Health benefits of Travel
It’s 1 pm on a Monday afternoon and you find yourself scrolling through beautiful holiday destinations on Instagram, yearning for a holiday.
While it’s obvious that taking a break from work is good for your health and stress levels, numerous studies have shown that taking time off to travel boosts our health, state-of-mind and overall well-being.
For example, travel enhances your creativity. Feeling a little uninspired lately? Why not put in that annual leave and plan a quick holiday? According to Adam Galinsky, a professor from the Columbia Business School, foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought.
Travel can also help you stay fit- Who needs the boring treadmill when you can walk through beautiful cities and forests instead. Travelling means we’re more likely to do things out of the ordinary like climb mountains, hike and swim in the ocean. Your muscles are going to love you for it! And unlike material possessions which soon depreciate in value, rewarding experiences like travel can grow richer overtime.
“A holiday helps keep the doctor away” – Research shows that exposure to some dirt and minor illnesses actually keeps your body and gut stronger. Although this does not mean that you shouldn’t practice basic hygiene while travelling but a little bit of bacteria isn’t actually bad for you. When you travel from place to place, your body adapts to thousands of new bacteria which in turn makes you stronger and healthier (1).
Moreover, travelling reduces the chance of depression and that women who have a vacation at least twice a year are less likely to suffer from depression than women who vacation less than once every two years (2).
Travelling can also reduce the risk of a heart attack. Travellers tend to participate in more physical activity than those who sit in a cubicle all day. According to the World Heart Federation, moderate exercise lowers your risk of a heart attack by 30%-50% (3).
We are very fortunate to live in a country that offer some of the most amazing nature based tourism destinations and activities. Our international leisure visitors appreciate Australia’s natural environment and wildlife as it is consistently cited as “the most memorable experience they had on their visit to Australia” (4).
So go ahead, book that dream holiday and make memories to last a lifetime! You’ll thank me later!
To ensure that you choose a sustainable, environmentally conscious tourism operation, visit our Green Travel Guide.
References:
(1) https://matadornetwork.com/bnt/7-scientific-facts-prove-travel-good-health/
(2) https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/_WMS/publications/wmj/pdf/104/6/20.pdf
(3) https://www.world-heart-federation.org/resources/risk-factors/
(4) https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/725758/GIFT-TRA-Nature-Based-Tourism-Fact-SheetQANTASFINAL-1.pdf