Motivations for Travel and Tourism

Tourist motivations are the factors to make people wishing to go travel. They want to have personal fulfilment (Coltman, 1989). Crompton (cited in Van Harssel, 1994) discovered that most responders also thought that travel is like a rest and relaxation from routine. However, it did not represent changing their way of lives, people just continue to do the similar things but in a distinct surroundings and physical context. He also indicated that travel can provide for self-exploration, excitement or social interaction. They are the reasons why people travel around the world. Tourists would not learn all the things by their routines or from television and books. It is better for them to get experiences by themselves, because of unedited by anyone else. Afterwards travel can make a marked difference with routines, and it will provide exciting, uncommon or strange things to tourist. Furthermore, the high-tech world increases social lives. For example, people will go to the movies, shopping malls or concerts with friends and colleagues. Different gender, age, social class, retirement, unemployment, social relationships, characters and socialization can affect the decision-making of tourism (Argyle, 1996). Wahab (1975 cited in Burns, 1999) established several travel purposes, they include business tourism, health tourism, cultural tourism, sport tourism and recreational tourism. It can be easy to understand that what people generally travel for. The major reasons of travel are freedom and entertainment which can be defined as pleasure travel (Argyle, 1996). Tourists expect and believe that going on a vacation can partly or fully different needs and wants (Mill and Morrison, 2002). Ryan (1991 cited in Burns, 1999) stated some types of motivation and they are determinants of people who go travelling. Tourist motivations include escape, relaxation, strengthening family togetherness, wish and self-fulfilment, prestige, shopping, social interaction and sexual opportunity. In addition, tourists are also motivated to travel by other factors. For instant, television can attract people to travel in new destinations and experience different cultures (Van Harssel, 1994). Tourists hope to experience various cultures and meet new people over the world because of the curiosity. It is the primary motivation of all visitors (Hudman and Hawkins, 1989). Credit cards are getting common among the world, so it is convenient for tourists to travel around without cash or just with a little cash. Basically, they tend to pay for the accommodation and recreation by credit cards. Additionally, well-educated can increase and stimulate people to go on a vacations, because education excite the curiosity of people. They hope to widen and enrich knowledge as well (Van Harssel, 1994).

The most famous theory to describe motivation is Maslow’s needs hierarchy. Maslow used hierarchy to illustrate human needs as stimulators. There are 5 level hierarchy, including self-actualization, esteem, belonging, security and physiological needs. Subsequently, he added cognitive and aesthetic needs. However, it is not very clear to show that how these two needs fit into the former hierarchy. Human will not be motivated if the lowest needs, which is physiological needs, are satisfied. Next, they will be motivated by following needs, the security needs. Different needs are satisfied such and such (Ross, 1994). However, Page, 2003 argued that Maslow hierarchy model is not faultless, because people do not satisfy their needs hierarchically. Besides, some needs probably emerge at the same time. Nevertheless, the hierarchy model really highlights individual development needs. It also describes that human exert themselves for personal growth. In order to explain the motivations further (Nickerson, 1996), many scholars have developed Maslow’s work since 1950’s. Thus, the needs of people to go travelling can be considered from push and pull factors as well (Lundberg, 1990). Epperson (1983, cited in Lundberg, 1990) indicated that push factors are much more about internal, the personal desires. They motivate people to seek and go on a vacation (Page 2003). They are intended to satisfy different psychological needs (Dann, 1977 cited in Mill and Morrison, 2002). Epperson listed six push motives, such as, escape, self-discovery, relaxation, prestige, challenge and adventure. The push factors of Mainland Chinese tourists are erudition, fame, and having good personal relationship. Therefore, they travel in Hong Kong because of friendly, modern and convenient place for shopping and vacation (Liu et al, 2008). In contrast, pull factors are external elements to the people. They act like stimulators attracting people to travel, such as, advertisement of resorts (Page 2003). It is about the advantages of the certain destinations. They are stunning views, historical places, cultural and sporting events (Liu et al, 2008). Participating or watching sports also motivated people to travel (Hudman and Hawkins, 1989). Accessibility, high-tech impression and consumption are the important pull factors of Mainland Chinese. For these reasons Hong Kong is very successful in fashion retail, so it attracts plenty of Mainland Chinese tourists (Liu et al, 2008). Finding out the importance of push and pull factors, it needs the five main market segments. They are lone tourists, families, couples, friends, and tour groups. For example, escape element is mutually related to lone tourists and couples, these tourists less prefer togetherness. By contrast, Prestige is very important for people who travelling with friends, families and tour groups (Jamrozy, 1992 cited in Mill and Morrison, 2002).

