Hi travellers! My name is Garth Lean and I am currently completing research with the University of Western Sydney in Australia. My study is looking at the impact of travel upon the traveller when they return home, and I need the help of active travellers like yourself. I have just finished developing a website http://www.transformativetravel.com which allows travellers who feel they have been changed by travel to participate in a brief 5 minute online survey. My aim is to find whether there are particular elements within a travel experience that help to inspire changes/transformations.
Any help you can give in sharing your experiences would be greatly appreciated. The site also has a mailing list which you can join and receive notification when the results are available. Hopefully there will be some good tips for creating a transformative travel experience when I have finished. If you would like to find out more about the study, please visit http://www.transformativetravel.com . I have also attached my one-page information sheet below. If you know of other travellers who have been changed by travel, please feel free to distribute this invitation as widely as you like. Thanks for your help. It is greatly appreciated. Happy travelling! Garth. P.S. For an easier to read/printable/emailable version of the invitation please visit http://www.pnc.com.au/~lean/ttweb1/Invitation.htm AN OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN GROUND-BREAKING TOURISM RESEARCH What happens to a traveller when they travel? Do they change as a result of their experiences? Can tourism be used as a tool for solving environmental & social issues? This is an invitation to participate in innovative research being conducted by a student at the University of Western Sydney that seeks to answer these questions STAGE 1 The study needs to identify individuals who have changed as a result of travel. Two types of post-travel change/transformation will be looked at: 1. The research is focusing on travellers who have been influenced by a travel experience (i.e. what they saw, what they did, the interactions they had, the actions they witnessed, the environments they lived within) to such an extent that they were inspired to change their values, attitudes and/or behaviours toward our natural and social environments. This also includes individuals who already held strong views on these issues, but were motivated by the travel experience to become more involved in addressing them, and/or the education and encouragement of others to become involved. 2. As a traveller's life can be impacted in many other ways by their travel experience, the study is also attempting to identify the diversity of changes that can occur through travel. HOW CAN YOU HELP? 1.If you have had your environmental and/or social views altered or strengthened by a travel experience, or feel that you have been changed in other ways by travel you can participate in a brief 5 minute online survey at http://www.transfomativetravel.com . 2. If you have not had a transformative travel experience but know of a book or other source (e.g. article, movie, website) depicting an account of somebody who has, or have just heard about somebody who has, you can suggest them at http://www.transfomativetravel.com . 3. If you have family, friends, colleagues, databases or mailing lists of individuals who may have undergone such changes, please feel free to distribute this invitation as widely as you like. Information provided within the surveys is strictly confidential. To find out more about this important research please visit http://www.transformativetravel.com
