A Step Towards Meaning: The Logotherapeutic Dimension in Tourism and Excursion Activities

Olena Diuzhenko — Founder of the Intellectual Travel Initiative, a Logotherapy counsellor supporting people during the war through meaning-oriented journeys, and a volunteer with SOS-Lapsikylä, which provides psychological support to Ukrainian children and adolescents.

Abstract. The article explores the integration of Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy into tourism practice. Using the example of an author-designed tour for the Ukrainian community to Hailuoto Island (Finland) and the story of the “Joconda” tea house in Kharkiv, it analyzes how cultural heritage and personal stories can serve as resources for finding meaning during war and migration. The methodology is based on the principles of empathetic tourism (Pudliner, 2007) and the meaning-oriented approach (Frankl, 2006). The results show that logotherapeutic excursions contribute to psychological resilience, transforming traumatic experience into an experience of dignity through love and empathy.

Keywords: Logotherapy, meaning-oriented tourism, empathy, psychological resilience, cultural heritage, Viktor Frankl.

Introduction

Logotherapy, founded by Viktor Frankl, defines meaning as the primary driving force of human life (Frankl, 2006). In difficult life circumstances, such as war or forced migration, the search for meaning becomes especially relevant. Contemporary studies (e.g., Pudliner, 2007; Smith & Kelly, 2006) view tourism not merely as a leisure industry, but also as a powerful tool for social reintegration and psychological recovery. Meaning-based tourism arises when travel becomes a means of existential dialogue.

It is crucial to distinguish pity from empathy. While pity dwells on a person’s weakness and reinforces his/her position as a victim, empathy opens a space for co-presence, dignity, and inner strength. In Logotherapy, this reflects the idea of non-reflective presence: we do not “treat” the tourist but accompany him/her in the search for meaning. Such empathic practices form the foundation of logotherapeutic excursions.

The Logotherapeutic Approach in Tourism

Viktor Frankl distinguished three ways of discovering meaning: through creativity and activity, through the experience of values (love, beauty, nature, culture), and through one’s attitude toward suffering (Frankl, 2018). A Logotherapy-inspired excursion brings these ways together: it opens a space for inner dialogue, symbolic practices, and a mindful attitude toward one’s own experience. Contemporary concepts of Healing Tourism and Trauma-Informed Guiding (Powell, 2020) confirm the effectiveness of this approach.

An Example of a Logotherapeutic Excursion: Hailuoto Island

The excursion for Ukrainians in Oulu, Finland, aimed to create a space for existential reflection. Its purpose was to support people through life transitions by means of existential reflection and an understanding of unconditional love illustrated by a real story. The emotional tone of the excursion can be described as follows: it was not a “lesson in survival”, but a “celebration of life”.

What participants should take away with them:

Faith in one’s own strength and the awareness that every person has a choice in facing life’s circumstances: to suffer or to love.

Moments filled with meaning and “Yes to life in spite of everything”

Stones as a Metaphor.

At the point of departure, each participant picked up ten stones – symbols of an inner burden: memories, anxieties, losses. At the end of the journey, the participants left these stones in the sea and took stones from the island instead, as symbols of new hope and inner support. This symbolic practice is a classic example of a meaning ritual in Logotherapy (Längle, 2007) – an action that carries an inner process into an outward dimension.

“The sea always takes things away and brings something new – just like our life. Even after a storm, it returns to balance. What would you like to let go of? And what would you like to take with you into the future? I suggest taking out the stones from your backpack that you brought from Oulu. They were a little heavy to carry along the way, weren’t they? Each stone is a thought. Recall what exactly is weighing on you. I suggest leaving these stones in the sea. Instead, find a stone on this island and think about what brings you happiness and joy. Take it with you now, into the future. As the Finns say: ‘Koti on siellä, missä kahvi kiehuu’ – ‘Home is where the coffee is brewing’. What is ‘home’ for you now?”

The Sweater from Hailuoto: A Thread that Weaves Destinies Together

On Hailuoto Island, there is an authentic tradition of knitting gray woolen sweaters known as Tikkuröijy, included in Finland’s National List of Cultural Heritage. These sweaters were not merely practical garments – they carried identity, memory, and love. If a fisherman did not return from the sea, the deceased could be identified by the unique patterns and initials knitted into his sweater. A bride gave her groom a sweater she had made herself, and when a child was born, a tiny sweater was knitted for the newborn.

One such story, rooted in true events, tells of a girl and a boy who grew up side by side on Hailuoto Island. Their friendship, woven with memories and mutual understanding, blossomed into a deep bond. However, war tore their lives apart: the young man went to the front, while the girl, left behind on the island, eventually married another. When he returned, he became a fisherman and lived in solitude. Yet she never forgot her childhood friend. For him, she knitted a gray sweater in the traditional Tikkuröijy technique – not as a gesture of romance, but as a symbol of profound respect, care, and loyalty to the pure feelings that had united them since youth.