Normally, some destinations have been successful in tourism industry, because they understand the tourist motivation very well. They know how to attract tourist visiting their places (Page, 2003). Certainly, overarching tourists are in the world (Burns, 1999). Stanley Plog announced a famous model of tourist type. It is for classify people into psychographic and allocentrics by visitor characteristic. Psychometrics tourists’ travel purpose is relaxation, so they prefer to do the general activities in familiar destinations. The journey is prearranged. Besides, they do not want any foreign environment or atmosphere. On the other hand, allocentrics people are extroverted, self-confident and willing to meet new people. They are also curious about new experiences, so they generally travel in undeveloped destinations. The schedule is expected to arrange by themselves rather than travel agencies. Thus, it will be more flexible and unrestrained (Nikerson, 1996). Nevertheless, there are some people who do not desire to go travelling, because they think that it is safer or more comfortable to stay in their hometowns. However, if people like travelling, the motivations can be divided into two determinants, they are related to destination and non-related to destination. Travel for business, education, health, religion and visiting friends and relatives provide a few or no choices of going other destinations for instead (Coltman, 1989). Many tourists from Taiwan, the United States and South and Southeast Asia travel in Hong Kong for business. It can show that Hong Kong is an evident and important business hub (Kwong, 1997). People travel abroad because of religion as well, such as pilgrimages, going to historical places, religious bases or religious activities. The most important motivation of travelling among this kind of tourists is visiting the bases. For example, Jews go to Israel. Additionally, visiting historical places and attending religious musical and dramas are propagating the certain faith. These activities can make the tourists adhering to a faith (Hudman and Hawkins, 1989). One of a good example is people travelling for visiting friends and relatives. It is often more important than visiting destinations (Coltman, 1989). In addition, tourists visit their hometown is one of the big motivator (Hudman and Hawkins, 1989). Travel is related to destinations, the motives can be full of curiosity about other culture, detonations, local people and politics (Coltman, 1989). Hall and Page, 2002 stated that all tourism researchers also have a consistent question, why tourists travel. It is a very important to know because everyone also has their own reason. Most people can select regions they like to travel to. For hosts, understanding travel motivations can target potential tourists, serve them and satisfy their needs and wants (Mill and Morrison, 2002). There are various tourism demands around the world. Some countries have always been a popular travel destination, and others are still in development. Every countries and regions also have their own charisma to attract tourists to travel there (Swarbrooke & Horner, 2004). People probably have many reasons to travel in a destination, They even prefer to choose a holiday type (Burns, 1999). It is about motivation which is essential part of consumer behaviour in tourism industry, because motivation is strong related to psychological wishes and needs (Page and Connell, 2006). It is very useful to use motivations and behaviour to classify tourists (Nickerson, 1996). Tourists will choose a destination because of the friendly local people or relaxing environment. The place is always wanted to visit, or some friends suggest the place highly, or the weather is great all the time and the scenery is attractive. Other ordinary factors will be concerned before people plan to go on a trip, such as, recreation, level of interest in history and culture of the place, shopping places, beautiful landscape, hygiene of the destination, ideal weather and cost (Lundberg, 1990 and Holloway, 2002). For instance, the travel purpose of the visitors from Europe, the Middle East and Africa is recreation. The shopping facilities and special features attract them to travel in Hon g Kong (Kwong, 1997).

