UNIVERSITY OF STAVANGER

MASTER IN INTERNATIONAL HOTEL AND TOURISM LEADERSHIP

MHR220 : Tourism: Theory and Phenomenon

Assignment 1

Variations in tourist motivations

Candidate number: 1402

Number of words: 2197

Stavanger, January 21th 2015

Introduction
The field of tourism started to be an area of interest for scientists in the early 1970s,
and has become a legitimate area for systematic investigation.(G. Dann, Nash, &
Pearce, 1988)
Tourism is a desired leisure activity. It is a fascinating issue , the motivation which
causes certain people to choose a confident activities and a destination for vacation ,
which allows for a better understanding of peoples behaviour in the area of leisure
spending. The reasons behind why people choose a destination over another have been
the topic of many researchers and are important considerations for both planners and
managers of tourism industry.(Gnoth, 1997)
Motivations are the essential reasons for a particular traveling behavior and play a vital
role in understanding the decision making process of tourists, as well as assessing the
subsequent satisfaction of tourists expectation.(Fodness, 1994)
Motivation is the powerful power which requires an individual to take action . This
suggests that motivation moves a person to do something. Motivations are thus the
basis of all behavior , including traveling. Tourist motivation, therefore, can be defined
as the global integrating network of biological and cultural forces which gives value
and direction to travel choices, behaviour and experience.(Fodness, 1994)
Tourist motivation
In many tourism studies motivations are recognized as starting point in order to
understand tourist behaviours.(Crompton, 1979). Motivations have also been seen as a
tool to segment tourism market. According to Ryan and Glendon(1998) motivations
are associated with individual basic needs for participating, for instance, in activities.
Therefore, motivations of tourists are important in explaining why tourists are
travelling.(Ryan & Glendon, 1998)

According to Hills (2000), motivation is the basic and important to push or stimulate
human into actions with their attempt in order to obtain what they want. His theory
claims that there are three specific aspects of motivation, which are the arousal of
behavior, the direction of behavior, and persistence of behavior. (Hills, Argyle, &
Reeves, 2000)
He explained that arousal of behaviour involves what activates human behavior and
direction of behavior is concerned with what directs behavior towards a specific goal.
Persistence of behavior is concerned with how the behavior is sustained (Hills et al.,
2000).
In order to understand motivation in tourism is essential to understand first what
motivates tourists to choose a certain destination.

Gnoth (1997) definite tourist

motivation as the global integrating network of biological and cultural forces which
gives value and direction to travel choices, behavior and experience (Gnoth, 1997)
Additionally, there is another important theory about motivation , who introduced the
push and pull motivations. Commonly, tourists motivation is enlightened through
the definition of the term force that makes people to travel. This force is divided into
two groups: push factors (internal forces) and pull factors (external forces). (G. M.
S. Dann, 1981)
Crompton (1979) first wanted to induce seven socio-psychological, or push motives
(escape, self-exploratory, relaxation, prestige, regression, kinship-enhancement, and
social interaction) and two cultural, or pull motives (novelty and education). The
conceptual outline that he established would effect the selection of a destination, and
this method suggests that the destination can have some degree of influence on vacation
behavior in meeting an aroused need.(Crompton, 1979)
According to the push and pull theory, tourists are pushed by motivation into the
decision making of traveling and are pulled by destinations characteristics. The push
motivation can be explained by desire for escape, rest and relaxation, prestige, health

and fitness, adventure, social interaction, family togetherness, and excitement. In

contrast, the pull motivation is determined by destinations attraction, for instance,
beaches, national museums, or traditional culture.(Prayag & Ryan, 2011)
Other studies have relied on this framework (push and pull factors ) because are
relevant in the current trend , as they provide a framework for understanding tourist
motivations.
To go further, Brunt (2001) found six main factors that inspire people to travel to a
certain destination: physical, emotional, personal, personal development; status and
cultural. Precisely, individuals who have either one or all of those six motives would
select a destination where those motivations can be satisfy . (Brunt, 2001)
According to Brunt (2001) the physical motive can be explained by the motive for
relaxation; emotion motive might be the motive of nostalgia or longing for a certain
place or enjoy the romance, etc. Personal motivation could be the need of visiting
friends and relatives or making new friends. Personal development motive might be
the motive of increasing knowledge. Motive for status includes the desire to obtain
something such as exclusivity or fashionability. And cultural motivation might be the
motive of discovering new cultures.(Brunt, 2001)
People travel for all the six motives mentioned just to please their different needs,
which influences their selections of destination. Therefore, motivations are the factors
that affect peoples choices of destinations in different ways.(Gnoth, 1997)
People can be stimulated to do something in general or to choose a destination in
particular by their differences of needs, according to this theories. Commonly, people
who have a greater need for achievement than the need for affiliation, power, or
uniqueness usually want to separate themselves from others and possess their own
needs, goals, and desires. In other words, they have a tendency to do something
differently from others because this group of people would like to take personal
responsibility in order to obtain their own satisfaction from their achievements.