For the next fifty years, the man wore the sweater every single day. By lamplight in his fishing hut, he mended it time and again, rejecting new clothes. The sweater became his talisman — shielding him not only from the harsh northern winds, but also binding him to the woman who had always remained in his heart. Today, the sweater – worn thin yet rich in every detail – is preserved in the Finnish Craft Museum in Jyväskylä. It is called “the sweater of love” – not only for the feeling that inspired its making, but for the lifelong devotion with which it was cherished.

This story is not about romantic love in the conventional sense, but about a deeper meaning: how feelings can take the form of an action, an object, or a symbol. For this man, the sweater was a sign that his existence mattered to another person. This thought gave him the strength to go on living, even in solitude.

In the context of Logotherapy, this story illustrates one of Viktor Frankl’s key principles: meaning can be found even in suffering when it is reinterpreted through love or fidelity to one’s values. The man never married, yet he found the strength to remain faithful to the feeling that sustained him. The woman, though married to another, never gave up her respect for her childhood friend – she continued to support him through the work of her hands, through her craftsmanship.

This is the embodiment of unconditional love – love that does not demand reciprocity, yet grants dignity both to the one who loves and to the one who is loved. Such stories become bridges between past and present, between suffering and meaning, between two cultures – Finnish and Ukrainian – that today seek sources of salvation in the human being and the capacity to love despite everything.

Contemporary Examples from Ukraine

Similar stories are being born today. In Kharkiv, there is a special place – a tea house called “Joconda.” It was opened by the mother of a fallen defender of the city. Her son, whose call sign was “Joconda,” had dreamed of creating a quiet and warm space for people. In 2022, he was killed while defending his hometown. Now, this place offers tea, books, light, and conversation – and a memory that has become a form of love.

This is not merely a tea house, but a place of meaning – an example of a creative path toward meaning, where a mother has transformed her pain into work that brings love and support to others. Just as the Tikkuröijy sweater in Finnish tradition became a symbol of love, the “Joconda” tea house has become a space where loss is transformed into meaning through action, creativity, and service to others.

It embodies a logotherapeutic principle: even in deep suffering, a person can find meaning if they can see an opportunity to realize a creative or experiential value.

Such stories can be included in excursions that present contemporary Ukraine as a country living through war yet preserving its humanity. They reveal how the memory of loss may transform into a creative force rather than remain a source of pain, and how personal stories intertwine with cultural heritage, shaping new forms of community and solidarity.

Logotherapeutic tourism makes it possible to avoid the traumatic re-experiencing of events by focusing instead on values and love; to promote integration through acquaintance with culture and personal stories; to create a space of empathy rather than pity; and to emphasize the importance of meaningful, inspiring stories that uphold human dignity.

This approach works because the focus on love rather than trauma resonates with the principles of post-traumatic growth (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004); creating conditions for participants’ own discoveries realizes the logotherapeutic technique of dereflection – shifting attention from oneself to values beyond the self; and acquaintance with the history of another country helps migrants find support in a new society without losing their own identity.

Conclusion. Love as the Answer

Viktor Frankl emphasized: “Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire,” and “The salvation of man is through love and in love” (Frankl, 2006). In Logotherapy, love is understood not as an emotion, but as a way of perceiving the value of another person – a vision that preserves human dignity even in the most difficult circumstances.

This idea resonates with the words of Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki, the author of “Fallen Leaves”: “I couldn’t make a film during a war without commenting on it, so I comment on it through the radio. It’s a love story, because I couldn’t make anything else – this bloody war needs love stories now.” In his film, the main characters listen to the radio, which reports news about the war in Ukraine. In this way, the director emphasizes that an artist cannot ignore tragedy – yet his weapon remains love and humanity.

Frankl and Kaurismäki both emphasize that love itself is the answer to the tragedy of war. It becomes support, light, and meaning. Logotherapeutic tourism can be one way of bringing this answer into everyday life. It is not a therapeutic practice in the classical sense, but rather the art of accompanying a person in their search for meaning through space, culture, and history. As the cases of Hailuoto and “Joconda” show, even in times of war and migration, love remains the foundation on which a new life can be built.

References

Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man's Search for Meaning. Boston: Beacon Press.

Frankl, V. E. (2018). The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy. Penguin.

Längle, A. (2007). The Search for Meaning in Life and the Fundamental Existential Motivations. Existential Analysis.

Pudliner, B. A. (2007). Alternative Literature and Tourist Experience: Travel and Spiritual Learning. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change.

Powell, S. (2020). Trauma-Informed Approaches to Tourism and Travel. Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

Smith, M., & Kelly, C. (2006). Wellness Tourism. Tourism Recreation Research.

Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Evidence. Psychological Inquiry.

Франкл, В. (2017). Сказати життю «так»: психолог у концтаборі. Київ: КМ-Букс.

Франкл, В. (2020). Людина в пошуках вищого сенсу. Харків: Фоліо.

Aki Kaurismäki (2023, May). Press Conference at the Cannes Film Festival. Screen Daily.