Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
society and transport have been analysed separately. However, their joint
analysis sheds new light on both social structure and mobility.
Finally, the chapter explores experiential perspectives of consumption.
This analysis focuses not on what motivates travel, but on how it is experi-
enced. This links to work on the relationship between identity and
consumption that considers how tourism travel choices are a reflection of
identities which individuals wish to project.
The drivers of tourism travel and modal choice
decision-making
One driver of leisure travel is the obligation to meet friends, family and oth-
ers (Stradling and Anable, 2008). At one time, such obligations could be met
without the need for travel, given that most social networks were largely prox-
imate. However, with social networks increasingly spread over longer
distances (Cwerner, 2009), the obligation to travel in order to maintain impor-
tant social relationships has increased. This can be linked, in part, to the
opportunity to travel (Stradling and Anable, 2008) that has grown through
improved infrastructure and reduced travel costs. Given there are a variety of
alternatives to travel (such as telephone, email and so on), and that tourism
travel, in particular, is desirable but largely unnecessary, another key expla-
nation for travel is 'compulsion to proximity' (Cass et al, 2004, p117), a desire
for co-presence that may be an 'obligatory, appropriate or desirable' drive to
be with other people or to be in a particular place.
As for leisure travel generally, slow travel may be motivated by obliga-
tions, opportunities or inclinations (Stradling and Anable, 2008), or a
combination of these. However, slow travellers are choosing a particular way
of travelling and have expectations about that travel. This is important to the
conceptual basis of slow travel, as it may involve rejection of particular modes
of transport. Alternatively, it may be that slow travel has been embraced for
a variety of positive opportunities afforded by a given circumstance. The ingre-
dients of slow travel are set out in Chapter 4.
There is a large body of literature on the factors influencing modal choice;
it has been studied mainly as a rational choice process (Pooley and Turnbull,
2000). A wide variety of variables have been identified, such as urban form,
distance travelled, available infrastructure, relative costs, habitual behaviour,
socio-demographic variables, individual attitudes and information provision.
Most studies have focused on daily commuting, with a dominance of quanti-
tative methods (Pooley and Turnbull, 2000). However, tourism travel is
increasingly gaining attention as its impacts become more significant at both
a local and global level (Dickinson et al, 2009; Gössling, 2002).
Travel is usually modelled as a cost to be minimized (Anable and
Gatersleben, 2005), both in terms of time and financial outlay. The analysis
of travel for tourism is no exception, and research has typically employed
rational decision-making frameworks (Dickinson and Robbins, 2008; Guiver,
2007). Studies have focused on economic factors or adopted a spatial or geo-
graphic perspective (Prideaux, 2000). In many cases, transport is simply seen