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Actually, motivation is also about different behaviour of everyone (Argyle, 1996). The people, who like to travel around, are also divided into two categories. Some of them prefer having quite journey (Lundberg, 1990). Those people want to get away from the workplace since they always have a stressful lifestyle. They prefer to go to a new place for relaxing and forgetting all pressures (Holloway, 2002). On the contrary, others wish to seek adventure (Lundberg, 1990), but it does not mean standing same pace of workday life. This kind of tourists’ motivation can be defined as “getting away from” instead of “going towards” somebody and something. Going away everyday environment is more important than the interest of visiting new people and regions. (Krippendorf, 2002). It is also important to look at surface factors for understanding the travel reasons of tourists (Nickerson, 1996). McIntosh and Goeldner (1990, cited in Nickerson, 1996) stated that there were 4 kinds of motivators for basic travel. They included status and prestige, physical, interpersonal and cultural motivators. Firstly, status and prestige motivators are about the need for fame. Besides, people think that travel can secure admiration and recognition among their peers and friends. Secondly, physical motivators concern with health. Tourists may participate in sports event and take some recreation, and these actions are the motivators of keeping one’s health. Getting treatment, medical care and attending weight loss camp are related to remedial health motivators. Next, people want to make new friends, leave or visit friends and family, they are also defined as interpersonal motivators. Lastly, cultural motivators describe tourists have ardent curiosity and want to experience other cultures and lifestyle (Nickerson, 1996). Facilitators are also very important for tourists, such as, disposable income, low local currency rate, conveniently accessible places, friendly locals and easy entry requirement. They all can stimulate tourists to visit certain destinations (Holloway, 2002). However, some people are not able to choose their favourite travel destination due to the limited money and time (Argyle, 1996). They usually compare with different destinations which is the most reasonable price to travel. Then, they choose the most appealing places among those destinations. (Coltman, 1989). It is also important to understand the process about what tourists consume for travel experiences which is included costs of time and money (Page, 2003). Consumer behaviour is the process of the people to make decisions when facing various products. They concern about selecting, buying, using and estimating the products which can be invisible and visible (Reisinger, 2009). The main point to understand motivation is more about what products tourists buy. Customers buy the products and services which based on the capacity to satisfy their needs and wants (Page and Connell, 2006). Many authors also connect tourism with consumption together (Greenwood, 1989; Burns and Holden, 1995 and Ritzer, 1998 cited in Burns, 1999). MacCannell (1976 cited in Burns, 1999) indicated that spend not only on recreation and tangible goods, but also on the local cultures that the countries they travel to.

There are various kinds of tourists in the world. They can be categorised by demographic, social, economic, cultural, geographic, psychographic and behavioural. Every kind of tourist also has various needs, behaviour and favourites (Reisinger, 2009). It is usually defined as overnight and same day visitors, such as excursionists. Obviously, excursionists will not seek any accommodation, but they still need to use other transportation and infrastructure (Burns, 1999). Two exactly the same people cannot be found. Additionally, different expectation and viewpoints also can affect decision-making of travel destinations (Page, 2003). Mill and Morrison, 2002 indicated that if children can have opportunity in holiday decision making process, it can further the possibility of the children who are satisfied the holiday choice. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can figure tourist motives out (Pearce, 1993 cited in Page, 2003). Intrinsic motivation is about individual needs to encourage themselves going travel. For example, tourists travel for self-improvement or self-realization. It can make them to have happiness, fulfilment and ego-enhancement. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is about surrounding factors which affect tourist’s attitudes, perceptions and preferences. For example, the tourism in the former Soviet Union, people sent labourers going on a vacation. Then, they would be refreshed and put in more efforts to work (Page, 2003). Erik Cohen announced a very famous tourism typology. He indicated that each kind of tourists interact with different destinations. It also can describe tourists’ behaviours and extent motivations. He separated into four types of tourists, such as, organised mass tourist, individual mass tourist, explorer and drifter. Organised and individual mass tourists keep staying in the ‘environmental bubble’, because people avoid have any unhappy affairs. Thus, they are less in touch with locals. They will arrange their trips as earlier as possible. In contrast, explorer and drifter prefer to understand deeply local culture and interact with locals. They will not remain in the ‘environmental bubble’ (Burns, 1999).

Tourism is the only way that it can let people to get away from daily routine temporarily and spend some holidays in one or more travel destinations. A journey can be changed and planned according to one’s preference (Leiper, 1990 cited in Page, 2003).

