Tourist motivation: an integral approach to destination choices

Purpose The purpose of this study is to discuss prevalent socio-psychological models which examine how tourists’ needs and motivations affect their destination choices by collectively considering Plog’s (1974) psychographic profiles, Cohen’s (1979) tourist typology and Peace’s (1988) travel career ladder. The current study argues that no single model can adequately explain tourists’ destination selection process as well as travel behaviors and introduces a new integrated perspective of existing psychological models. Design/methodology/approach Examining responses from 202 Hong Kong residents who have travel experience, this study divides the respondents’ psychographics into three types. Findings Using multinomial logit model (MNL) analysis, the study finds that tourists’ travel motivations and destination settings can be varied by their psychographics types. The findings also reveal that tourist’s psychographic types can be varied by demographics, travel type, frequencies, duration, purpose and destination setting. Originality/value The study provides implications for tourism marketers as well as the tourism literature by suggesting an integrative approach for a better understanding of tourist motivations.