Tourism Experience at Destination and Quality of Life Enhancement: a Case for Comprehensive Congruity Model

Vacations provide numerous benefits for tourists (Chen and Petrick, Journal of Travel Research, 52(6), 709–719, 2013). Regardless extended research into the relationship between vacation taking and quality of life the knowledge about destination features that may improve the wellbeing of tourists visiting it is limited. The present paper introduces a comprehensive congruity model developed by (Bosnjak et al, Journal of Travel Research, 50 (5), 496–508, 2011) to the field of quality of life research in tourism which aim to extricate multiple aspects of destinations that affect quality of life enhancement during a vacation. The study disentangles seven destination-related components which lead to the enhancement of quality of life of vacation-takers: self-, functional, hedonic, economic, safety, moral and leisure congruities. Empirical test of the model on a sample of vacationers in Australia demonstrates the model’s high predictive power for studying destination features that improve tourists’ quality of life. Finally, theoretical and empirical implications of these findings are discussed.