Investigating Restorative Benefits of Wellness Tourism: A Study of Forest Therapy Trip and the Role of Forest Therapy Guide

Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Dr. Chia-Pin (Simon) Yu is an Associate Professor at National Taiwan University as well as Fulbright Harvard Visiting Scholar. His research interests include forest therapy, wellness tourism, nature-based recreation and tourism as well as applying new technology (VR and portable biofeedback devices) on recreation and human health studies.

Abstract (150 Words)

Forest therapy is considered as a form of wellness tourism and a popular approach for health promotion. Further, the role of company on restorative benefits in the forest therapy study is unknown. The current study investigated restorative benefits from the three forest therapy programs, they are guided program, self-guided program, and strolling alone program. This study employed single-blind and pretest–posttest field experimental design to examine the influence of experiential types of forest therapy program on physiological responses and mood states. The results found the three experiential types of forest therapy program all contribute to restorative benefits. The guided forest therapy program influence the mood states improvement mostly. Strolling alone increases higher parasympathetic nerve activity that suggests higher power of being in resting state. The finding implies that the effect of solitude of restoration on increasing the power of parasympathetic nerve activity.

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Investigating Restorative Benefits of Wellness Tourism: A Study of Forest Therapy Trip and the Role of Forest Therapy Guide

Forest therapy is considered as a form of wellness tourism and a popular approach for health promotion. Further, the role of company on restorative benefits in the forest therapy study is unknown. The current study investigated restorative benefits from the three forest therapy programs, they are guided program, self-guided program, and strolling alone program. This study employed single-blind and pretest–posttest field experimental design to examine the influence of experiential types of forest therapy program on physiological responses and mood states. The results found the three experiential types of forest therapy program all contribute to restorative benefits. The guided forest therapy program influence the mood states improvement mostly. Strolling alone increases higher parasympathetic nerve activity that suggests higher power of being in resting state. The finding implies that the effect of solitude of restoration on increasing the power of parasympathetic nerve activity.