Lighthearted Study Supports Idea That Travel Experiences May Create More Happiness than Material Goods

SEATTLE, December 3, 2015 – Just in time for the holidays, Hotwire.com® has announced the top travel and leisure emoji used state by state. From the ever popular snowflake emoji in Montana and the pina colada emoji in Hawaii, the data offers a fun, industry-wide read that shows consumers across the country are feeling optimistic leading up to the peak holiday travel season.

“Since holiday travel gets such a bad rap, we are thrilled to see so many travelers enjoying their travel experiences leading up to the busy holiday season,” says Hotwire® Travel Editor Carrie Peters. “We’ve known all along that travel experiences increase happiness, and now there are almost 600,000 travel emojis available to bring that idea to life.”

According to researchers at Cornell University, that optimism around travel experiences isn’t surprising. They say that experiential purchases (money spent on doing) tend to provide more enduring happiness than material purchases (money spent on having). As such, people derive more pleasure from the anticipation of experiential purchases and looking forward to an experience tends to be more exciting than waiting to receive a material good.

“Just the act of booking a trip and the anticipation leading up to the trip can make travelers happier in the long run,” Peters says.

Which emojis best describe your current state? For me, a simple smiley face always works, especially when I know I’ve got some upcoming travel plans…in this case, to Jamaica! Is there a Rastafari emoji I can use? I’ll find out.

Cheers, and happy holiday travels everyone!

Kristen