Exploring a travel diary that promotes wellbeing – synergy between oral and visual narratives of memorable and meaningful experiences

Abstract

This paper showcases an exploratory study of the creation of a travel diary to facilitate the expression and reminiscences of memorable and meaningful moments using the traveller’s digital footprints. Currently, personal technologies are widely used to capture these moments and the travel diary seems to be an ideal place to consolidate footprints from diverse sources. In this study, the researcher interviewed participants, asked them to share their memorable and meaningful travel experiences, and then instructed them to use their photos to create a paper-based visual diary. This study adopted a Labovian approach to compare the oral narratives with the visual diaries. Based on the results, the researcher makes recommendations regarding the future design of travel diary platforms.