openness. In his 2007 book, Personality, David Nettle states that the Big Five

emerged from a welter of research over the last few decades and looks to be the most

comprehensive, reliable and useful framework for discussing human personality that

weve ever had. (More information about the Big Five can be found in the Appendix.)

Of the five factors, it was felt that extroversion and neuroticism had most relevance and

most potential interest for the study. Openness could have too obvious a correlation with

holiday preference (or, at least it has a very explicit link which could have lead to less

interesting results), with the factors conscientiousness and agreeableness being too

distant. Extraversion and neuroticism both had the potential to have an interesting or

surprising correlation with the familiarity and hedonism spectrums.

Eight participants were recruited in each of four quadrants:

Laid back extroverts: high extroversion and low neuroticism scores define this

personality type. These free-spirited souls tend to be very energetic, outgoing

individuals who do not worry too much about anything; tending to feel quite

confident and secure in most situations.

Anxious extroverts: high extroversion and high neuroticism scores define thisgroup. Despite their tendency to be positively and actively engaged with their

environments, such people also tend to experience negative mood states and, in

particular, often feel anxious.

Anxious introverts: low extroversion and high neuroticism scores define this

group. These placid, introverted characters usually try to avoid social situations,

tending to be quite sensitive and easily-stressed.

Laid back introverts: low extroversion AND low neuroticism scores define this

group. Despite not being terribly outgoing or energetic individuals, they arenonetheless pretty carefree and confident in their abilities.

Participants were asked to take an online Big Five personality test (see Appendix) and

report their scores. Numerical scores come with an indication of whether they are

relatively high, relatively low or about average. These were recorded in a spreadsheet


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and recruitment continued until all four groups had been filled with participants who had

the relevant relatively high or relatively low scores. In some cases, participants with an

average score that was close to being relatively high or relatively low were used in order

to ensure a full sample at the time of the experiment.

All were aged 30 to 50 with an even gender split in each group.

ii. Quantitative research

The quantitative research element of the study took the form of a bespoke online survey

designed and managed by Sparkler, with fieldwork carried out by Research Now

between 25 November and 7 December 2010.

The quantitative research methodology and sample were designed to ensure a robust

reading was obtained of all those respondents who travel abroad on holiday.

The sample size was 1,004 individuals consisting of adults (aged 18+) living in the UK

who had travelled abroad in the last two years (since January 2009).

The sample was quotad on gender, age, socio-economic group, regionality and marital

status to ensure it was representative of all adults who travel abroad. All survey data

stated in this report is weighted data in line with the quota profile detailed above.

Data analysis and reporting was carried out by Sparkler and all multi variate analysis,

including factor analysis and correlation analysis was undertaken by Saville Rossiter

Base.

In order to explore as many ways as possible to understand the attitudes and

motivations of the traveller, different batteries of questions and statements (with 5 pointagree/disagree scales) were used to find out which questions yielded the most

illuminating insight. This proved invaluable to the analysis.


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iii. Qualitative research

Following the EEG study the quantitative research interviews were conducted with three

couples and one individual who had also participated in the EEG tests. This allowed

themes from the quantitative stage to be explored in more depth. It also gave a further,

more forensic reading on the difference between what people think they want from a

holiday and what their brains show actually engages them.

Sample

The people taking part in this phase of the research covered a range of ages, life-stages

and personality types. The full qualitative sample is set out below:

Couple 1: Rob, 40, (high neuroticism; low extraversion) and Jasmine, 36, (high

neuroticism; high extraversion) have children

Couple 2: David, 44, (high neuroticism; high extraversion) and Gretchen, 42, (low

neuroticism; low extraversion) no children

Couple 3: Phil, 39, (low neuroticism; high extraversion) and Samantha, 33, (high

neuroticism; high extraversion) have children

Individual: Nichola, 33, (high neuroticism; low extraversion) no children

Discussion

The qualitative sessions focused on respondents personal holiday experiences and

aspirations focusing on six key themes:

1. Past holiday experiences

2. Important components for a good holiday

3. The holiday you and the home you

4. Your ideal holiday

5. The five holiday factors found in the quantitative survey


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3. RESULTS

i. There is a contradiction between what people say they want from holidays and

what EEG analysis shows their brains to be engaged by

This section examines the contradiction between the subjective (what people say they

want from holidays) and the objective (what the EEG shows their brains are engaged by).

A key finding was that fantasy is important when it comes to holidays and although

people say they want adventure, their brains give them away, showing they are actually

more interested in safer, more familiar activities.

