Travelers experience and evaluate various stimuli during their trips. This study focused on how individuals perceive external and internal stimuli during their travel experiences.
Three types of interest vectors were assumed for the tendency of individuals to perceive stimuli: toward the individual’s inner world (self-consciousness), toward the outer environment (highly sensitive person), and toward the experience itself (mindfulness). A survey of 700 participants in Japan was conducted, and the results showed that the higher the vector toward an individual’s inner world, the higher the evaluation of the travel experience. Regarding the vector toward the outer environment, for those who were sensitive to trivial matters, the travel experience was not relaxing, perhaps because of its intensity. However, those with high aesthetic sensitivity evaluated the travel experience positively, saying that they experienced many things and grew through the travel experience.