Rethinking Travel Companionship: An Alternative Conceptual Model and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

Travel companionship is commonplace across tourism industries, with existing discourse exclusively emphasizing positive downstream outcomes. However, limited studies have provided a potential counterpoint to the positive outcomes embedded in scholarly work associated with travel companionship. This research, building on interdisciplinary insights, aims to create a comprehensive perspective on travel companionship, elucidating the conditions where travel companionship can trigger negative evaluations of shared tourism experiences. Emergent findings from a systematic narrative review identified three core research streams that focused on the characteristics of decision makers, relationships between companion and decision makers, and experience type. Drawing on self-construal theory, impression management theory, and the experience economy paradigm, three theoretically justifiable caveats were developed to illuminate the underlying psychological mechanisms of negative companionship-induced outcomes. An alternative model of travel companionship underpinned by testable research propositions is proposed. Future research should move towards the articulation of a theory of travel companionship.