The new study by the BAT Leisure Research Institute on the background to the German love of travelling

"The holiday myth - the unfulfillable longing for paradise" is the title of a new motivational psychology study that has now been published as part of the BAT Leisure Research Institute's tourism research. The title already reveals the result: holidays are the dream of paradise, but they are not paradise itself. And so every year the beautiful holiday game is repeated, the renewed attempt to realise the dream that is only utopia after all.

How holidays are perceived

The BAT Institute wanted to take a look behind the usual scenes of holidays, to get to the bottom of the "world of holiday feelings" and to explore the discrepancy between holiday expectations and holiday reality. In addition to individual interviews, singles and family members were encouraged to engage in fantasy journeys, daydreams and associations in small groups under the moderation of psychologists. The main aim was to overcome the usual fiction of a fundamentally "successful" holiday. This study should be of great interest to the tourism industry, which is faced with the question of what holidaymakers really want and is increasingly thinking about alternatives to mass tourism. Does the dream holiday destination have to be real or does it not satisfy the longing much more strongly as an artificially constructed illusory world?

Positive holiday ratings dominate

One of the key findings of the new BAT study is that holidaymakers actually seem to succeed in building a satisfying and sustainable bridge between an unfulfillable longing for paradise and an achievable holiday experience. The wish is almost the fulfilment. This makes a successful holiday a successful self-deception, but it is possible to live with it, even in harmony. The German holidaymaker does not easily become an illusionist, he is a pragmatist by nature. He is so eager to book his holiday as a success that he believes in it himself. And yet his longing remains.

Island longing - the dominant motif

Prof. Dr Horst W. Opaschowski, the scientific director of the BAT Leisure Research Institute, describes very clearly in the study what he really longs for: holidaymakers want to get away from everyday life with its constraints and responsibilities, away from familiar faces and their own four walls. This tendency to escape is also the secret driving force behind long-distance travelling. The "star model holiday" manifests itself in the four concepts of sun/beach/rest/sex. Or to put it another way: "With your dream partner on an island in the Caribbean". It is the longing for islands that has always cast a spell over mankind, including German holidaymakers, making it almost synonymous with holidays.
However, when confronted with the reality of the island, the holidaymaker is willing to compromise: a natural island without familiar civilisation is not his cup of tea. The cool beer at sunset is part of it. Hence the conclusion: A holiday as unspoilt as possible, but as comfortable as necessary. Which raises the question of whether holidays really have to take place on a distant island or whether the island feeling could not be conveyed more simply and cheaply to full satisfaction.

Holidays as a theatre production

For holidaymakers, it is not only their holiday destination that is important, but also the opportunity to play a role on holiday that meets their needs. In this respect, every holiday resembles a theatre production, as Prof. Opaschowski states. The holidaymaker plays the leading role, but needs fellow actors for the supporting roles in order to really slip out of their usual skin and become a holiday person. Holidaymakers dress and act differently on the holiday stage than they do at home. The BAT study contains a cast list that identifies holidaymakers as "King Customer", "Perfectionist", "Individualist", "Activist", "Cosmopolitan" or "Prestige Fanatic", to name but a few. What they all have in common is that they want to play a new, and in any case happy, role, but above all one that is denied to them at home.

Holidays of the future in an artificial ambience

As far as the holiday world of tomorrow is concerned, everyone agrees that holidays as we know them today will not be around for much longer. That's why we need to enjoy it now, because nature will soon be used up. It will be followed by a pseudo-nature with air conditioning, a retort world with lagoon landscapes and tropical parks in nearby reserves. Synthetic holiday wonders, as are already being created everywhere today. In addition, individual exotic and safari holidays to distant regions are asserting themselves. In this new beautiful backdrop world, the holidaymaker of the future can actually fulfil the idea of paradise and become the perfect illusion.