“Difficult Joy” in Mountain Tourism: Rethinking Experience through Energy Flow toward a Physical, Emotional, and Cognitive Bidirectional Model of Energetic Exchange

Abstract

This study explores mountain tourism as a multidimensional and dynamic phenomenon, integrating insights from literature, primary research, and interdisciplinary theory. Drawing from 453 survey responses and 16 international conferences (1998�2024), the research identifies eight foundational principles that shape mountain tourism, emphasizing sustainability, seasonality, and human transformation. The tripartite model�physical, emotional, and cognitive�frames tourism as an energetic exchange between the Individual and the Whole, oscillating between relaxation and exertion, self-confirmation and self-transcendence.

Factor analysis reveals two meta-factors: relaxation/ease and exercise/difficulty, which correlate with demographic variables such as age, gender, income, and education. The study proposes a conceptual framework based on energy flow, defining tourism as a pursuit of joy expressed through material, emotional, and cognitive transformation. It distinguishes between individual-centered (passive) and whole-centered (active) tourism work, linking harmonious energy exchange to health and sustainability, and imbalance to pathological conditions.

Recommendations include designing balanced experiences, fostering community engagement, and developing educational initiatives. Future research directions involve modeling tourism as a system of oscillating dipoles and constructing a dynamic personality theory rooted in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions