decide to select and participate in specific forms of tourism, which is associated with the area of motivation.
88 CHAPTER THREE Demand: Why do people engage in tourism?
desires, needs and seeks from the process of consuming a tourism experience that involves an investment of time and money. The expectations a tourist has as a consumer in purchasing and con- suming a tourism product or experience is ultimately shaped by a wide range of social and economic factors which Uysal (1998) listed in Figure 3.4 and which are shaped by an individual’s atti- tudes and perception of tourism.
Yet tourist motivation is a complex area dominated by the social psychologists with their concern for the behaviour, attitudes and thoughts of people as consumers of tourism. A very influential study published in 1993 by Phillip Pearce suggested that in any attempt to understand tourist motivation we must consider how to develop a concept of motivation in tourism, how to communi- cate this to students and researchers who do not understand social psychology and what practical measures need to be developed to measure people’s motivation for travel, particularly the existence of multi-motivation situations (i.e. more than one factor influen- cing the desire to engage in tourism). Pearce (1993) also discussed the need to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic forces shap- ing the motivation to become a tourist; he explored these issues further inTourist Behaviour (2005).
I
NTRINSIC ANDE
XTRINSICM
OTIVATIONThere is no all-embracing theory of tourist motivation due to the problem of simplifying complex psychological factors and behav- iour into a universally acceptable theory that can be tested and proved in various tourism contexts. This is illustrated in Table 3.1 which summarizes some of the main theoretical approaches developed in motivation research. The different approaches illus- trate that there is no general congruity between the approaches (i.e.
there is no common agreement or approach) which explains the complexity of trying to derive general explanations of motivation among tourists. This resulted in a large number of individual stud- ies of tourist motivation dating back to the 1970s ( Table 3.2 ) which adopt different theoretical and conceptual standpoints. One imme- diate complication is the problem of understanding what drives an individual to travel. For example, while a business traveller is obvi- ously travelling primarily for a work-related reason, there are also covert (or less overt) reasons which are related to that individual’s
TABLE 3.1 Theoretical approaches to tourist motivation Needs-based approaches
● Assumes that tourists select destinations to satisfy their needs
● Sees pleasure-related travel as being designed to meet tourist needs
● Epitomized by need-based motivation research such as Maslow (1943, 1954)
● Argues that human needs motivate human behaviour based on very generic hierarchy of human needs.
Values-based approaches
● Highlights the importance of human values on tourist motivation and why tourists seek to con- sume certain experiences
● Used widely in consumer behaviour research and embodied in the VALS study by Mitchell (1983) on values and lifestyles
● Used to segment tourists into groups to help understanding.
Benefi ts sought or realized approaches
● Focuses on causal factors in terms of what benefit a tourist expects to gain from travel and holidays
● Typical approaches have looked at: the attributes of a destination and the benefits it may offer;
the psychological benefits which a tourist may gain from a service or holiday.
Expectancy-based approaches
● Uses developments in employment motivation research based upon job preferences and satisfaction
● Is based upon the assumption that the concept of attractiveness of achieving an outcome is the prime motivator
● Is characterized by Witt and Wright’s (1992) study.
Other approaches
● Push/pull factors.
needs and wants. The individual is a central component of tourism demand, as
no two individuals are alike, and differences in attitudes, perceptions and motivation have an important influence on travel decisions [where] attitudes depend on an individual’s perception of the world. Perceptions are mental impressions of … a place or travel company and are determined by many factors, which include childhood, family and work experiences. However, attitudes and perceptions in themselves do not explain why people want to travel. The inner urges which initiate travel demand are called travel motivators. ( Cooperet al . 1993 : 20)
90 CHAPTER THREE Demand: Why do people engage in tourism?
What this illustrates is that the individual and the forces affecting their need to be a tourist is important. These forces can be broken down into intrinsic and extrinsic approaches to motivation. The intrinsic motivation approach recognizes that individuals have unique personal needs that stimulate or arouse them to pursue tourism. Some of these needs are associated with the desire to sat- isfy individual or internal needs – for example, becoming a tour- ist for self-improvement or what is termed ‘self-realization ’, so as to achieve a state of happiness. It may also help boost one’s ego (a feature termed ego enhancement) because of the personal confi- dence building that travel can encourage. In contrast, the extrinsic motivational approach examines the broader conditioning factors that shape individuals ’ attitudes, preferences and perceptions but are more externally determined – for example, the society and cul- ture one lives in will affect how tourism is viewed. In the former Soviet Union tourism was a functional relationship that was con- ditioned by the state that sent workers for rest and recreation so they could return refreshed to improve output and productivity.
TABLE 3.2 Seminal publications on tourist motivation in the 1970s to 1990s
Study Contribution
D. Lundberg (1971) Why tourists travel, The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administrative Quarterly 26 (February): 75 –81.
