Psychologists have long distinguished between these two strands of well-being. Hedonic well-being, rooted in the tradition of subjective well-being research, captures positive affect, life satisfaction, and the avoidance of displeasure. Eudaimonic well-being, drawing on Aristotelian ideas of the good life, concerns living in accordance with one’s true self, experiencing personal growth, purpose, and mastery. Tourism scholars have increasingly argued that travel experiences feed both channels, and adventure tourism in particular has been linked to profound psychological benefits, from overcoming fear to building confidence and existential authenticity. Yet surprisingly little empirical work has tested how tourists’ psychological connections to adventure destinations actually shape these outcomes. The new study set out to fill that gap with a carefully constructed field survey.

The researchers, Mohd Helme Basal of Universiti Teknologi MARA and Universiti Putra Malaysia and Shahazwan Mat Yusoff of Universiti Malaya, surveyed Malaysian domestic tourists who had taken part in adventure and nature-based activities at three sites in Gopeng, a well-known adventure hub in the state of Perak. After rigorous data screening, 398 usable responses were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling, a statistical technique well suited to testing complex networks of relationships between latent psychological constructs. Notably, the authors specified hedonic and eudaimonic well-being as reflective-reflective hierarchical component models, allowing each well-being domain to be measured through multiple interrelated facets rather than a single scale score.

The conceptual core of the study is place attachment, a construct with deep roots in environmental psychology describing the emotional, cognitive, and functional bonds people develop with specific locations. Rather than treating attachment as a single feeling, the researchers decomposed it into four dimensions. Place identity reflects the degree to which a destination becomes part of a person’s symbolic self-concept. Place dependence captures the functional suitability of a place for pursuing desired activities. Place affect denotes the emotional resonance of a location, the feelings of warmth, excitement, or calm it evokes. Place social bonding refers to the interpersonal connections formed with others in and around the place. This multidimensional structure allowed the team to test whether all bonds with a destination are psychologically equivalent, or whether some matter far more than others.

The results reveal a strikingly differentiated pattern. Among the four dimensions, place affect emerged as the clear champion: emotional attachment to the destination was positively and consistently associated with tourist satisfaction, hedonic well-being, and eudaimonic well-being alike. In other words, the simple pleasure of feeling emotionally drawn to a river, cave, or forest landscape predicted both immediate enjoyment and deeper psychological fulfilment. Place identity told a more selective story. Symbolic self-place connections were positively associated only with eudaimonic well-being, suggesting that when a destination becomes woven into who a person believes themselves to be, the reward is meaning, accomplishment, and self-realisation rather than momentary delight.

Even more revealing were the dimensions that failed to register. Place dependence, the perceived functional usefulness of the destination for adventure activities, showed no significant association with satisfaction or with either form of well-being. For adventure tourists, it appears, a place being objectively good for rafting or caving does not by itself make them happier or more fulfilled. Place social bonding delivered the study’s most unexpected finding: it was negatively associated with satisfaction and showed no significant link to hedonic or eudaimonic well-being. The authors caution against over-interpreting this result, noting that the conditions under which group interactions influence tourist outcomes remain poorly understood. Group dynamics in adventure settings can be energising, but they may also introduce friction, safety anxieties, or diminished feelings of personal control, and the study suggests these effects warrant dedicated investigation.

Satisfaction itself proved to be a powerful psychological bridge. The analysis showed that satisfaction was strongly and positively associated with both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, confirming its central role in the chain running from how tourists evaluate their experience to how their well-being ultimately responds. The overall model demonstrated moderate explanatory power and positive in-sample predictive relevance for all endogenous constructs, indicating that the framework captures meaningful variance rather than statistical noise. Methodologically, the researchers followed established guidance on partial least squares structural equation modelling, assessed discriminant validity with contemporary criteria, and screened for common method bias using full collinearity procedures, strengthening confidence in the robustness of the reported relationships.

The theoretical implications reach beyond Malaysian adventure tourism. Place attachment research has often treated the construct as a broadly beneficial force, but these findings show that emotional, identity-based, functional, and social bonds do not operate uniformly. Only emotionally engaging attachments appear to support the full spectrum of tourist well-being, while identity-relevant connections serve a more specialised eudaimonic function. This resonates with a broader shift in tourism scholarship toward positive psychology, in which experiences are evaluated not merely by whether visitors enjoyed them but by whether they contributed to personal growth, resilience, and a richer sense of self. It also aligns with evidence that nature-based and adventure activities can support mental health through mechanisms such as fear mastery, awe, and restoration, while positioning place attachment as a distinct psychological pathway operating alongside the activity itself.

The practical consequences for destination managers and adventure operators are equally tangible. If emotional resonance is the strongest consistent predictor of satisfaction and both forms of well-being, then experience design should prioritise emotionally engaging encounters: guided moments of awe at natural features, storytelling that connects visitors to the landscape’s history and ecology, and atmospheres that foster genuine feelings of belonging. Because place identity fed eudaimonic well-being, operators and destinations may also benefit from helping tourists see adventure sites as extensions of their personal narratives, through achievement milestones, memorable challenges, and imagery that visitors can carry into their sense of who they are. At the same time, the ambiguous and even negative role of place social bonding is a caution against assuming that group-oriented programming automatically enhances satisfaction; the design of social interaction in adventure settings deserves deliberate, evidence-based attention.

The study also arrives at a consequential moment for the sector. Adventure tourism operators in Malaysia and worldwide have faced prolonged disruptions in recent years, and rebuilding demand will depend on demonstrating that these experiences deliver authentic psychological value, not just excitement. By empirically separating the well-being dividends of different place bonds, the Gopeng findings give the industry a vocabulary for that case: the destination that makes visitors feel something, and that becomes part of who they are, is the destination that makes them well. The authors note that future work should clarify the mechanisms underlying social bonding effects and test the model across other destinations and tourist populations, but the central message is already clear. In the psychology of adventure travel, feeling a place may matter far more than merely using it.

Subject of Research: How place attachment dimensions relate to adventure tourists' hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in Malaysia

Article Title: The role of place attachment in adventure tourists’ hedonic and eudaimonic well-being: evidence from Malaysia

Article References: The role of place attachment in adventure tourists’ hedonic and eudaimonic well-being: evidence from Malaysia. (n.d.). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-026-01696-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43545-026-01696-y

Keywords: adventure tourism, place attachment, place affect, place identity, place dependence, place social bonding, tourist satisfaction, hedonic well-being, eudaimonic well-being, Malaysia, PLS-SEM, environmental psychology