New and adventurous

Quantitative, self-reported data suggests that people want the new and adventurous on

holiday:

93% of people said holidays are about visiting places Ive never been to before.

84% trying new food youve never tried before was crucial to a holiday.

49% said they like walking through the jungle on holiday.

And according to the quantitative research, it is not just the youngsters who like to seek

something new. In fact, it was the youngest group which was the most conservative

85% of 18 to 24-year-olds said they enjoy visiting places they have never been to before.

Of those respondents aged 65 and over, on the other hand, 97% said they like to visit

places they had never been before.

However, the quantitative data presents multiple fascinating contradictions.

Of the 67% of respondents who said that they enjoyed going back to tried and tested

places, nearly all them (97%) also said that holidays were about visiting places they

had never seen before.


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Similarly, while 84% of all people said that trying new food youve never tried before

was something they liked doing on holiday, 51% also stated the importance of having a

full English breakfast. There is evident contradiction here as 45% agreed with both

statements.

People who consider themselves to be Beach Bunnies are not as lazy as you or they -

might think. In fact, they index highly against parascending, scuba diving and snorkelling,

as well as snow sports for example they are a third more likely to try parascending

than the overall population.

For something as fundamental as a holiday to be so full of apparent contradiction is

psychologically fascinating. By understanding these contradictions more fully it is

possible to better understand which holidays are truly the right holidays for different

individuals.

Adventure vs. familiarity

The EEG experiment delves further into these apparent contradictions by looking at

peoples brain activity in response to photos of holiday activities.

The most striking outcome of this study is the contradiction between the apparent appeal

of adventurous activities on a subjective level and the higher engagement with more

familiar and relaxed activities on a neurometric engagement level.

When asked to rate the image sets on a 1-5 scale of appeal, a preference for

adventurous, mind-expanding activities came across in all four personality groups. So

consistently across all personality types, people said they most wanted to take part in

activities represented by the following images:


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However, when it came to the objective measure of brain engagement, the more familiar,

safer activities were highlighted as being most engaging. Activities represented by the

following images, were most highly engaging:

Emphasising this point further still, the research showed that for two personality types

anxious extroverts and laid-back introverts the adventurous activities that took them


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into exciting environments and presented challenging experiences were the ones that

registered lowest on the engagement measure out of all the different holiday activity

types they were shown.

Explaining the polar plot

Dr Jack Lewis explains: The polar plot diagram below shows the average subjective

rating (in red) given by participants when asked to rate how much they liked each class

of holiday activities, as well as the objective measure of their brain engagement while

viewing the images. Where the horizontal and vertical axes cross is known as the origin

and represents a zero response.

The further each data point is from the origin (in any direction), the higher the subjective

preference rating (red data point) or degree of brain engagement (grey data point).

In the bottom left quadrant a clear disparity between subjective and objective responses

is evident. The adventurous or slightly mind-expanding images (e.g. scuba diving, jungle

walking) are the most highly rated subjectively (red data point is furthest from the origin

than all other subjective ratings) but induced the lowest brain engagement (grey data

point is closest to the origin compared to all other grey data points). In other words, the

very same adventurous and exciting activities that these participants said they found

most compelling subjectively were actually the least compelling in terms of objective

measures of brain engagement.


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Red line = subjective response

Grey line = brain engagement

Data chart for neurotic extroverts

As one of the leading academic thinkers in hedonic research, Kent Berridge describes in

a recently published review paper (Berrige and Kringelbach, 2008), that there is a big

difference between liking and wanting. Strange as it may sound, it is perfectly possible to

find yourself wanting something that you dont really like, say for example an item of

clothing that has become really trendy, but deep down you think looks a bit odd. Equally

and oppositely it is also quite possible to like something you dont really want. This is the

likely explanation for the results we find here, where people say they like adventurous

holiday activities, yet their brains are actually engaged by these images the least. This

suggests that deep down they dont really want to go to all that bother.

Adven-turous

Familiar

HedonisticMind-

expanding


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The objective brain engagement data suggests that, what most people really want to do,

despite their subjective preference ratings indicating that there are other holiday

activities that they actually like the idea of more, is to relax, read a book and take it easy.

Another factor that might contribute to this strange phenomenon is self-enhancement

(Hepper et al, 2010) whereby people have a tendency to give verbal responses that are

in keeping with positive illusions regarding their personality and interests, which do not

actually reflect their real behaviour. For example, there are plenty of dieters who would

state that they dont eat cake, but who regularly fail to resist the temptation of stopping

off at the bakery for a chocolate clair from time to time.

