Why People Travel

1
Chapter 1

• Why People Travel
• Objective understanding the motivations of
  travelers why they choose to go where they go.

2
Tourism Geography

• There is difference between tourism geography
  and other forms of geography.
• The interaction of traveler and the destination
  makes the difference.
• Knowledge about the psychological and
  sociological factors affecting the traveler helps
  to understand why a particular type of product is
  purchased (type of travel is chosen).

3
Understanding needs and wants

• What people are looking for when they visit
  different destinations?
• Why would a tourist choose to holiday in Florida
  rather than Spain what variables are at work
  apart from cost?
• Why would he choose to travel with British
  Airways, but not with Lufthansa?
• Why would he buy an independent inclusive tour,
  but not a group tour?

4
Need Satisfaction Theory

• All consumer purchases, including choice of
  travel destination, are made to satisfy a need of
  the consumer. The individual has a desire for
  something?????
• Do people travel just to travel?
• People do not travel just to travel. Travel fills
  some need in each consumer. Travelers needs
  differ.

5
Do we really need?

• Often people talk about what they need, say a new
  television set, a new dress, or a holiday. But do
  they really need these things? Or are they just
  expressing a desire for more?
• Due to todays increased material consumption
  patterns, it is becoming difficult to distinguish
  wants (e.g. reference group influence) from
  needs.

6
Maslows hierarchy of needs

• Self-actualization
• (e.g. self-fulfillment, etc.)
• Ego needs
• (e.g. self-respect, status, success, etc.)
• Social needs
• (e.g. affection, love, friendship, etc.)
• Safety needs
• (e.g. security, protection, etc.)
• Physiological needs
• (e.g. food, water, air, etc.)

7

• According to Maslow, the more basic needs have to
  be satisfied (satisfied according to the needs of
  our cultural group) before our interest will
  focus on higher level needs.
• However, according to Alderfer, and his ERG
  (existence, relatedness, and growth needs)
  theory, (1) more than one need may be operative
  at the same time, (2) if the satisfaction of a
  higher level need is frustrated, the desire to
  satisfy a lower level need increases.

8
Motivations of tourist

• Motivation for travel and tourism can be
  categorized as
• Physical motivations
• Cultural motivations
• Personal motivations
• Prestige and Status motivations
• (Mathieson and Wall, 1993)

9
Physical motivations

• refreshment of body and mind (rest and
  relaxation) beach holidays, lakes and
  mountains, etc.
• for health purposes (i.e. either medically
  prescribed or undertaken voluntarily) spas,
  etc.
• for participation in sports skiing, canoeing,
  safari parks, ponytrekking, etc.
• pleasure, - fun, excitement, romance and
  entertainment, to shop.

10
Cultural motivations

• curiosity about foreign countries, people and
  places
• interests in art, music, architecture, folklore
  music festivals, theatre visits, etc.
• interest in historical places (remains,
  monuments, churches)
• experiencing specific international and national
  events - Olympic Games, Oktoberfest, etc.

11
Personal motivations

• visiting relatives and friends
• meeting new people and seeking new friendships
• seeking new and different experiences in
  different environments sailing etc.
• escaping from ones own permanent social
  environment (i.e. desire for a change)
• personal excitement of traveling
• visiting places and people for spiritual reasons
  (i.e. pilgrimages)
• traveling for travels sake

12
Prestige and Status motivations

• pursuit of hobbies craft or painting holidays
  etc.
• continuation of education or learning- study
  tours etc.
• seeking of business contacts and professional
  goals fairs, etc.
• conference and meetings
• ego enhancement and sensual indulgence
• fashion

13
Factors affecting human needs

• All people may have the similar basic needs. But
  how is it that in various countries and regions,
  different needs arise, leading to different
  patterns of demand?
• Why is the American satisfied with convenience
  food, to be served quickly and accompanied by a
  glass of water, while the French consider the
  meal the most important event of the day?

14

• Factors affecting the demand for goods and
  services (as well as holidays) may be divided
  into four categories
• Cultural (culture, subculture ethnic group,
  social class)
• Social (reference groups, family, roles and
  status)
• Personal (mostly demographic variables age and
  life-cycle stage, occupation, economic situation,
  lifestyle, personality and self-concept)
• Psychological (motivation, perception, learning,
  beliefs and attitudes)

15
Cultural factors

• Culture is the most basic cause of a persons
  wants and behavior.
• Culture can be defined as the set of basic
  values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors learned
  by a member of society from family and other
  important institutions.
• Cultural influences on buying behavior may vary
  greatly from country to country e.g. Germans
  love beauty and art, appreciate their
  environment, are obsessed with physical
  well-being. As tourists, they demand
  accommodation that is clean and simple with
  private facilities, and offers fresh food with
  service in the restaurant.

