Motivation of Tourism Participants

The paper deals with tourists' motivation and application of existing theoretical models on motivation in rural tourism. The authors examine why tourists travel and what is the main motivation in choosing their destinations. The primary drivers for travelling are needs to escape from daily routine, workplace, but also social needs such as meeting other people, experiencing something unique or unusual. The Maslow's 5-stage theory on motivation to satisfy five basic human needs, extended by cognitive, aesthetic and self-actualization needs, is applied for the analysis of tourists' needs. The authors also apply other motivation models in tourism, such as Plog's psychographic or Iso Ahola's model of the social psychology of tourism. The paper brings practical examples of motivation using the Iso Ahola's model of the social psychology of tourism.