Motivators and The Need For a Theory

Motivators can also be classified as :

1. Destination-related and
2. Non-destination related.

Destination-related travel motivators are those that allows a tourist to select any area/attraction where he/she would like to go. Tourist is not restricted to a specific destination or an area within a destination. A cost comparison can always be made before making a decision. On the other hand, non-destination-related factors are not directly related to a destination. The determining factor in this travel is the cause rather than the destination itself. This would include travel for business, education, visiting friends and relations (VFRA Travel), health and pilgrimage.

In his summary of the history of tourism, Professor Krapf cites a series of motivations which he considers as the determining impulses of tourism in the past and present. As the first motivating factors, Krapf mentions the exploration of the close and distant neighbourhood. If we proceed to form the fact that foreign lands and people were originally looked upon as dangerous and even hostile, it is obvious that considerable personal courage was required to visit or confront them. Only a strong man with initiative could dare to forsake the security of the family or the clan and travel to nearby or distant places.

The second motivation advanced by Krapf is divine service. Originally, this also implied an exceptional social position, for it was a prerogative reserved for priests to visit places considered as abodes of the deities, and it was only gradually that the worldly high-ranking person we able to approach them.

The same held true for the third motivation, which is participation in events of religious or secular authority. Such participation was gain reserved for the selected few, i.e. those of higher social position.

The utilization of natural medical cures or journeys to watering places, as the fourth motivating factors, is again characterized by being restricted to particular social classes, at first the nobility and later the well-to-do bourgeoisie. Here, the restriction followed from the fact of long distances and the related high costs of travel and sojourn.
The final motive force mentioned by Krapf is the enjoyment of nature which must , however, be regarded as of relatively late validity at a time when man began to take a pleasure in nature and did not look upon it as something self-evident to be taken for granted or even to some extent dangerous. It was the intellectual call for a “return to Nature” which first exercised the spell and made trips into what was now considered as “magnificent Nature” a favorite social practice. But here again the high costs resulted in this practice being restricted to the well-off, that is the higher social classes.

Some of the motivations cited in respect of modern tourism can be enumerated as follows:

1. The exploration of the close and distant neighbourhood has become travel aimed at knowing other countries, regions or people, and also travel to studies and cultural ends.
2. Divine services as a travel-motivating forces subsist in journeys to sacred religious places and in pilgrimages.
3. Participation in events of religious or secular authority manifests itself today in the form of travel to political meetings and ceremonies.
4. The utilization o natural medical cures comprise in the widest sense all travel undertaken with the object of rest and relaxation, medical care or treatment o f diseases.
5. Travel for the enjoyment of the beauties of the landscape has undergone modification both in the conception of what is beautiful and in the expression of sentiment.
6. A further motive of tourism is constituted by sports travel. This includes travel for the sake of travelling, the joy felt in motion. In fact, this is only one sports activity projected on the travel screen in addition to the numerous other motive forces connected with sports for which landscape and nature provide the setting for the best possible practice and exercise of sports.

Various reasons as to why people wish to become tourists have been considered. In considering the reasons we are thus dealing with the motivations. After examining the motivations, two broad distinguishable groups of travellers emerge. The first group consists of those who have to visit a particular place and includes businessmen and those who may be described as common-interest travellers, such as those visiting relatives and friends. The decision to travel, when and where to go, how much to spend, etc. is a great extent outside the control of this group of travellers. They are also less influenced by the price or distance factors. Particularly business travel is relatively price-inelastic and is not susceptible to price inducements. The second group consists of tourists in the pure sense who have a freedom of choice. This group decides for themselves whether they should apply a part of their leisure time to participate in tourism. They also decide for themselves where and when to go. The demand for travel for this group as compared to the demand for the former group is highly price-elastic, that is susceptible to price inducements.

The reason for travel in the case of businessmen and others in the first group are self-evident. Each may, indeed, be marginally influenced by those considerations which affect the second group, the pleasure travellers. This may be reflected in the frequency of visits or the consideration of alternatives as, for example, in the choice of venues for conventions and conferences. However, no particular problem is faced in identifying the motivations. In pleasure or holiday travel, for the other reasons are varied and not always clearly evident or easily identifiable. It may be stated that the prime motivation to engage in tourism is to be elsewhere and to escape, however temporarily from the routine of everyday life. From this basic motivation, two principal and distinct motivations may be stipulated as dominant. These have been described by Professor Gray as :

1. Wanderlust and
2. Sunlust

Wanderlust describes the desire to exchange the known for the unknown or familiar with the unfamiliar, to leave things familiar and to go and see different places, people and cultures or architecture of the past associations. This also involves seeing current fashions. Sunlust, on the other hand, generates a type of travel which depends on the existence elsewhere of better amenities and facilities for a specific purpose than are available in the home country of the traveller. It is commonly associated with such activities as sports and search for the sunshine. Wanderlust calls for facilities geared to short-stay visitors and for means of movement at the destinations. Sunlust, on the other hand, requires facilities for a longer stay and for recreation.

The Need for a Theory

Prior to the emergence of mass tourism, particularly since the First World War, the growth of tourism was the result of certain sets of influences which were observed more particularly in the Western World . As a result of the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, there emerged a large and prosperous group in the Western society. The group subsequently became richer since there was a general increase in the material wealth as industrialization grew and trade and commerce developed. The increase in industrial activity, in turn, gave rise to new settlements and towns and cities were built to accommodate the increasing number of the workforce which was engaged industries, trade, and commerce. Population came to be increasingly concerned in towns and cities. The introduction of the railway system first in England and then elsewhere in other parts of Europe and America resulted in the provision of cheap and quick means of inland travel. The steamship met the need for international travel. A number of steamship companies both in Europe and America came up resulting in the increase in international travel. To cater to needs of tourists, many big hotels, and other accommodation facilities were built. Travel came to be organized with the emergence of travel organizers, tourist literature, and certain other travel services.

The three major developments: Increase in the wealth of the industrial society, developments of the means of transport and the organization of travel were first witnessed in England and America. However, their influence soon spread across into other countries in Europe and elsewhere. The basic motives to engage in tourism, which had been apparent even much before the middle of the nineteenth century, can be said to be curiosity, seeking material gains by engaging in trade and commerce and education and health. To this, another motive “reaction” can be added, which certainly is a result of industrialization. As no scientific studies were made in that period to determine the motive for travel, it can be safely said that there could have been many more motives besides the basic motives of curiosity, trade and commerce, education and health and recreation. Motivation also includes secondary needs such as success, prestige, achievement, reorganization and socialization.

References:

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