Moreover, these types of individuals like to set goals for themselves in a way that the
goals are neither so low that they can be easily achieved, or so high that they are
impossible. (Crompton, 1979)
Applied to the context of tourism, tourists who have a high need for achievement like
to exceed and thus tend to avoid both low-risk and high-risk situations, e.g. by
choosing to travel alone or with other high achievers, to new places (not perceived as
a destination with too high a crime rate). They desire frequent and specific response
concerning performance in order to enjoy the experience of making progress towards
objectives. (Pearce, 1982)
The Leisure Motivation Scale of Beard and Ragheb (1983) has been considered as the
most efficient study in the field, even if there have been many researchers and studies
of tourists motivation. These authors have developed a model called Ragheb LMS,
which classifies motivational factors in four categories, based on Maslow s
model.(Ryan & Glendon, 1998)
The Beard and Ragheb Leisure Motivation Scale has argued that there are four
motives or factors that can determine satisfaction gained from leisure pursuits. These
four

factors,

which

often

comprise

14

items,

are

intellectual,

social,

mastery/competence, and stimulus avoidance motives.(Ryan & Glendon, 1998)

The intellectual motive, according to Beard and Ragheb (1983), assesses the extent to
which individuals are motivated to engage in leisure activities which involve mental
activities such as learning, exploring, discovering, thought or imagining . This implies
that intellectual factor would hint individuals to emerge in leisure activities which they
think would increase their knowledge. Secondly, the social component assesses the
extent to which individuals engage in leisure activities for social reasons. This
component includes two basic needs, the need for friendship and interpersonal
relationships, while the second is the need for the esteem of others. This refers to
social motive stimulates individuals participate in activities that would satisfy their

needs of belongings, ego and respect from others.(Maslow, 1987; Ryan & Glendon,
1998).
The third motive, the competence/mastery motive would stimulate individuals to seek
to achieve, master, challenge, and compete themselves. Finally, the stimulus
avoidance motive assesses the drive to escape and get away from over-stimulating life
situations. It is the need for some individuals to avoid social contacts, to seek solitude
and calm conditions; and for others it is to seek to rest and to unwind themselves. This
last motive component in Beard and Ragheb Leisure Motivation Scale implies the fact
that some people want to escape their daily life to obtain something new and allow
themselves to rest.(Ryan & Glendon, 1998)
The study conducted by Jacobsen , Skogheim and Dann (2014) demonstrates that
tourists have a interest in pleasant weather conditions and majority of them give
importance on sociability, relaxation, and beach life along with cultural sightseeing and
landscape experience motivations.(Jacobsen, Skogheim, & Dann, 2014)
According to Jacobsen, Skogheim and Dann (2014) article, after an exploratory factor
analysis, it was founded a five-factor explanation recounting the main designs of
tourist motivation(Jacobsen et al., 2014) :
Place experience and cultural sightseeing;
Nightlife and compatriot encounters ;
Socializing with travel companions;
Shopping and dining out ;
Beach life.
Philip Kotler believes that factors that influence consumer behavior and whose action
can be independent or combined can be grouped as follows(Kotler, 1991) :
psychological factors, intrinsic to the tourist, such as motivation, perception,
learning, beliefs and attitudes;

 personal factors: personality, self image, wealth, lifestyle, occupation, age;

cultural factors: the system of norms and values that influence an individual's
way of behaving in society;
social factors: family, social classes and groups, opinion leaders.
Pearce (1988) presents a hierarchy of travel motives based on Maslows theory of
motivation combined with the idea of a career ladder . The career ladder emphasizes
that people have a range of motives for seeking out holiday experiences. The travel
career ladder with its different levels allows for many motives, it is dynamic and to
sum up it covers the seven requirements presented before. On the other hand analyzing
the different levels, especially the relationship needs, self-esteem/development needs,
and fulfillment needs presents possible clues to understand the motivation of nature
tourism. (Pearce, 1982)
For example, by comparing the needs labelled in diverse levels of the career ladder
such as need for achievement and then consider tourism activities like hiking,
tramping and mountaineering where the tourist proves its competence and if successful
achieves a goal. (Crompton, 1979)
Another comparison can be drawn from the selfesteem needs level. The need for
mastery, control and competence can be a motivation for a tourism activity such as
scuba diving. Where mastery is required to undergo the activity successfully and safely,
as well as competence, and control is basic in case of extreme scenarios underwater
conditions.(Gnoth, 1997)
Conclusion
The study on tourist motivation is a powerful instrument in the hands of tourism
practitioners. In response to changes in time, companies that sell travel products can
make decisions regarding the holiday offer in the coming years, they also may decide
to introduce new, innovative products, they may withdraw or reduce the number of
those products for which there is a declined demand.

By knowing the motives that make the tourist to opt for a holiday, local management
can take measures to encourage certain forms of tourism and to increase the number of
tourists in their area. Also, by knowing tourists wishes and needs, they can prepare
themselves to provide additional services that will increase revenue from tourism and
help the local economy as a whole.
In conclusion we can say that a proper revision of travel motivation theories can help
us understand what motivation is, and what elements must be considered to understand
it, and then interpret the different findings to understand the motivation of a certain
type of tourist. One important consideration is that when investigating what motivates
a person to travel in a certain type of way we must concentrate on finding the intrinsic
motivation while not distracting our attention to the pull factors of a specific
destination.

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