Everyday Life and Cultural Tourism in Scandinavia: Examining the Spillover Hypothesis

That work and leisure are bound together is an old idea within the social sciences. Previous research has provided three hypotheses regarding how experiences at work are linked to, or affect, leisure behavior: the spillover hypothesis, the compensation hypothesis, and the neutralist hypothesis. Departing from this literature and specifically concerned with the spillover hypothesis, this research addressed a related dichotomy: that of everyday life and tourism behavior. The specific aim of this study was to examine if and how education and everyday participation in cultural leisure activities affected the probability of having taken part in a culture tourism trip during vacation. Two main findings are presented. First, both education and everyday participation in cultural leisure activities were positively related to cultural tourism. That is, as education and everyday participation in cultural leisure activities increased, so did the probability of having taken part in a culture tourism trip. Second, since much of education's effect was mediated by everyday participation in cultural leisure activities, the latter variable also acted as a mechanism linking education and cultural tourism. In sum, these findings were interpreted as support for the spillover hypothesis.