Travel Motivations

and Tourist Flow

Topics

 3.1. Travel Motivations – Reasons of Travel /

Purposes of Travel
 3.2. The Importance of Travel Motivations and Its
Effects on Travel Decisions
 3.3. Typologies of Travel Motivations
 3.4. Concept of Tourist Flows
 3.4.1. Factors Influencing Patterns of Tourist Flows
Travel Motivations
Reasons of Travel / Purposes of Travel

 Before discussing the travel motivations of tourists, one

question that should be answered first is –
 “Why do people travel?”

 The followings are some common forms of travel based on

travelers’ purposes of visiting a destination.
1) Leisure / Holiday Tourism

Leisure/Holiday tourism can be

divided into 2 forms:
(i) Relaxation
(ii) Sightseeing
1) Leisure / Holiday Tourism

 The destinations for relaxation tourism can be attractive scenery or

sun, sea and sand. Examples of these tourist destinations are the
coasts, beaches, countryside and mountainous regions.
 Sightseeing tourism includes the tourists who may travel around
sightseeing and staying in different places. The main reasons for
sightseeing tourism are a desire for self-education and for self-
esteem. This kind of tourists take a lot of photographs. Urban centers
are their common destinations
2) Business Tourism

 The business travelers may travel for various purposes, for example,
trade, meeting, convention and exhibition. Business people buy
similar products as do other tourists. They would also spend money on
entertainment and recreation while they are at their destinations.
 The characteristics of business tourism are:
 - Business tourists frequently travel to destinations not usually seen
as tourist destinations.
 - Business travel is relatively price-inelastic; business people cannot
be encouraged to travel more frequently by the offer of lower prices,
nor will an increase in price discourage them from traveling.
The characteristics of business tourism are:

 - Business travel is not greatly affected by seasonal factors such as

variation in climate or holidays.
 - Business tourists take relatively short but frequent trips to major
business destinations.
 - Business tourists may require different services, such as
communication facilities or secretarial service.
 - Business travelers expect, and generally receive, a higher standard
of service. For example, many business travelers would choose first-
class or business-class for their flight tickets, and thus receives higher
levels of service from the suppliers, including the travel agencies.
3) Cultural Tourism

 Cultural tourism is related to the transmission

of knowledge and ideas of the destination area
or host community.
 As tourists are curious about different kinds of
experiences and cultures in various parts of the
world, they travel to learn and experience the
culture of a tourist destination. This becomes
the prime motivational force for their travel.
 This kind of tourist likes to visit different
types of cultural attractions, ranging from
concrete attractions such as museums and
monuments, cultural performances to other
cultural manifestations, such as the
consumption of the way of life of certain
cultures.
4) Eco-tourism

 Tourists of this kind enjoy traveling to

natural areas.
 They will minimize their impact on the
environment as well as protect the
natural resources during their travel.
Therefore, eco-tourism is characterized
as a force for conservation and
preservation of nature.
5) Study Tourism

 Students travel to overseas learning or

training centers, such as universities, for
short or vacation courses.
 There is an increasing number of local
study tours ranging from half-a-day to a
week.
 6) Health Tourism
7) Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR)

 Some tourists travel abroad because they want to visit their friends
and relatives. It is sometimes said that those visiting their friends or
relatives (VFR) are not really tourists at all in the conceptual sense.
They do not usually buy accommodation or much food or drink or
other services at the destination; but they do consume food and
beverages from the supermarkets used by their hosts, and household
consumption of other services (e.g. electricity, water) is increased
during their stay.
 Some of the VFR tourists' destinations may not be tourist
attractions, but they are the population centers where friends or
relatives live
8) Sports Tourism

 Many tourists travel for sports.

They may:
 participate in sports, such as
skiing or mountaineering;
 watch sports, such as attending
the Olympic Games or World Cup
Soccer.
The Importance of Travel Motivations and Its Effects
on Travel Decisions

 1) Definition of “Motivation”
 A motivation is a wish that prompts people to take action, work hard
to achieve a goal, and satisfy a certain kind of need.
 For example, when a person is hungry and there is a need to appease
his or her hunger, a motivation to search for food is formed.
Therefore, people’s activities of all kinds are driven by their
motivations, and they govern people’s actions.
Travel Motivations

 Travel motivations help explain the following questions:

 - Why do we go travelling?
- Why do we choose to travel to a certain place?
- Why do we participate in a certain travel activity?
 These are essentially questions about tourists’ travel motivations.
Travel motivations directly spur people’s travel activities.
2) Formation of Travel Motivations