Travel for shopping

Why do people go shopping? Mowen, 1995 stated that shopping motivation is from wish, drive or urge. People will go and shop when they are in need of something. In addition, there are a lot of shopping motivations during trips, such as low currency rate and bargain prices. Tourists also buy gifts as souvenirs of travel destinations or for steadying the relationship with people (Tasci et al, 2010). However, some people like shopping because they enjoy the purchasing process, rather than the products (Vipul and Mahendra 2009). They probably just want to escape from workday and experience other cultures (Tasci et al, 2010).

Nowadays, shopping becomes an important part in the tourism industry. It is even a main part of a journey (Holloway, 2002). Shopping in Hong Kong is the main activity for tourists (Kwong, 1997). For example, tourists’ shopping spending makes a powerful impact on Hong Kong local economy. It is still the main spending among all spending categories until 2009. The total expenditure of shopping on overnight and same-day in-town visitors were HK$82.12 billion, it was around US$10.5 (Census and Statistics Department, 2010). Moreover, Mainland Chinese tourists become the highest consumers within all markets in Hong Kong. They spend a good deal of their money on shopping (Wong et al, 2002). When certain of seasons, weeks or months are bargain sales in some countries, plenty of visitors will travel to those places (Holloway, 2002). For example, the beginning of January and July usually are the bargain sales period of most shops in Japan (Japan National Tourism Organization, 2011). In addition, innovative and well-designed shopping malls and department stores are becoming an attraction of leisure activity. These comfortable environments can attract massive tourists to spend in there and enjoy the facilities by themselves (Holloway, 2002).

Travel for business

Business Tourism is about people who go travelling for their work as the main purpose. Business travel is one of a most ancient tourism types. The famous one is “silk road” which was the main connecting route of trading silk from Asia to Europe. Today, businessmen have to travel around the world frequently due to many purposes. They have to present at the meeting, conferences, training courses, exhibitions and trade shows. The trip is significant for them because it concerns about the companies whether can be able to survive in the marketplace (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2004). The motivation of the business tourism is closely related to the companies. For this reason, they usually do not care about the cost of the trip, such as, air tickets prices. They prefer the best business deal to the negligible cost. Moreover, business tourists always consider the most convenient and fastest way to arrive the destinations, so the trustworthy and frequent transportation is very important for them. It is not only flights, but also boats and trains. Then, business tourists can finish missions on time (Holloway, 2002). Page and Connell, 2006 also states that the employees will be reward for good performance if they succeed during the trip. China business travel spent USD$140.9 billion in 2010, it was increase 16.3% in comparison with 2009. According to the current development in China, the figure was just what the country expected. More and more overseas companies also want to negotiate the business with China, because Chinese market is getting a big influence in the world. Therefore, business travel is an important activity (Global Business Travel Association, 2011).

Holloway, 2002 indicated that business tourists need to plan their journeys on the weekdays, because they hope to spend much time with their families at the weekends. It is fair enough since they are always ready whenever for the trip, even at night. They probably have a trip at short notice. The time of staying at home is getting less. In addition, business tourists have to face a lot of unexpected events, such as, delayed flights or traffic jams. They may be lonely and worried. It can be quite stressful for them (Lundberg, 1990). Therefore, some businessmen like to take their partner to the journey. They can make good use of the extra time to have a short pleasure trip. In some cases assistant is needed too if the trip is included leisure time. Owing to travel frequently, some business tourists prefer particular airlines and take advantages of the frequent flyer programmes. Further, the trip cost is usually paid by the company. Thus, they do not select direct and the cheapest itinerary for making sure to be awarded as many miles as they can (Holloway, 2002).

Travel for visiting friends and relatives

Visiting friends and families also has a history. This type of tourism trend has been pandemic from sixteenth century (Girouard, 1978). There are plenty of people migrants around the world. This permanent immigration can develop a tourism trend, visiting friends and relatives. It can provide a demand of tourism in those countries (Page and Connell, 2006). It is a good example in Guangdong Province, plenty of this kind of tourists over there. According to the history, Hong Kong was once part of Guangdong district. Thus, most ancestral homes of the residents are Guangdong. Owing to this special origin, a lot of Guangdong residents mostly have relatives and friends in Hong Kong nowadays (Tsui, 2004). Besides, there were above tens of thousands Hong Kong people migrated to overseas during 1980s to 1990s. The hot countries were The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. However, the relatives and friends of the migrants were still in Hong Kong. Both of them had to be separated for a long time and they would look forward to seeing each other. Therefore, friends and relatives would travel in those countries for visiting the migrants. (Buckley, 1997). In addition, nowadays people go and join the wedding party which is also defined as visiting friends and relatives, it is not just in an earlier stage. The transportations are becoming well developed, people can travel in other countries easily (Swarbrooke & Horner, 2004).

