GEO 106 Chapter 87-139: pg87-139
18 Jun 2018
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If one views the tourist as a consumer, then tourism demand is formulated through a
consumer decision-making process, and therefore one can discern four elements which
initiate demand:
• energisers of demand factors that promote an individual to decide on a holiday
• filterers of demand which means that even though motivation may prevail, constraints
on demand may exist in economic, sociological or psychological terms
• affecters which are factors that may heighten or suppress the energisers that promote
consumer interest or choice in tourism
• roles where the family member involved in the purchase of holiday products and the
arbiter of group decision-making on choice of destination, product, and the where,
when and how of consumption.
These factors underpin the tourist’s process of travel decision-making although it does
not explain why people choose to travel.
Plate 2.2: Largs, west Scotland.
Promenading illustrates that the
Victorian and Edwardian Sunday
constitutional walk is still a key feature
in coastal resorts for day visitors and
tourists.
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY MODEL AND TOURIST
MOTIVATION
Within the social psychology of tourism there is a growing literature which has built upon
Maslow’s work (discussed earlier in relation to recreation) to identify specific
motivations beyond the concept of needing ‘to get away from it all’ pioneered by
Grinstein (1955), while push factors motivating individuals to seek a holiday exist, and
pull factors (e.g. promotion by tourist resorts and tour operators) encourage as attractors.
Ryan’s (1991:25–9) analysis of tourist travel motivators (excluding business travel)
The demand for recreation and tourism 87
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
The geography of tourism and recreation 88
of an escape element complemented by a search component, where the tourist is seeking
something. However, Dann’s (1981) conceptualisation is probably one of the most useful
attempts to simplify the principal elements of tourist motivation into
• travel as a response to what is lacking yet desired
• destination pull in response to motivational push
• motivation as fancy
• motivation as classified purpose
• motivation typologies
• motivation and tourist experiences
• motivation as definition and meaning.
This was simplified a stage further by Mclntosh and Goeldner (1990) into
• physical motivators
• cultural motivators
• interpersonal motivators
• status and prestige motivators.
On the basis of motivation and using the type of experiences tourists seek, Cohen (1972)
distinguished between four types of travellers:
• The organised mass tourist, on a package holiday, who is highly organised. Their
contact with the host community in a destination is minimal.
• The individual mass tourist, who uses similar facilities to the organised mass tourist but
also desires to visit other sights not covered on organised tours in the destination.
• The explorers, who arrange their travel independently and who wish to experience the
social and cultural lifestyle of the destination.
• The drifter, who does not seek any contact with other tourists or their accommodation,
preferring to live with the host community (see V.L.Smith 1992).
Clearly, such a classification is fraught with problems, since it does not take into account
the increasing diversity of holidays undertaken and inconsistencies in tourist behaviour
(P.L.Pearce 1982). Other researchers suggest that one way of overcoming this difficulty
is to consider the different destinations that tourists choose to visit, and then establish a
sliding scale similar to Cohen’s (1972) typology, but which does not have such an
absolute classification.
In contrast, Plog (1974) devised a classification of the US population into
psychographic types, with travellers distributed along a continuum (see Figure 2.9) from
psychocentrism to allocentrism. The psychocentrics are the anxious, inhibited and less
adventurous travellers while at the other extreme the allocentrics are adventurous,
outgoing, seeking new experiences due to their inquisitive personalities and interest in
travel and adventure (also see Plog 2001; S.L.J.Smith 1990a, 1990b).
D.G.Pearce (1995a) highlights the spatial implications of such conceptualisations, that
each tourist type will seek different destinations which will change through time.
However, criticisms by P.L. Pearce (1993) indicate that Plog’s model is difficult to use
because it fails to distinguish between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations without
incorporating a dynamic element to encompass the changing nature of individual tourists.
The demand for recreation and tourism 89
Document Summary
These factors underpin the tourist"s process of travel decision-making although it does not explain why people choose to travel. Victorian and edwardian sunday constitutional walk is still a key feature in coastal resorts for day visitors and tourists. Within the social psychology of tourism there is a growing literature which has built upon. Maslow"s work (discussed earlier in relation to recreation) to identify specific motivations beyond the concept of needing to get away from it all" pioneered by. Grinstein (1955), while push factors motivating individuals to seek a holiday exist, and pull factors (e. g. promotion by tourist resorts and tour operators) encourage as attractors. Ryan"s (1991:25 9) analysis of tourist travel motivators (excluding business travel) 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.