In the context of this study, people love to think of themselves as adventurous, but as

much as they love the idea of swashbuckling adventure in the jungle, they know deep

down that the intense heat, biting insects, lack of water and toilet facilities may well

make it an uncomfortable experience in reality.

Cognitive dissonance describes a mental state whereby several conflicting views can

simultaneously co-exist in a persons mind, such as thinking that adventurous pastimes

could be great fun, not to mention a great story to tell after the event, but at the same

time potentially stressful and dangerous.

Many of our participants will have perceived the adventurous activities as exciting but

frightening or challenging but stressful. Cognitive dissonance commonly results in

people changing their beliefs or attitudes in order to reduce the conflict, in this case by

expressing a high preference rating for activities that they perhaps know deep down

could be fraught with danger and uncertainty.


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Men were most prone to over-claim

The EEG study suggests that men in particular are less adventurous than they might like

to think. The five least engaging images when summarised across all men in our study

are all of an adventurous nature as follows:

The male tendency to exaggerate the appeal of adventure can be further illustrated

through a comparison of the qualitative exploration and EEG results of particular

individuals.

For example, qualitative research participant Phil claimed: Im not the kind of person

who can sit on a beach for hours and hours holidays are about adrenaline and

adventure.

However, his EEG results show quite the opposite: Phil was actually more engaged with

images of the beach and reading a book by the pool than those showing zip-wiring,


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white-water rafting and paragliding. In contrast, his girlfriend Sam, who described herself

as not really into extreme sports was almost twice as engaged as Phil with images of

scuba diving, zip-wiring and wild horse riding in the EEG test.

Mens stated interest in adventurous activities received further backing quantitatively.

Men were more likely than women to claim they enjoy adventurous pursuits including

parascending, skiing, abseiling, windsurfing, scuba diving, sailing, hiking and snorkelling.

Women were much more likely to claim enjoyment of indulgent, relaxing activities on

holiday such as yoga, massage, lying by the pool and reading a book.

This is shown in the diagram below:

Parascending

Skiing

Abseiling

Windsurfing

Scuba diving

Lying on a

beach

Reading a

book

Going for

cocktails in a

bar

Lying by the

pool

Watching

local arts and

craftspeople

Visiting a zoo

Going

shopping

A quiet nightin with room

service

Having a

massage or

spa

treatment

Yoga on the

beach

Preferred bywomen

Preferred bymen

Equally

preferred

Visiting a

museum

Getting drunk

Having a glass

of wine

Walkingthrough the

jungle


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The following tables are based on quantitative data on male vs. female skews i.e. those

which one gender is more likely to do than the other

Men

Visiting local architectural sites

Hiking in the mountains

Snorkelling

Having a full English breakfast

Scuba diving

Sailing

Windsurfing

Skiing

Abseiling

Parascending

1.04

1.04

1.04

1.05

1.07

1.10

1.11

1.11

1.13

1.15

Women

Reading a book

Lying on a beach

Going for cocktails in a bar

Visiting a zoo

Lying by the pool

Watching local arts and craftspeople

Going shopping

A quiet night in with room service

Having a massage or spa treatment

Yoga on the beach

1.07

1.08

1.08

1.10

1.10

1.11

1.15

1.18

1.28

1.41


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ii. Explaining the contradiction

There are a number of reasons why this contradiction between stated appeal and brain

engagement could occur in relation to holiday activity preferences.

High re-tell value

One explanation could be rooted in the notion that peoples choices are guided by what

will make a better story to tell others regardless of personal enjoyment. Two Harvard

Business School surveys have looked into this notion. Anat Keinan, Assistant Professor

in the Marketing Unit, asked participants to choose between luxurious and comfortable

holidays in places like Florida and less comfortable, riskier choices like an ice hotel in

Quebec. Participants chose the less comfortable option every time because it makes for

a better story. The re-tell value often seems to override their own enjoyment. This could

mean that holidaymakers are missing out on valuable personal psychological benefits

that true enjoyment of a holiday could bring.

Travel is part of personal development and the boys development. You can read about

a culture and a country but until youve been there and smelt it and tasted it. It is about

being at a dinner party and being able to talk abou t your experiences Jasmine

A perceived need for choice

A second angle on this is the appeal of variety and difference for their own sake.

Consumers often attribute disproportionate value to peripheral extras that could more

rationally be seen as less important. This is evident in the car industry where one model

of car allows for variety and choice through things like a CD changer for people who are

into music, V6 engines for people who want more of a thrill from the ride, air con for

people for whom comfort is important, metallic paint for those for whom style is more

important, likelihood to purchase is higher.

