Tourists’ Motivations to Travel: a Theoretical Perspective on the Existing Literature

Abstract

Purpose -Current study is an attempt to look into the various theoretical concepts/ theories that help to understand what motivates individuals, especially young people, to travel and which are the practical implications of the analysed theories. In particular, we chose Maslow's Theory of Needs to analyse youth travel motivations. Research Design -The study draws its base from two streams of literature, one being associated with motivations and the other dealing with the question of how motivations can influence travelling patterns of an individual. The literature review was done extensively and articles published in the domain of tourist motivations and related areas were traced and reviewed. Findings -Our analysis of youth tourism centred on Maslow's hierarchy of needs and confirmed its validity as an explanation of the most important youth travellers' motivations. The results also indicate that, due to recent technological developments affecting societies and young tourists' behaviours -especially those of Millennials -new needs have emerged, which are discussed in detail.Research Limitations -The research has been carried out in light of the available literature and it fails to address empirical evidence. Also, the analysis of youth tourism needs to be extended to other motivation theories as those which are presented in this work. Keywords tourism, motivation, tourist, pull factor, push factor, destination. RESEARCH BACKGROUNDTourism is currently one of the most dynamic phenomena worldwide. The travel and tourism industry has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, with international tourist arrivals recorded as 1,235 million for 2016, thereby accounting for 3.9% of global economic growth for that year (United Nations World Tourism Organisation [UNWTO], 2016). Tourism as an activity must contend with a wide range of tourist behaviours and the internal or external forces that significantly influence these behaviours. This industry is regarded as particularly vibrant, and it includes travelling for the purposes of pleasure, relaxation, visits to friends and family, pilgrimages and other related activities. Li and Zhang (2013) and Simkova and Holzner (2014) report that individuals' travel patterns are closely related to psychological patterns, which can be used to examine the factors that motivate people to travel. Hill (1965) early on explored vacationers' motives as a response to psychosomatic exhaustion. They seek to replenish and restore their sense

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