Motivation for Pleasure Travel - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 203

Most parents are motivated to provide their children with wholesome and memorable vacation experiences.
This lakeside campsite is one popular example of where and how parents create an opportunity for lasting
memories for everyone in the family. PhotocourtesyofITStockFree.

conducted by United States and Canadian tourism authorities throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The
survey contains a list of travel philosophies (parallel to travel motives) and trip-driven attributes
(destination features). The travel motivation items are represented in bold.
Although such lists of motives and destination features mixed together are common in studies
trying to explain the appeal of places, they have some limitations. In particular, the lists may not be
comprehensive; they may re ect the biases of the researchers; they may not explore the relative
importance of the various features or reasons for visiting and incorrectly assume that all reasons are
equally important (although the data in Table 9.2 do indicate importance). Additionally, the way in
which the attributes are interrelated is not often considered. For example, the characteristics of
''

seclusion '' and '' exciting nightlife '' might be mutually exclusive.

THE NEED FOR A THEORY

This review of travel motivation has stressed that three sources of information can provide a listing of
motives concerning why people travel. The list of potential travel motivations is a long one and
includes a range of needs from excitement and arousal to self-development and personal growth.
Additionally, the brief review of contemporary market research practice concerning destination image
indicated that there were further lists of destination features that might be thought of as a mix of
travel motives and destination characteristics.
Theories or models in social science research typically summarize or reorganize knowledge in an
area. Occasionally, a theory will provide a new perspective and foster prediction or speci cations of
future directions for human action and research. The area of tourist motivation requires a theoretical
approach. The lists of motives need to be summarized, connections need to be made with other areas
of inquiry such as destination image studies, and our current understanding needs to be challenged and
enhanced. Pearce has outlined seven features that are necessary for a good theory of tourist
motivation. 12 These are listed in Table 9.3.