These small personalised details can often sway what is actually a very big family

purchase not unlike tailored holidays. Having the option to do a whole range of activities

on holiday could appeal even though in reality it may be the comfortable bed to relax on

with a book that offers most value.


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In Vegas we picked a hotel because it had a gym. Even though I didnt go I do like the

idea of it being available. David

There is a conflict between fantasy and the practical constraints of reality.

A third way to look at this is as a conflict between fantasy and the practical constraints of

reality. Half of our sample said that they like to walk through the jungle on holiday, which

is a strikingly high figure and suggests a strong fantasy element. There is a possible

correlation between this and the popularity of ITVs Im a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of

Here which averaged around nine million viewers in its latest series. The

programmes success could stem from an inner You Tarzan, Me Jane fantasy. The

reality of course for most people is that there are practical constraints of survival, comfort

and compromise.

A jungle walk would be fantasticbut youd have to know it was safe-ish. If it was a

supervised thing, yes. Sam


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Maslows hierarchy of needs can help us to understand this dynamic1:

Maslows physiological and safety-related base levels are both critical to survival and the

foundation for happiness. These levels, for most people in the UK, are well established

in everyday life. However, when taken out of the familiar environment everything can be

thrown back up in the air. Sources of food, water, sleep, security and health need to be

re-established. How easy this is to do depends on the destination. These are critical.

Only once these are in place can the levels of love/belonging, esteem and self-

actualisation be built up.

Therefore, while holidays can be the right time to try new things and be more

spontaneous than at home, which can bring psychological benefits of increased

confidence, this is always reliant on the basic physiological needs and safety being well-

established. Holidaymakers, while open to the idea of new and adventurous activities

are likely always to have a certain gravitational pull towards familiarity and safety that

ensures their basic needs are fulfilled.

1Source=File:Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs.svg


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Family unit compromise adds a further dynamic to the fantasy-reality tension.

In the qualitative research it was evident that, for families, making sure the children were

happy was the number one priority:

I have this image of us just roughing it with backpacks, but its tricky because you cant

just rough it with kids. Rob

When youve got children you need that security knowing that its going to be fine.

Youve got somewhere to stay. Phil

The thing is trying to find the balance between adventure, excitement and safety.

Jasmine

It was unsurprising then that in the quantitative study 75% of young parents said they

enjoyed having fun in a water park and 71% liked visiting a zoo when on holiday

compared to only 43% and 41% of the full sample.

Similarly, the couples spoken to said they often found they compromised their own

wishes on holiday to keep their partner happy. The points of difference that couples

discussed in their interviews were confirmed on several occasions by their neurometric

engagement data.

For example Samantha, who claimed to enjoy nothing more than lying on the beach

reading a book, was far more engaged in the EEG experiment with images of people

reading a book by the pool than her partner Phil, who claimed to never read whether at

home or on holiday.

David, who saw drinking, particularly in a local dive bar as an essen tial part of any

holiday was four times more engaged with images of a jazz bar than Gretchen, who said

she did not enjoy drinking.


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In most instances though, couples in the study found ways to compromise. On their last

holiday Sam and Phil spent the day times in a beach bar: Sam could read, while I could

soak up the atmosphere and chat to other people if I fancied.

Similarly Gretchen and David would go to a Flamenco show or some other dance show

where two drinks are included. I [David] will drink the drinks and Gretchen has

something else to do other than just sit around.

iii. Understanding what people will really enjoy most on holiday

Having looked at some of the reasons why the research might have found such a strong

contradiction between subjective holiday preferences and objective brain engagement,

this section examines what different people might really enjoy on holiday.

There were seven activities that over three-quarters of the sample all agreed they like to

do on holiday as follows:

Visiting a castle76%

Sitting by a lake77%

Having a glass of wine79%

Reading a book81%

Going out for a gourmetdinner

83%

Trying food you've never

tried before85%

Visiting places I've neverbeen to before

93%


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The first thing to acknowledge is that people are still themselves on holiday; just more

fulfilled versions of themselves and so everyone is different.

The qualitative research found that, on the whole, the activities that people enjoyed

doing on holiday were an incremental shift from what they do in their day-to-day lives.

Peoples holiday persona was simply an extended (and at times better or idealised)

version of who they are at home. It was not the case that everyone turned into carefree,

adventurous risk takers once removed from their everyday surroundings. In other words,

there is not a default holiday persona.

