Motivation for birding tourism and its relationship with travel and twitching behaviour

Birding (birdwatching) is a fast-growing leisure activity that, when involving travel, becomes avitourism. This study develops and validates a comprehensive motivation scale for avitourism by integrating existing birding motivation research with tourism motivation frameworks, especially novelty seeking and learning. We developed a 39-item motivation scale (refined to 34 items) and collected data via an online survey (405 Chinese birders). Eight motivational factors could be identified by exploratory factor analysis: Achievement, Learning/Novelty, Conservation, Social, Detachment, Reputation, Enjoyment and Travel/Novelty. A cluster analysis revealed three clusters: highly motivated birders showed strong expressions across all factors and showed frequent long-distance trips and twitching. Moderately motivated birders emphasize learning and enjoyment, while the least motivated scored low on social/reputation and showed less travel engagement. In general, birders with long-distance birding trips are strongly linked to novelty, while twitching (chasing rare species) relates to most of the motivations except conservation and detachment. The scale offers a reliable tool for future research and can extend to other wildlife tourism contexts. Tourism strategies could be tailored to achievement-focused birders highlighting rare/unique species. For more socially motivated birders, group tours and communal activities should be promoted, while for learning-focused birders, education and interpretation should be included in experiences.