The purpose of this review was to examine existent research on the benefits of travel applicable to working adults, couples, families, and extended family members. While travel is often perceived as an outlet for relaxation, education, and a chance to escape the mundane, recent research suggests that travel has several deeper benefits for families, relationships, and the individual. Findings from an extensive review of literature revealed that tourism provides positive benefits for adults, children, and couples. Several studies cited time allotted for family bonding is decreasing, likely attributed to increased career demands and changing family structures. These studies further showed travel as a means to utilize limited family time to help improve communications within a relationship, reduce the possibility of divorce, strengthen lifelong family bonds, and increase a sense of well-being in adults and children. Gaps in the existent research were noted, and potential suggestions for future research are addressed.

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How different the world would be had countries not reopened their borders to welcome tourists after conflict, thus providing opportunities for travelers to learn, understand, and overcome potential stereotypes and negative perceptions of a country’s residents and environment. This study reveals preliminary results of an education initiative focused on understanding, addressing, and overcoming negative perceptions, with the possibility of creating interest in, and opportunities for, a revitalization of tourism in Afghanistan. The study offers contact theory as a way to present organic images of a place to help create perceptions of destinations that are more accurate than induced images. Results revealed that contact theory, through intergroup dialogue between residents of two countries with noted historic conflict, provided the means for reducing cultural ambiguity and overcoming stereotypes. The findings offer implications for both the tourism and education sectors and suggest that intergroup dialogue may be key to increasing visit intentions and, most importantly, enhancing a destination’s image after conflict.

As adults continue to work longer and take less vacation days, relationship dynamics are changing to accommodate individuals’ responsibilities to career, family life, and self. Thus, the current study sought to understand how vacation satisfaction may enhance relationship commitment and possibly build stronger relationships and lessen the chance of relationship termination for adult couples. To do so, the current research applied the concept of vacation satisfaction to the Investment Model with the goal of better understanding the antecedents to relationship satisfaction and commitment. Results revealed that relationship satisfaction and quality of alternatives are good predictors of relationship commitment and that satisfaction with vacations assists the investment model in explaining couples’ relationship commitment. From a practical standpoint, results revealed that tourism suppliers could use this information to promote travel as a means for strengthening relationships.

People cruise for many different reasons. For cruise line management, understanding what these motives are, and specifically which segments have different motives, is extremely important in engineering appropriate on-board experiences and marketing efforts. Thus, the primary purpose of this study was to measure common motives for cruising, in order to develop segments of cruisers based on these motives. A secondary purpose was to look for differences between the profiles of the resultant groups. Results of a cluster analysis of nine primary motives for cruise travel revealed five clusters termed: Relaxers, Socializers, Cultured, Unmotivated, and Highly Motivated. Each of the groups was found to be different demographically, and in their travel behavior, yet no differences were found in how they evaluated their cruise experiences. Implications for both developing cruise programming and marketing are discussed.