For example, Rob who enjoyed playing rugby and football with his two sons at home

sought a physically active element to his holiday. Gretchen and David who enjoyed

visiting art galleries and historical sites in the UK, on the other hand, were attracted to

holiday destinations with rich historical and cultural offerings:

We like old, colonial cities. History is a really big thing for us on holidaywhen were

here [home] well sometimes go to an art gallery or something.

Often, preferred holiday activities were simply things that people felt they did not have

time to do in everyday life. While Gretchen and David said they enjoy cultural activities in

the UK, they admitted that they rarely got around to doing anything.

An activity that fell into this category for many was reading; reading a book was one of

the top holiday activities cited by respondents in the survey.


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The following graph shows what people want to do on their holiday; it has a fairly

flat profile across the different age groups.

When asked what people think about ahead of their holiday reading list or playlist

63% said reading list.

In everyday life, people simply did not feel they had time to read in between work and

day-to-day realities such as the school run, washing and cooking.

You can read a book in two days [on holiday] whereas at home it would take two

months Buying a book at the airport is part of the ritual of going on holiday. Ive done it

for years. Sam

I should have plenty of time to read here, but I dont. When Im away I will read. I guess

its to do with the internet, you go from webpage to webpage and dont end up sitting

down and getting a book out, whereas if youre on holiday you do it more. Gretchen

Returning to Maslows hierarchy of needs, it seems that good holidays open up the

higher esteem and self-actualisation tiers for people, allowing them to extend

themselves beyond what they normally get to do. A good holiday, therefore, takes care

of the bottom layers by providing warmth, safety, accommodation, food and drink, and

removing the concerns and distractions of everyday life. It allows people to be more

complete to fulfill a side of them that gets ignored at home.

Without the stresses of day-to-day youve got space to go and do 20 lengths. Jasmine

81

76

84

82

76

82

%

82

89

Total 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 75+


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Interestingly, for most, this phenomenon was as much about being in a different place as

about simply having more time. There had to be a break from everyday routines and

everyday sights to achieve this mental break. Time off work to stay at home and relax

did not have the same impact. Even holidays elsewhere in the UK struggled to bring

about a sufficient mental shift.

A lot of Englands the same the landscapes similar youd have to go quite far north

maybe the Lake District to see anything different. You always see Tesco Metro dont

you. It has to be different. Nichola

The whole point of a holiday is to experience something different when its different

there are more distractionsdifferent ways of doing things, a different way of living.

Phil

If then, everyone is a more fulfilled version of themselves on holiday, it follows that

everyone will be different. In the same way that everyone is different when at home,

everyone has different preferences and needs when on holiday.

Multi-variate Factor Analysis was conducted to determine a set of five factors that

help to understand the variations in peoples holiday preferences.

The reports combined methodologies revealed that a whole range of activities appeal to

different people on a holiday and some people like certain elements more than others.

A sophisticated form of analysis called Factor Analysis was undertaken to analyse this in

greater detail. This determines a set of factors that to varying degrees make up

everyones holiday. Everyone is slightly different.

FactorAnalysis is designed to give a deeper insight into peoples attitudes to a subject,by identifying the key underlying sentiments that are difficult to compress into direct

questions - but which drive their responses to the questions we can ask.

The analysis showed there are five factors which can explain the psychology of travel,

which are revealed when people describe what they most like to do on holiday abroad.


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The five factors elicited through the analysis are:

1. Culture

This is made up of numerous activities including visiting a castle, visiting a museum,

visiting local architectural sites.

Interestingly the broad area of culture comes up as a strong theme throughout our

quantitative survey. Nine out of 10 people agree that holidays are a great way of learning

about other cultures. Six out of 10 people describe themselves as Culture Vulture rather

than Beach Bunny.

Below are the percentages of people who say they like to do the following activities on

holiday:

The popularity of these cultural activities is remarkable. It is easy to imagine the

stereotypical Brit abroad sunburned and drinking beer - when the data confounds this

stereotype. In essence, we are far more culturally driven then we are often portrayed.

2. Food & drink

This is made up of numerous activities including having a glass of wine and going out for

a gourmet dinner.

Food and drink activities account for some of the very top answers in our survey. This

reflects their broadscale and aspirational appeal.

Going to the theatre

Visiting local architectural sites

Visiting a museum

Visiting a castle

67

68

69

76


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Interestingly, they cover both adventurousness and safe familiarity in the same arena. In

other words, you can express yourself and your personality through the same food and

drink holiday habits.

