Exploring a Neuroscientific Perspective of Travel Benefits and Decision-Making

The present commentary offers some guidance to the future direction of neuroscientific research in travel benefits and decision to travel. Travel benefits refer to the desirable outcomes from taking a vacation or pleasure trip [1]. Examples of travel benefits are health, socialization and involvement [2]. Involvement, which is a motivational variable toward travel, involves decision-making with respect to travel [3]. Decision-making is a process that involves many sub-decisions, occurring continuously from intention to deciding “where to go” and beyond [4]. Most of the time, when individuals decide to travel a particular destination, they base on contextual facts or description. Others may decide on perceptions or evaluative judgements of their prior travel experiences. Hence, decision-making process is complex and behavioural or self-report measures may not be sufficient. Although there are empirical evidence in travel benefits, there is still a lack of decision-making research in the field of tourism. Furthermore, the nexus between neuroscience and travel remains relatively under-researched.