Impact of flow experience on tourists’ hedonic well-being

Abstract

The flow experience evokes emotions during activities and stimulates the creation of positive results. Therefore, it can be said that the flow experience is an important psychological state that helps vacationers achieve well-being. In this study, the relationship between flow experience and hedonic well-being of vacationers in Türkiye is investigated. An online survey was created using Google Forms. The survey consisted of three parts. The first part included 12 items about the flow experience. The second part included four questions about well-being. The last part included demographic characteristics of the participants, such as age, gender, and education. The survey was conducted among individuals living in Antalya and had a vacation in 2022 summer. The sampling technique used in this study is convenience sampling. A total of 167 questionnaires were obtained for analysis between November and December 2022. PLS-SEM was used to find out the relationship between flow experience and hedonic well-being. It was found that the flow experience acquired by Turkish tourists during their vacation has an impact on hedonic well-being. From this finding, decision makers in hotels and destinations should consider developing new activities or facilities to enrich visitors' experience. This study presents a new attempt to investigate the role of flow experience on hedonic well-being from the perspective of Turkish vacationers.