3. Home & leisure

This is made up of numerous activities including reading a book, watching a DVD and

going shopping

Having a full English breakfast 52

Reading a book 81

Trying food youve never tried before 85

Going out for a gourmet dinner 83


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4. Party & pool

This is made up of numerous activities including going to a nightclub and lying on a

beach

5. Sporting adventure

This is made up of numerous activities including scuba diving and walking through thejungle

The above five factors make up peoples holiday tastes, and tend towards being an

exhaustive palette of holiday pursuits. Think of anything that people like to do on holiday

and it will almost always fit underneath one of these five factors.

Critically, everyone has a unique combination of these five factors which motivates them

to do what they do on holiday. They are like individual holiday fingerprints andeveryones is unique, featuring a different order of prioritisation. No ones holiday factor

score profiles are identical.

Applying this to the holidaymakers spoken to for the qualitative element of the research,

it can be seen how this works in practice. For Nichola, holidays were driven by a need to

explore and see the world, and definitely not for rest and luxury.

We pack a lot in we dont like to miss a day. We have plenty of time to rest when weget back, she says. Looking at her holiday fingerprint and those of Gretchen and

David - helps to conceptualise this:

Having a glass of wine 79

Going for cocktails in a bar 61

Getting drunk 30


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By contrast Gretchen, who sees herself as too energetic to lie on a beach and likes to

mix days on holiday between visiting historical sites and museums with high-adrenaline

activities such as white-water rafting, ranks culture top of the five factors, sporting

adventure second and pool and party bottom.

Beyond this we can use the holiday fingerprint to identify points of compromise within

couples (and even families). Taking Gretchen and her husband Davids fingerprints we

can understand more about their holiday compromises as a couple.

These five factors provide a framework to help understand how different individuals

holiday preferences can differ, and the next section looks at what impact intrinsic

personality traits can have on an individuals preferences.

Neurometric engagement data from the EEG can help us to see how different

personality traits may influence peoples holiday preferences.

When the four personality groups are isolated it is possible to interrogate how each

engages with different holiday activities and there were some surprising results.

As has already been seen, all four groups selected more adventurous activities as the

most appealing on the subjective scale, but their brains told a different story:

Here Dr Jack Lewis highlights the key points of interest:

1. Culture

2. Food & drink

3. Home & leisure

4. Party & pool


1. Culture


3. Food & drink

4. Home & leisure

5. Party & pool

1. Food & drink

2. Culture


4. Home & leisure

5. Party & pool

Nicholas holiday fingerprint Gretchens holiday fingerprint Davids holidayfingerprint


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Laid back extroverts:at face value, we might expect this group of energetic, outgoing,relaxed and confident individuals to be most engaged by sociable and adventurous or

even risky activities (such as drinking in a bar or white water rafting). In fact, the EEG

results showed they were most strongly engaged by fairly safe, solitary holiday activities

including visiting an art gallery, walking in a park and relaxing by the pool.

Anxious extroverts: people in this personality type tend to be both positive and active,

but equally are prone to negative moods and anxiety. We would expect them to enjoy

sociable holiday pursuits, while avoiding anything too risky. According to the EEG results,

this group was most engaged by fairly safe, moderate activities as we would expect.

Surprisingly however, all the activities that ranked the highest lacked a social element.


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This pattern is backed up when we look at the activities they found least engaging which

were quite the opposite of those they found most appealing they were all the more

adventurous activities (that they had claimed subjectively to like).

It could be that this groups propensity to feel anxious is holding them back from really

enjoying the more adventurous, challenging and sociable activities. They wouldnt

necessarily admit it though when asked to rank the images subjectively, those of

reading, listening to music and watching DVDs were scored lowest out of all the

activities we showed them.

Laid back introverts:low extroversion and low neuroticism scores define this group.Despite not being terribly outgoing or energetic individuals, they are nonetheless pretty

carefree and confident in their abilities. The EEG results showed that these calm souls

were also least engaged by the very adventurous activities, such as horse riding, a

jungle boat cruise and scuba diving, that they claimed to like the most!


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No other surprises with this personality type though. Their brains were most engaged by

laid back solitary pastimes such as relaxing in the spa and low-key night time

entertainment such as watching a local dance troupe or listening to a jazz band.

Anxious introverts: these placid, introverted characters usually try to avoid social

situations and tend to be quite sensitive and easily stressed. We would expect them to

enjoy safe, unadventurous and solitary activities. In fact the EEG results indicated that

the group we would least expect to take risks, were most engaged by some of the more

adventurous activities, unlike the other personality types. Images of scuba diving, wild

horse riding and a busy night market ranked among those they found most engaging.


