The Role Of Tourism In Human Life: Are Tourist Needs Basic, Or Higher-Order?

This article aims to determine whether tourism should currently be classified as a basic need or if it remains a higher-order need. The literature on this topic provides limited research on how tourism fits within this framework. A key contribution of this study is its consideration of challenging circumstances such as COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and inflation when assessing tourism through the lens of basic and higher-order needs. To achieve this objective, a combined theoretical and empirical approach was adopted. The study utilized research methods commonly applied in such analyses, including a critical literature review and primary data analysis using the Chi-square independence test and Classification and Regression Trees (CART). A survey was conducted among 643 Polish residents at the turn of 2022 and 2023. The findings indicate that most respondents, both those who recognize the impact of inflation and war in Ukraine and those who do not, consider tourism a basic need. Likewise, during the COVID-19 pandemic (in 2020 and 2021), both those who traveled and those who did not largely regarded tourism as an essential need, believing that, regardless of circumstances, they must travel at least once a year. The study concludes with theoretical and practical implications