Everyday life and cultural tourism in Scandinavia: Examining the spilloverhypothesis

That work and leisure are bound together is an old idea within the social s ciences. Previous research has provided three hypotheses regarding how expe riences at work are linked to, or affect, leisure behavior: the spillover h ypothesis, the compensation hypothesis, and the neutralist hypothesis. Depa rting from this literature and specifically concerned with the spillover hy pothesis, this research addressed a related dichotomy: that of everyday lif e and tourism behavior. The specific aim of this study was to examine if an d how education and everyday participation in cultural leisure activities a ffected the probability of having taken part in a culture tourism trip duri ng vacation. Two main findings are presented. First, both education and eve ryday participation in cultural leisure activities were positively related to cultural tourism. That is, as education and everyday participation in cu ltural leisure activities increased, so did the probability of having taken part in a culture tourism trip. Second, since much of education's effect w as mediated by everyday participation in cultural leisure activities, the l atter variable also acted as a mechanism linking education and cultural tou rism. In sum; these findings were interpreted as support for the spillover hypothesis.