Motivation for Pleasure Travel - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 205

rich catalog of the many different psychological needs and motives noted earlier in this chapter (see
Figure 9.1). The earliest version of the travel-needs ladder retained Maslow s ideas that lower levels on

the ladder have to be satis ed before the individual moves to higher levels of the ladder. In this approach,
travelers concerned with developing and extending their relationships while traveling will also have
needs in terms of safety and physiological level factors but may not yet be particularly concerned with
self-esteem and self-development needs . Recent and ongoing revisions to this model place less
emphasis on the strict hierarchy of needs and more on changing patterns of motives. Importantly, the
travel-needs ladder approach emphasizes that people have a range of motives for seeking out holiday
experiences. For example, a visitor to Canada who attends the Calgary Stampede might be motivated to
do so by the pleasant, safe setting; to entertain a child and develop family experiences of togetherness;
and to add to knowledge about Canadian culture. That is, several levels of a travel-needs pattern work
together for a rich multimotive picture of travel motivation. This flexibility and variability recognizes that
motivation may change over time and across situations so that the same individual visiting Great Britain
might emphasize cultural understanding and curiosity motives more than relationship and family-
development motives.
In the travel-needs model, destinations are seen as settings where vastly different holiday
experiences are possible. Thus, travelers

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motives in uence what they seek from a destination,
and destinations will vary in their capacity to provide a range of holiday experiences. In short, travelers
do not visit a place with standard objective destination features but instead journey to a location
where they select activities and holiday experiences from those on offer to suit their personal
psychological and motivational pro le.

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Traveling on a train with family members is a satisfying holiday experience. Copyright # 2001Amtrak.
PhotoprovidedasacourtesybyAmtrak.