In contrast to existing studies which tend to examine a unidirectional relationship between tourism and life, this research is a stride toward understanding how travel and life inform and shape each other during one's life course. Drawing on Erikson's stages of psychosocial development and going beyond cross-sectional designs, this study utilized biographical interviews with 25 U.S. residents to capture the mutual relationship between tourism and life course. Both longitudinal cross-case and within-case analyses were conducted, bringing to life the functions that travel fulfils at each of Erikson's developmental stages. This study is novel in that it illustrates how travel is made sense of in the context of life and how life is made sense of in travel. It marks a theoretically meaningful addition to the existing studies, attesting to the importance of a life course perspective on the travel/life spectrum. Practical ramifications and future research agenda are discussed.

与倾向于考察旅游与生活之间单向关系的现有研究相比，这项研究是朝着理解旅行和生活如何在一个人的生命历程中相互影响和塑造彼此的方向迈出的一大步。本研究借鉴了埃里克森的社会心理发展阶段并超越了横断面设计，利用对 25 名美国居民的传记访谈来捕捉旅游与生命历程之间的相互关系。进行了纵向跨案例和案例内分析，使旅行在 Erikson 的每个发展阶段所实现的功能栩栩如生。这项研究的新颖之处在于它说明了如何在生活中理解旅行以及如何在旅行中理解生活。它标志着对现有研究的理论上有意义的补充，证明生命历程视角对旅行/生活范围的重要性。讨论了实际后果和未来的研究议程。