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Furthermore and in contrast to our expectations, the anxious introverts were least

engaged by the solitary activities of reading, listening to music and watching DVDs.


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iv. Thomson Holidays understands that everyone is different and wants choices

on holiday

Thomsons approach to holidays focuses on understanding all different sides of a person.

Thomson asked respondents a series of holiday-related either or questions such as Do

you come back fitter or fatter? and Are you a Beach Bunny or a Culture Vulture?. The

quantitative research offers an insight into Britain as a nation of holidaymakers in relation

to these questions as follows:

Looking at two of these in greater detail:

What do Beach Bunnies and Culture Vultures respectively say they like to do on

holiday?

The top activities for Culture Vultures are visiting places I've never been to before,

trying food you've never tried before, visiting castles and going out for a gourmet

dinner. But just over half also enjoy lying by the pool or lying on a beach (56%

and 55% of Culture Vultures respectively)

Almost half of all Culture Vultures (47%) enjoy having fun in a water park

Culture Vultures are least keen on holiday activities fewer than two in 10 claim to

enjoy snowboarding, windsurfing and parascending, but the least enjoyable activity is

Toe-dipper46%

Dive-right-inner44%

N/A9%

Touchy feely39%

Secret softie37%

N/A24%

Culturevulture60%

Beach bunny31%

N/A9%

Holidayreading

63%

Holidayplaylist27%

N/A10%

Disco diva19%

Loungelizard66%

N/A15%

Chill seeker61%

Thrill seeker29%

N/A10%

Cool52%

Codswallop32%

N/A15%

Kitchen sinkpacker38%

Capsule-warbrobeconvert

N/A10%

Fitter37%

Fatter50%

N/A13%

Still got it54%

Get an earlynighter40%

N/A6%

52%


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yoga on the beach (just 15% of Culture Vultures would enjoy an outdoor yoga

session)

Unsurprisingly, the top activities for Beach Bunnies are lying on a beach (95%) and

lying by the pool (91%)

But they are not lazy they index highly against parascending, scuba diving and

snorkelling, as well as snow sports (for example they are a third more likely to try

parascending than the overall population)

Although the Beach Bunnies claim that it is good to try new places (90% claim to

enjoy visiting places I'venever been to before), they are most at home in familiar

locations, for example going to tried and tested places (75%, compared to 67%

across the sample) and staying in the resort to watch the evening entertainment

(75%, compared to 61% across the sample)

Beach Bunnies are more likely to admit to enjoying getting drunk on holiday (43%,

compared to 29% for the full population)

Food and drink are important for the Beach Bunnies, with going out for a gourmet

dinner and having a glass of wine rating in their top five most enjoyable activities

Unsurprisingly, the cultural activities such as visiting a castle, hiking in the

mountains, visiting local architectural sites and visiting a museum have the

lowest skew relative to the total sample for this group

Beach Bunnies culture tends to come from books (it is the sixth most important

activity, with eight out of 10 enjoying it a lot or a little) and in-resort entertainment (the

10th most popular activity, enjoyed by 75% of the sample)

Looking next at Chill Seekers vs. Thrill Seekers:

Chill Seekers are more likely to enjoy low key activities such as lying on a beach, a

quiet night in with room service, lying by the pool and having a massage or spa

treatment. They also enjoy going back to my tried and tested favourite places and

going to an entertainment evening in the resort more than the average

holidaymaker

Unsurprisingly, all of the energetic pursuits (including abseiling, parascending,

windsurfing and snowboarding) are considered to be less enjoyable by the Chill

Seekers


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The most energetic activities enjoyed by the Chill Seekers are going shopping,

visiting a castle and visiting a zoo

The Chill Seekers do not enjoy yoga on the beach or getting drunk

Alongside active pursuits (such as abseiling, parascending, windsurfing and

snowboarding), the Thrill Seekers are more likely than the average holidaymaker to

enjoy yoga on the beach (21%, compared to 15%) and going to a nightclub (49%,

compared to 35%)

Thrill Seekers are almost twice as likely to enjoy windsurfing than average

Thrill Seekers are more likely to watch a DVD than the average (44%, compared to

41%)

Thomsons holiday offer addresses the needs of the full spectrum of personality types

examined.

From the neurometric engagement data it was possible to identify the types of holidays

people of different personality types will most enjoy. For each personality there is a

Thomson holiday to suit:

Laid back extroverts:EEG results showed that people in this groupwere most stronglyengaged by fairly safe, solitary holiday activities including visiting an art gallery, walking

in a park and relaxing by the pool. Thomson Small & Friendly would give people in this

group the option to either get their cultural fix or lay by the pool. For couples, Thomson

Couples holidays offer luxurious rooms, child-free pools and sophisticated dining.


