The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-09-17 · by Felicity Bonello
A new study reveals that 80% of Australians experience improved mood just from anticipating their upcoming holidays, with nearly three-quarters saying it helps them cope better with daily stress. The article discusses how planning for future travel can provide mental health benefits through the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with anticipation and reward. Dr. Gina Cleo, a behavioral expert, explains that the excitement leading up to a trip can be almost as pleasurable as the trip itself, particularly when planning starts months in advance.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-17,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
According to new research, 80 per cent of Australians get a mood boost simply from having a holiday to look forward to.
uncertain
cent → accord → holiday
Almost three-quarters say the anticipation helps them cope with the demands of everyday life.
asserted
them → say → life
I wholeheartedly believe them.
asserted
I → believe → them
A group of girlfriends and I are going to Greece next August.
asserted
group → go → Greece
Nobody has packed a bag (truthfully, we haven’t even booked our flights).
asserted
we → pack → flights
We are months from ordering our first suspiciously expensive waterside cocktail.
asserted
We → order → cocktail
And yet Greece has entered the group chat.
asserted
Greece → enter → chat
Photos sent without comment that everybody understands immediately.
asserted
everybody → send → that
Entire imaginary days have been lived before any of us has boarded a plane.
asserted
any → live → plane
And while there’s joy in every shared piece of information, it does raise the question: how much of the pleasure of a holiday happens before the holiday itself?
asserted
much → ’ → holiday
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
asserted
it → turn → ?
Behavioural and habit expert Dr Gina Cleo says dopamine, the neurotransmitter closely associated with our brain’s reward system, doesn’t come into play only when we get what we want.
asserted
we → say → what
“It’s that anticipatory reward and the brain’s response to the expectation that something good is coming,” she says.
asserted
she → ’ → expectation
“It can almost be as much as getting the reward itself sometimes.
asserted
It → get → reward
Cleo says two to three months before departure tends to be a sweet spot: close enough for a trip to feel real, and yet far enough away to enjoy weeks of anticipation.
asserted
trip → say → anticipation
Keen planners (as I’m beginning to realise I fall into the category of) can stretch the effect much further, with Booking.com’s Travel Happiness Index reporting that 58 per cent of Australians enjoy the planning itself.
asserted
cent → begin → planning
My friends and I appear to be testing the outer limits of this theory.
asserted
friends → appear → theory
Or could we achieve much the same thing by booking dinner next Saturday or filling a Net-a-Porter cart?
uncertain
we → achieve → cart
While the basic psychological mechanism is similar, what makes travel different, according to Cleo, is the number of pleasurable stages it bundles together: anticipation before we leave, novelty while we’re there and memories afterwards.
uncertain
we → make → stages
A dinner or online shopping stint can give us something to look forward to.
asserted
dinner → give → something
A holiday can occupy our imagination for months.
asserted
holiday → occupy → months
And imagination has one considerable advantage over reality: nothing has gone wrong yet.
asserted
nothing → have → reality
“Anticipation isn’t bound by reality,” says Cleo.
asserted
Cleo → bind → reality
“You get to imagine the perfect version of the trip in your head.”
asserted
You → get → head
It’s excellent news for my rose-coloured-glasses personality.
asserted
It → ’ → personality
In imaginary Greece, the sun shines incessantly, except on that one morning when cloud cover cradles us all through the aftermath of the night before.
asserted
cover → shin → night
The hotels surpass anything we’ve seen on social media, and while no one misses a ferry, in my mind, at least, we’re island-hopping aboard a classic Riva motorboat (one can dream, right?).
asserted
one → surpass → motorboat
Of course, there is a downside to spending months mentally storyboarding the perfect holiday – eventually reality needs to live up to it.
asserted
reality → be → it
The Travel Happiness Index found that while travel is overwhelmingly associated with positive emotions, 19 per cent of Australians also report feeling anxious about it and 17 per cent feel pressure to make the most out of their time away.
asserted
cent → find → time
Cleo says that the trouble starts when a holiday becomes something to optimise rather than experience.
asserted
holiday → say → ?
“The tipping point is usually when there’s zero slack in the itinerary,” she says,” so there’s not much free time or no room for something like a slow morning or a wrong turn.”
asserted
she → ’ → morning
Cue nostalgia for the dog-eared Lonely Planet and not knowing exactly what lunch is going to look like.
asserted
lunch → cue → what
Social media hasn’t exactly helped.
asserted
media → help → ?
The most photogenic restaurant, beach club or spectacular hotel pool tends to command our attention during the planning stage, even though the same research found it was the far simpler pleasures – beautiful scenery, time with the people we love, good food and drink – that contributed to most people’s satisfaction.
asserted
that → tend → satisfaction
Cleo calls it visibility bias.
asserted
Cleo → call → it
We devote disproportionate planning energy to the things other people will see.
asserted
people → devote → things
There’s also the small matter of switching off once we arrive.
asserted
we → ’ → ?
Cleo suggests many of us need two or three days before the work brain properly downshifts, which may explain why a weekend away can sometimes seem to finish just as we have finally relaxed.
uncertain
we → suggest → days
She recommends starting the holiday before departure in a less glamorous way: clear the inbox, tell people you’re unavailable and close as many mental loops as possible before leaving.
asserted
you → recommend → loops
“Add a soft landing,” she says.
asserted
she → add → landing
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