 Travellers are motivated to

satisfy a need, and they have a
perception of what will satisfy
their need.
 At the same time, travellers
have a perception of the
attractions of the destination
and whether the attractions
satisfy their needs. If both sides
are agreed, travellers are
motivated to visit that
destination.
3) Travel Motivations to Travel Actions

 To provide a high-quality service to tourists effectively, you must understand

what psychological factors can stimulate and influence people to make all
types of travel decisions.
 Travel psychology is a science that involves researching tourists’ psychological
activities and their objective rules, the basic objective of which is to explain
why people travel, what factors influence people’s travel decisions, and how
the motivations for such decisions are formed.
 Apart from the consumer behaviour approach we also use aspects of
personality to describe travelling behaviour.
4) Factors that Influence Travel Motivations and
Actions

 Factors that influence one’s travel motivations and decisions can be

categorized into two different aspects: internal factors and external factors.
 Internal Factors (Individual Factors)
1. - Economic Capacity
2. - Spare Time
3. - Gender, Age and Physical Condition
4. - Psychological Factors
4) Factors that Influence Travel Motivations and
Actions

 (ii) External Factors (External Environmental Conditions)

1. - Overall Development of the Tourism Industry

2. - Group, Family and Social Atmosphere

Push and Pull Model of Tourism
Motivation
Activity
3.4. The Concept of Tourist Flows

It is a form of spatial interaction

‘Tourist flows’ refers to the between two areas with the
statistical measure of the destination area containing a
volume and direction of surplus of a commodity such as
movement of tourists into or out tourist attractions (pull factors)
of a destination for a given and the generating area having
period of time or as a trend a deficit, or demand for that
commodity (push factors).
3.4.1. Factors Influencing Patterns of Tourist Flows

 1) Macro Factors Influencing Patterns of Tourist Flows

 Pull Factors
A destination faces with many different types of tourism factors. They are the
attractiveness or “drawing power” of the destination as perceived and valued
by the travellers. The attractiveness is called “pull factors”.
 Destination attributes can either by tangible resources or the perceptions and
expectations of the travellers. Factors influencing patterns of tourist flows
are:
3.4.1. Factors Influencing Patterns of
Tourist Flows
 ) General attractiveness or attributes of the destination for the tourists:
 - Natural and man-made attractions
 Tourist flow will be strong if one place can provide the attractions (e.g.
beaches, landscapes or historic resources) that the other place lacks.
 Climate: There is a general trend of travel towards places of better (i.e.
warmer, sunnier or drier) climatic conditions.
 - Political, cultural and business ties
 Other things being equal, travel is more likely to occur between places with
stronger political (e.g. friendly relationships between countries, shared
political system), cultural (e.g. common language and religion) or business
ties.
3.4.1. Factors Influencing Patterns of
Tourist Flows
 Relative costs (cost of living and exchange rates)
 If 2 places have significantly different costs of living, tourist flow will be
encouraged from the more expensive place to the place with lower living
cost.
 - New cultural experience
 Many tourists are interested in experiencing a culture which differs from their
own. Therefore, the culture of a host population is an important factor of
attracting tourists to a particular destination.
Factors Influencing Patterns of Tourist
Flows
 - Attitude of the host community (perception of destination image)
 Positive attitude of the host community towards tourism may increase tourist
flow (attitude of the host community depends on how they perceive the
impacts brought about by tourism).
 (ii) Political Factors:
 Government policies can affect both inbound and outbound tourism in two
ways:
 • currency control (more common in Communist countries); and
 • the necessity of obtaining visas.
Micro Factors influencing Patterns of Tourist Flows

 Push factors
 (i) Traveller-generating region:
 It represents the generating market for tourism and in a sense
provides the “push” to stimulate and motivate travel.
 Push factors are considered to be those socio-psychological constructs
of the tourists and their environments that predispose the individual
to travel and help explain the desire to travel.
 Most of the push factors are intangible desires of the individual
travellers. Some of the psychological motivations are:
Some of the psychological motivations are

 escape
 adventure
 rest and relaxation
 social interaction
 prestige
 satisfying needs (based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
 health and fitness
(ii) Economic Development of a Country:

 Everyone buys goods and services out of his/her income. The size of that
income is then a very important factor of tourism demand. Therefore, for a
country/region which is developing fast and increasing its income, tourism
generation is likely to be greater. The mainland is a good example in Asia.
 (iii) Trend in Tourism:
 Tourism demand is easily affected by the changing trend. Some tourist
destinations become more popular while others decline in popularity.
(iv) Personal Factors:

 Income
 Employment
 - Holiday entitlement and time availability
 - Education level
 - Personal attitudes and perceptions