Literature in tourism have well covered the impacts of tourists on the destination (e.g. economic, environmental and social issues) but neglected the effect of desti- nation on travelers. Although few studies focused on the the impact of travel on wellbeing, research is scant in behavioral, attitudinal and cognitive affects (e.g. Sampaio & Simoni Isnart, 2014) on individuals. Pine and Gilmore (2011) discuss in order for transformation to occur, some fundamental personal characteristic (e.g. attitude, belief, behavior, performance) should be altered. They claim that trans- formation is only possible through personal and unique experiences and human transformation is usually triggered by new knowledge and a change in environ- ment.
Thus transformation usually occurs when external stimuli triggers the change. This might be a new place, new culture, new knowledge, new people and so on. Thus transformation is relevant to travel. By definition tourism requires a travel outside one’s regular environment and might be considered a potential trans- formative activity. The transformation that occurred through the encounters in a new place is shaped by different experiences of tourists and their interaction with the destination (Reisinger, 2013). Morgan (2010) discusses that strong transfor- mation occurs when there is a direct encounter with other and otherness (nature and culture). He goes on to emphasize that variables like place, traveller’s both personal and collective motivation, intentional or unintentional forms of experi- ence, duration of travel (long or short term), distance (both physical and cultural) also affect intensity of transformation. When tourists travel to unfamiliar places, the impact of human environment on transformation might even be stronger (Ce- tin & Okumus, 2018). Thus there is a need to focus on the transformative effects of travel experiences.

These transformative experiences are also associated with individuals’ personal background as well as events, perceptions and interactions at the destination (Pine & Gilmore, 2011). Tourists make comparisons between their daily lives and and the norms and values of their hosts as well as the physical environment. Therefore, a similar experience might cause different transformations for different tourists. Hence; past experiences, cultural background and personal characteristics of the tourist might also affect the type and intensity of transformation (Cetin & Bilgihan, 2016). This makes exploring transformations in tourism context a challenging task. Yet, it is still possible to offer some shared characteristics of transformations and even offer a typology of changes they trigger in tourists. If tourist transformations
could be understood better, this might result in better promotion of travel as a lei- sure activity. Hence, this study aims to identify the characteristics, antecedents and outcomes of tourist transformations based on an exploratory study on travelers.