Sociology of Tourism - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 256

BARRIERS TO TRAVEL

While travel has become a popular social phenomenon, there are a number of reasons why people do
not travel extensively or do not travel at all. The reasons, products of psychological analysis, are not
meant to be ultimate answers as to why people travel where they do. We can, however, look at the
more concrete reasons why those studied did not go on a trip during a certain period of time. For most
of these studies, barriers to travel fall into six broad categories:

Consumers operate within monetary constraints, and travel must compete with other
allocations of funds. Saying that travel is too expensive is an indirect way of saying that travel is not
important, but, even allowing this interpretation, costs are a principal reason for staying home.
2. Lack of time.

1. Cost.

Many people cannot leave their businesses, jobs, or professions for vacation

purposes.
3. Health limitations. Poor health and physical limitations keep many persons at home. Also, the

fear of contracting AIDS, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), malaria, Norwalk flu, bird u,
Legionnaire

s disease, food poisoning, and so on keeps people from traveling. For many, health
has become a major tourism safety issue.
4. Family stage.

'

Parents of young children often do not travel because of family obligations and
inconveniences in traveling with children. Widows and singles sometimes do not travel because of
the lack of a traveling companion.
5. Lack of interest. Unawareness of travel destinations that would bring pleasurable satisfaction is

a major barrier.
6. Fear and safety. Things unknown are often feared, and in travel, much is often not familiar to the
would-be traveler. Wars, unrest, and negative publicity about an area will create doubt and fear in
the mind of the prospective traveler. Terrorism has reared its ugly head in the last decade and is a
deterrent to travel.

When motivation to travel is suf ciently powerful, the barriers may be overcome, but these forces
may still in uence means of travel and destinations selected.
Although travelers may be able to overcome the first four variables listed, tourism marketers need
to modify the fifth barrier lack of interest. This is a challenge for tourism marketing managers. To

illustrate just how widespread this barrier is, the following approach was taken where the cost barrier
was eliminated. The respondents were asked this incomplete sentence:

—

'' Mr. and Mrs. Brown were

offered an expense-free tour of the United States, but they didn ' t want to go because . . . '' Forty-two

t because of job
reasons, poor health, age, or responsibilities for children. However, 26 percent indicated that the
Browns did not want to go on the trip at all; they would rather stay home, or they did not like to travel,
or they were afraid to travel. It is evident that in spite of widespread desires to travel, some people
would rather stay home. For others, a weak desire to travel is compounded by nervousness or fear of
what the experience might bring. Such a reluctance to travel runs counter to the tide, but this segment
is too large a group to be overlooked. With the proper motivational tools, a signi cant percentage of
this untapped group of potential travelers might be convinced that there are places or things of
interest outside the world in which they now exist.
When analyzing some of the psychological reasons contributing to the lack of interest in travel, at
least some are related to con icts between exploration and safety needs. A person's home is safe and
is a place thoroughly known, and he or she is not required to maintain a facade there. On the other
hand, the familiarity of home can also produce boredom and the need to explore. A person is, thus,
possessed of two very strong drives, safety and exploration, and he or she needs to reduce this con ict.
One way to do this is by traveling in areas that the person knows well. He or she may go to the
same cottage at the same lake with the same people that he or she has known for years. This meets

percent of the respondents said that the Browns wanted to go on the trip but couldn '