One of the primary motives that drive pleasure travel is a break from routine. This often means the need to explore new environments, and to enjoy novel situations. Beyond this primary motive, people are pushed to travel by a variety of needs and wants. The following are some common motivations for travel.
As you read through this list, consider which combinations of motivations your community could easily and effectively satisfy:
Escape from Routine and Responsibility: While a temporary change in environment characterizes all travel, people often seek changes of other kinds. These may include a change in daily routine, a change in social group, or a change in leisure or work activities.
Relaxation: In everyday life, the term relaxation usually means physical rest. In a tourism context, however, relaxation often means taking time to pursue activities of interest. For tourists, engaging in physical activities often results in mental relaxation.
Status and Prestige: Many people travel for recognition, attention, and appreciation. Certainly some destinations are more prestigious than others and will be more likely to attract those tourists for whom status is a primary motive.
Family and Friend Togetherness: Family and friend considerations are an important travel motivation. A majority of all trips are taken to visit with family and friends in their home communities. Besides these visits, many people see the opportunity to travel and vacation as a family or friend group as a way to bring members closer together.
Social Interaction: The desire to meet new people is more likely to be satisfied by people-oriented, as opposed to place-oriented trips. Meeting new people means different things to different individuals. It can mean briefly meeting people from different backgrounds (something that occurs more easily while away from home), developing permanent new friendships, or interacting with local people.
Self-Discovery: Many people find that travel experiences help them to learn more about themselves. When traveling, people have the opportunity to learn how they react to new situations such as meeting new people, overcoming hardships, and observing different cultures.
Education: A strong motive for travel is the desire to learn about a place, a historical period, or another culture. The education that travel provides is seen by many as a means for developing a well-rounded individual. For this reason, family travel is often undertaken for educational purposes (as well as the motive of family togetherness discussed earlier).
Novelty: The need for novelty refers to curiosity, adventure, and the need to experience things that are new and different. People who are driven to travel primarily by this motive rarely visit the same destination twice. While this market may not yield a high degree of return visitation to a destination, its members are likely to spend sufficient time and money to thoroughly explore all that it has to offer.
Cultural Motives: This can also relate to education and novelty experiences. Exposure to culturally significant destinations and or events can be a way for travelers to experience cultures they cannot do so currently.
In addition to these motivations for travel, there are numerous other factors influencing a tourist's decision making process. What is important for tourism planners to remember is that although consumer behavior in the travel industry is indeed very complex, one should always seek to learn more about it and to better understand the visitor.
