Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
identifies the following reasons commonly cited to explain why people travel to tourist
destinations for holidays, which include
• a desire to escape from a mundane environment
• the pursuit of relaxation and recuperation functions
• an opportunity for play
• the strengthening of family bonds
• prestige, since different destinations can enable one to gain social enhancement among
peers
• social interaction
• educational opportunities
• wish fulfilment
• shopping.
Plate 2.3:
Transport to connect
peripheral locations such as islands
provide a vital element in the supply
chain and an attraction and activity in
their own right.
From this list, it is evident that while all leisure involves a temporary escape of some
kind,
tourism is unique in that it involves real physical escape reflected in
travelling to one or more destination regions where the leisure experience
transpires… [thus] a holiday trip allows changes that are multi-
dimensional: place, pace, faces, lifestyle, behaviour, attitude. It allows a
person temporary withdrawal from many of the environments affecting
day to day existence.
(Leiper 1984, cited in D.G.Pearce 1995a:19)
Within most studies of tourist motivations these factors emerge in one form or another,
while researchers such as Crompton (1979) emphasise that socio-psychological motives
can be located along a continuum, Iso-Ahola (1980) theorised tourist motivation in terms