16

• Social class Almost every society has some form
  of social class structure. Social class may be
  defined as the ordered divisions in a society
  whose members share similar values, interests,
  and behaviors.
• Social classes may be defined in terms of
  occupation through which 6 socio-economic
  groupings can be identified
• A higher managerial, administrative or
  professional B Middle managerial,
  administrative or professional C1 Supervisory
  or clerical, junior managerial C2 Skilled
  manual workers D Semi-skilled and unskilled
  manual workers E Pensioners, unemployed,
  casual or lowest grade workers.

17
Social factors

• A persons behavior is influenced by many small
  groups. For example,
• Peer group the group with which an individual is
  most closely associated in his or her life e.g.
  fellow students, colleagues, friends and
  relations, close neighbors.
• Reference group the group with which an
  individual would choose to associate
  himself/herself, either because he/she admires
  them or simply because he/she would like to
  emulate their lifestyle. trickle effect where
  products originally purchased by elite members of
  a society are adopted by those down the
  hierarchy, e.g. St Tropez.

18

• Family group decision making where decisions
  have to be made together, it is important to
  understand who participates in the decision and
  the degree of influence each member of the group
  exercises e.g. wife's or childrens role.

19
Personal factors

• An individuals decisions are also influenced by
  personal characteristics. Most of the information
  for this category can be gathered through
  population (demographic) statistics which include
  (1) the number of people living in a country or
  region, and (2) the component make-up of that
  population
• the proportion in different age groups
• the marital status
• the proportion of those with children
• occupation, and number unemployed
• birth rate
• disposable income

20

• Lifestyle is a persons pattern of living as
  expressed in his or her activities (work,
  hobbies, shopping, sports, social events),
  interests (food, fashion, family, recreation) and
  opinions (about themselves, social issues,
  business, products) e.g. internet behavior.
• Personality and self-concept Stanley Plog has
  found that tourists can be categorized broadly as
  either psychocentric or allocentric.
  Psychocentrics are self-inhibited, nervous and
  lack the desire for adventure, preferring
  well-packaged routine holidays in popular tourist
  destinations, mainly sea, sun and sand variety.
  Allocentrics are more outgoing, have varied
  interests and are keen to explore new places and
  find new things to do, and tend to travel
  independently.

21

• Mid-centric
• Near Near
• Psychocentric Allocentric
• Psychocentric Allocentric

22
Psychological factors

• An individuals buying choices are influenced by
  four major psychological factors motivation,
  perception, learning and beliefs and attitudes.
• The way an individual perceive his/her needs is
  built up a complex interrelationship of beliefs
  and attitudes which arise out of his/her
  knowledge and opinions.
• Individuals choose products which they perceive
  as having the best potential to satisfy their
  needs. They learn about such products partly
  through experience with the same or similar
  products in the past, and partly by seeking
  information (actively or passively).

23

• Our perception of products is highly selective.
  We tend to screen out information which is too
  simple or too familiar (boring), or too complex
  to take in. We are more receptive to information
  to which we are predisposed (ready to receive)
  e.g. we become more aware of holiday
  advertisements, when we are thinking about a
  holiday.
• Our perception of information is also biased. We
  tend to distort information to suit our own frame
  of reference.

24

• Learning theory learning describes changes in an
  individuals behavior arising from experience.
• Learning occurs through
• Needs? Drive? Action? Satisfaction? Reinforcement
  
• Our individual needs give rise to a drive which
  we take action to satisfy. If our action does
  indeed result in satisfying the need, we tend to
  repeat the experience, leading to the development
  of habit formation and customer loyalty.
• Repeat purchase of the same product leads to
  monotony and a search for a new product or brand.
  AIDA model.

25

• Beliefs through experiencing and learning (also
  from others word-of-mouth), people acquire
  beliefs and attitudes.
• Beliefs make up images that affect buying
  behavior. Beliefs may be wrong or prevent
  purchase.
• Attitudes a persons evaluations, feelings, and
  tendencies toward an object or idea.
• Attitudes put people into a frame of mind of
  liking or disliking things, of moving toward or
  away from them. They are difficult to change.

26
Decision-making for the travel purchase

• The decision making for travel purchases is
  complicated by the degree of risk. Deciding where
  to take the annual holiday involves a lot of
  money and a high degree of uncertainty.
• Risk can be reduced in several ways
• through experience (familiarity) or word of mouth
  recommendation

27

• lowering our expectation of the product (not
  suitable in travel and tourism, since consumers
  tend to idealize their major purchases)
• maximizing knowledge
• searching for familiarity (1. choosing familiar
  or closer destinations e.g. US tourists to Mexico
  or Britain Jersey a bit of France that is
  British, 2. choosing package (guided) tours, 3.
  choosing familiar organizations e.g. a Turkish
  tourist flying with the Turkish airlines).

28

• Source Mathieson, A. Wall, G. Tourism -
  economic, physical, and social impacts. Longman
  Group. Essex. (1993). pg.27.