Used 18 motivation statements to assess key travel motives
E. Cohen (1974) Who is a tourist? A conceptual clarifi cation, Sociological Review 22 (4): 527 –55.
Discussion of what a tourist is and creation of typologies using different tourist roles J. Crompton (1979) Motivations for pleasure
vacation,Annals of Tourism Research 6 (4):
408–245.
Devised a classifi cation of tourist motives for pleasure travel
G. Dann (1981) Tourist motivation: an appraisal, Annals of Tourism Research 8 (2): 187 –219.
Review of the tourism studies published to the late 1970s and the role of push and pull factors
P. Pearce (1982) The Social Psychology of Tourist Behaviour. Oxford: Pergamon.
First major review of the fi eld to examine the different motivational research up to the early 1980s and importance of social psychology
S. Iso-Ahola (1982) Towards a social psychology theory of tourism motivation: A rejoinder, Annals of Tourism Research 9 (2): 256 –62.
A response to Dann’s (1981) study;
presents a social psychological model of tourist motivation
C. Witt and P. Wright (1992) Tourist motivation after Maslow. In P. Johnson and B. Thomas (eds) Choice and Demand in Tourism . London: Mansell.
Review of the literature and contribution which expectancy theories can make to motivation research
In contrast, in a free market economy the individual is much freer to choose how and where they wish to travel, within certain con- straints (e.g. time, income and awareness of opportunities).
At a general level, tourism may allow the individual to escape the mundane, thereby achieving their goals of physical recreation and spiritual refreshment as well as enjoying social goals such as being with family or friends. In this respect, extrinsic influences on the tourist may be family, society with its standards and norms of behaviour, the peer pressure from social groups, and the dominant culture. For example, one of the cultural motivators of outbound travel from New Zealand among youth travellers (those aged under 30 years of age) is the desire to do the ‘Overseas Experience ’ (the ‘big OE ’). This often gives travellers a chance to engage in a cultural form of tourism by visiting Europe, seeing relatives and friends and achieves a number of social goals. The big OE also has an intrinsic function as a long-haul trip and a sustained time away from the home environment encourages independence, self- reliance and greater confidence in one’s own ability and judgement, and will contribute to ego enhancement. In the UK there has also been a trend towards a similar experience before commencing study at university; it is known as the ‘gap year ’ and a similar style of travel, working holiday, voluntary activity or round-the-world trip takes place which is explored in more detail in Box 3.1 .
While analysis of tourist motivation is about the underlying psychological value and features of being a tourist, actual tourism demand at a practical level is derived through a consumer deci- sion-making process. From this process, it is possible to describe three elements, which condition demand:
1 energizers of demand , which are factors that promote an individual to decide on a holiday
2 filterers of demand , which are constraints on demand that can exist in economic, sociological or psychological terms despite the desire to go on holiday or travel
3 affecters , which are a range of factors that may heighten or suppress the energizers that promote consumer interest or choice in tourism.
These factors directly condition and affect the tourist’s process of travel decision-making although they do not explain why people choose to travel. For this reason, it is useful to understand how individuals’ desires and need for tourism fit into their wider life.
92 CHAPTER THREE Demand: Why do people engage in tourism?
BOX 3.1: CASE STUDY: THE YOUTH TRAVEL MARKET
With world tourism growing at between 3 to 4 per cent per annum (though it is much higher in some markets and countries), certain market segments have recorded much greater rates of growth. Youth travel, which commonly includes those aged 16 to 30, comprises around 20 per cent of world arriv- als according to a study published in 2008 by the World Youth, Student and Educational Travel Confederation (WYSE) and the UN-WTO ( Youth Travel Matters: Understanding the Global Phenomenon of Youth Travel ).
The results of the study show that it is among one of the fastest-growing sectors. The report provides the following profile of the market and trends in youth travel including:
● a growth in expenditure of 40 per cent over a five-year period and the market has evolved considerably in the 2002 –2007 study period
● the sector’s budget image in the 1980s and 1990s which led to a global growth in backpacking infrastructure to nurture this market has been replaced by a more upmarket profile: in 2007, the average spend per trip of €1915
● the traditional 18- to 30-year-old backpacker market has expanded with older age groups in the over-30 category
● the motivation for pursuing travel opportunities among the youth mar- ket includes learning a language, seasonal work opportunities and volunteering, as well as study opportunities among 70 per cent of the market
● many destinations are belatedly recognizing the enormous potential of this market segment, while certain destinations specialize in niche products (e.g. Queenstown, New Zealand, and adventure tourism;
Bournemouth, UK, and the English foreign language school market)
● to respond to the growing affluence and expenditure among youth travellers, youth hostels globally are investing significant sums of money in upgrading their infrastructure to combine bunkbed/
traditional hostel accommodation with hotel-style accommodation.
This was reflected in the 50 per cent of hostels in the survey who had already upgraded their infrastructure to meet new market demands
● one key driver of growth in some areas of the youth market expansion has been the continued development of the student gap year. This is
This partly reflects upon the intrinsic motivations, and one use- ful framework devised to understand this is Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs.