The Bus as Experience Space: Exploring Flow in Structured Tours
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21325/jotags.2025.1718Keywords:
Flow experience, Bus, Transportation, Highway, Package tourAbstract
This study explores the flow experiences of tourists participating in fully bus-based package tours in Turkey’s Eastern Black Sea region. While bus travel is often perceived as a passive form of transport, this research frames the bus as an immersive experience platform where flow states—characterized by deep focus, altered time perception, and intrinsic enjoyment—can emerge. Grounded in Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) flow theory, the study investigates tourists’ emotional, cognitive, and social engagement during long-distance journeys. Semi-structured interviews with participants from diverse demographics examine the conditions that enable or inhibit flow, including guide narration, landscape immersion, cultural storytelling, interpersonal interaction, music, and bus design. Particular attention is given to how the region’s rugged geography, driving practices, and sensory-rich environments foster engagement and meaning. Thematic analysis identifies patterns such as merging of action and awareness, temporal disconnection, emotional restoration, and cognitive stimulation, linking them to hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. By demonstrating how structured bus tours can facilitate psychological flow, the study challenges the view of bus travel as merely a functional activity. Findings offer practical insights for tour operators seeking to design emotionally resonant and meaningful bus-based experiences, reframing transportation as a space of affective tourism engagement.
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