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Motivations In International Tourism

Decent Essays

In the international tourism industry, the tourist is the consumer. An individual must be traveling outside of his or her home country for a period of time lasting less than one year (Socci, 2016). The consumer group encompasses several different segments, as tourism is not limited to leisure. Rather, there are several motivations for traveling abroad and partaking in international tourism. Motivations for traveling internationally include leisure, business, family matters, and seeking of medical treatment (2016). Recall that international tourism accounts for not only the act of traveling abroad, but also the activities of consumers within the borders of a foreign nation. Consumers who travel for different reasons consume differently. For …show more content…

If prices rise for international tourism, consumers will flock to domestic tourism. Overall, international tourism is elastic because it is a normal good and there are several substitutions. Youth tourism, however, is less elastic. Young people are less sensitive to increases in price because economic downturns encourage them to seek alternative career paths, which offsets high prices (2015).
Consumer behavior is defined as “all decisional acts performed individually or at a group level… containing decision processes that precede and influence these acts” (Marin, 2013).” There are two main types of motivation, internal and external. Consumer behavior is more predictable based on external factors, such as demographic characteristics. One can predict travel patterns based on age, gender, socioeconomic status, and other characteristics because these factors are measurable. Internal, or endogenous factors, also contribute to decision-making and behavior, but are not outwardly apparent or measurable. Marin demonstrates this through the example of farm tourism, which is travel based on agriculture or the production of agricultural goods (2013). Certain consumers are attracted to farm tourism because the “country life” is appealing (2013). Endogenous factors can be purely aesthetic, as in this example, and entirely unrelated to demographic factors. As in any market, consumers are seeking to maximize individual utility, and internal and

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