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Anxious extroverts: this group was most engaged by fairly safe, moderate and solitary

activities such as reading by the pool, and least engaged by highly adventurous pursuits.

A Sensatori resort wouldprovidethe security, indulgence and relaxation this group

needs. They may also enjoy a Thomson Cruise with the option of a bit of exploration at

each port, but plenty of time for lying back and enjoying a book on deck.

Laid back introverts: taking the EEG results, these calm soulsengaged the most with

laid back solitary pastimes such as relaxing in the spa and undemanding night time

entertainments like watching a local dance troupe or listening to a jazz band. Sensatori

holidays provide the perfect indulgent, relaxing break, away from all the hustle and

bustle of daily life that this group needs.

Anxious introverts: EEG results indicated that this group was most engaged with

adventurous activities, such as scuba-diving, wild horse-riding and a busy night markets

and least engaged by quiet, solitary activities. Getting far away from there normal setting

is the best option for this group. Thomson Faraway Shores would give this group

enough cultural difference and adventurous activities to satisfy their desires.


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APPENDIX

Thomson Holidays Psychology of Travel report partners:

Sparkler

Sparkler is a consumer insight and brand strategy consultancy. Sparkler uses the latest

insight and brand strategy techniques to understand consumers, media and brands in

the UK and across the globe. Sparkler authored the Psychology of Travel report, ran the

statistical analysis of the survey and conducted follow-up qualitative interviews with EEG

respondents. Sparkler also brought together a team of organisations and individuals with

specialist expertise in order to deliver a leading edge multi-methodology research

programme.

Dr Jack Lewis

Dr Jack Lewis is a neuroscientist and science broadcaster, who is rapidly becoming the

public-friendly face of science and technology. Dr Lewis research in neurobiology, which

earned him a PhD from the University of London, involved using fMRI brain scanning to

investigate multisensory perception specifically investigating where in the human brain

what we see is merged together with what we hear to improve perception.

He has also contributed to the health and science pages of the Mail on Sunday. His

television credits include Body Language Secrets for Sky; a social psychology series,

The People Watchers, on BBC 2; an Emmy award-winning feature-length documentary

on the human body for Channel 4 and National Geographic where he was the science

consultant. As well as this he has appeared on various regional and national radio

stations discussing subjects such as decision making strategies and the importance of

hydration for a healthy brain.

Dr Lewis acted as a specialist consultant to the Psychology of Travel report, focusing in

particular on the design of the EEG experiment.


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Mindlab International

Mindlab are a leading UK neuromarketing organization based in the Sussex Innovation

Centre, University of Sussex. Bringing together technologies and techniques from

neuroscience and behavioural psychology, Mindlab record and analyse both conscious

and unconscious human response to all sensory stimuli. Mindlab conducted the QEEG

strand of this study.

Saville Rossiter-Base

All multi-variate statistical analysis was carried out for The Psychology of Travel report

by research agency Saville Rossiter-Base.

Further explanation of the Big Five:

The Big Five personality traits were developed from factor analysis of a large number of

self- and peer reports written on personality-relevant adjectivesi. One of the main

benefits of this approach against other more commonly-used personality models such as

the Myers-Briggs Test Indicator is that it is scored along a continuous scale on which

individuals differ rather scored using opposing categories. It is therefore more

representative of nuances of a respondents personality than a test that categorises

them into either one box or another.ii

Each of the five factors consists of a cluster of more specific traits that correlate together.

For example, if a person scores highly on the neuroticism scale it indicates that they will

also be sensitive, anxious and easily depressed. Respondents who take a Big Five test

answer to a series of statements, for example I am relaxed most of the time, I change

my mind a lot, scored on a 5-point scale (Strongly agree strongly disagree)

While the Big Five traits (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness

and openness) remain the same across all, there are several versions of the test. This

study has used an online version developed by Tom Buchanan in the Department of

Psychology at the University of Westminster. It can be found at,

www.personalitytest.org.uk.


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i Books LLC. Personality Tests: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Purity Test, Minnesota Multiphasic,Personality Inventory, Oxford Capacity Analysis. 2010.ii Books LLC. Personality Tests: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Purity Test, Minnesota Multiphasic,Personality Inventory, Oxford Capacity Analysis. 2010.

Documents

Thomson Holidays Psychology of Travel Study1