Silence Tourism: The Importance of Quiet for Travel in a World of Noise and Distraction

Abstract

The world is getting louder, linked to increasing population (over 8 billion people live on the planet) and urbanization (more than half of the 8 billion people live in urban areas). Apart from getting louder, it is more distracted than ever before, linked to increasing digitalization and portable digital devices that can easily be carried everywhere someone goes (nearly 6 billion people use social media).

This bachelor’s thesis explores in a first step the extent to which young adults feel affected by noise and digital distraction, and in a second step the extent to and forms in which they seek quiet to get away from it.

It discovers that the majority of young adults feels negatively affected by noise (56 %) and even stronger by digital distraction (88 %), and that they seek quiet in their daily life (86 %) as well as their travels (77 %). About 20 % have taken at least one quiet trip for the main purpose of finding quiet, avoiding noises and distractions during the trip as much as possible. In particular natural quiet and the sounds of nature have been found to be an important element.

This work’s findings are a call especially for tourism providers to recognize the emerging trend, to place greater importance on calm and quiet experiences and to integrate the “power of quiet” into offerings. They are a call also for public authorities, other organizations and basically each and every one to make efforts in keeping quiet available and accessible to all, acknowledging its value and treating it as a fundamental human need for health and wellbeing.