The Consumption of Tourism - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 369

(Graburn, 1989: 22). Tourists are motivated, therefore, by the potentially
spiritual experience of the journey (or pilgrimage), of witnessing or gazing
upon particular attractions or sights, or the sense of 'communitas' shared
with fellow tourists in the non-ordinary tourism culture of the destination
(Sharpley, 2009c).
Other commentators focus on more specific social factors as determi-
nants of tourist motivation. Some explore the relationship between work and
leisure/tourism experiences (Ryan, 2003), whilst Moutinho (1987) refers col-
lectively to cultural and social factors, including social class, reference groups
and family roles, as dominant social influences on tourist motivation and
behaviour. These latter issues are also addressed individually by others, such
as Gitelson and Kersetter (1994), who examine the extent of the influence of
friends and relatives in tourism decision-making, and Howard and Madrigal
(1990), who consider the decision-making roles of different family members.
At the same time, other motivational studies have focused on particular des-
tinational categories (Klenesky et al. , 1993), on the measurement of tourist
motivation (Fodness, 1994) and on the motivation of specific tourist groups
(e.g. Cha et al. , 1995).
There is, then, enormous diversity in the treatment of tourist motivation.
Nevertheless, a number of factors are commonly evident. First, tourist moti-
vation is complex, dynamic and potentially determined by a variety of per-
son-specific psychological factors and extrinsic social forces. That is, a
number of different pressures and influences may shape the needs and wants
of tourists at any one time. Therefore, identifying specific or dominant deter-
minant factors may be a difficult, if not impossible, task, particularly given
the fact that tourists may be unwilling or unable to express their real travel
motives. Second, however, most commentators suggest either implicitly or
explicitly that tourists are motivated primarily by the desire to escape, by
'going away from rather than going towards something or somebody'
(Krippendorf, 1987: 29). As van Rekom (1994) suggests, 'a central need which
has been revealed time and time again in empirical research is the “escape”
notion', a view supported by Robie et al. (1993), who identify escape as one
of the three most common motivating factors in tourism.
Third, and related, tourists are motivated by the potential rewards of
participating in tourism. Such rewards may be personal, interpersonal, psy-
chological or physical and, collectively described as 'ego-enhancement', they
compensate for the deficiencies or pressures and strains of everyday life.
Finally, and again consequently, tourists' motivations are markedly self-
oriented: 'now I decide what. . .is good for me' (Krippendorf, 1987: 29). In
other words, tourism represents a form of self-reward or self-indulgence.
The implications of this in the context of tourism and development is
that it is highly unlikely that tourists will be motivated to 'work' at tourism,
or to ensure that their tourist-consumer behaviour will be directed towards
optimising the benefits of tourism to the destination. Not only are tourists