Travel for experiencing other cultures

Every country also has their own local culture. There are 12 cultural elements mainly, they are handicrafts, language, traditions, gastronomy, art and music, history, local work, architecture, religion educational system, dress and leisure activities. All of them can enable tourists to experience more about the local culture of the travel destinations (Mathieson and Wall, 1982). It is usually the main reason of a visitor travelling in a country (McKercher & duCriss, 2003). Tourists can have a good opportunity to deeply understand the local culture through the. For example, they can go to heritage attractions, try the local food and attend the local festival celebration during the journey (Swarbrooke & Horner, 2004). There is a Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong annually. This festival represents togetherness and harmony of each family and people eat moon-cakes with their families together (Yip, 2008). Even though it is also a Chinese Festival, Hong Kong has new ranges and varieties of moon-cakes (Tse, 2007). On the other hand, some tourists prefer to visit in a place which has similar cultural background. Tourists can communicate with the hosts easily because the language is slightly different or no discrepancy. (Reisinger, 2009). For example, Mainland Chinese frequently go travelling in Hong Kong. The cultural distance between this kind of visitors and the hosts is little or even there is not (Law et al, 2008).

Currency rate

This is a significant part in tourism industry. It deeply concerns about the customers’ consumption. Tourists will be willing to travel in that place and they will spend more if the exchange rate is low (Tribe, 2005). People will choose foreign countries if the currency rate is optimal (Greenwood, 2007). Exchange rate is big influence to the tourism industry since the total cost of the trip. It is the main factor of tourist behaviour. Tourists will decide the travel destinations, length of stay, the amount of spending, the frequency of travel time and the travel style because of the exchange rate. For example, people will stay in hostel instead of hotel if the currency rate is high. Some tourists will even change to other travel destinations where are low currency rate (Crouch, 1994). It is a big impact of short haul tourists especially, because this kind of tourists has sudden whims to go travelling. As usual, they compare prices in host countries to their hometown (Greenwood, 2007). Moreover, tourists of group tour also will think that the cost of the trip increases when they are surcharged by the travel agency. When the currency rate is in an unfavourable situation, most tourists will also believe that all tourism products are expensive. They will keep reining on their spending (Swarbrooke & Horner, 2004). However, it is relatively weak influence on business travellers because they prefer to strike bargains rather than the cost of the travel way. For example, Even though the air ticket and hotel cost are increase, they will still continue their journeys (Crouch, 1994). Greenwood, 2007 indicated that exchange rate also affect less in long haul tourists. Normally, the tourists plan their journeys beforehand. Thus, they usually less concern the currency rate and continue to visit selected travel destinations.

Government involvement

Governments contribute greatly to the tourism industry through financial support, they will initiate a lot of new projects which are planning and helping for the tourism. They need to manage and dominate the related component parts as all cost a very large amount to develop (Holloway, 2002). They act a main role in tourism industry. They can be a big help in tourism development (Lundberg, 1990). For example, Istanbul is developed to be a main shopping destination in comparison with neighbouring countries. The biggest and oldest shopping mall in the world is also located in this city. The government will hold a forty day long shopping festival from 18th March to 26th April this year. They also bring many benefits to the visitors. Tourists can enjoy tax free shopping and get discounts on various products. Moreover, a brand new car will be awarded as the big prize everyday within the event (BI-ME staff, 2011). Promoting the tourism at overseas and home is necessary, because a good advertising of the vacation spot can attract many tourists to travel there (Holloway, 2002). For instance, the responsibility of Hong Kong Tourists Association is promoting tourism industry for booming the economy in Hong Kong. It advertises Hong Kong tourism is a fusion of the Orient and the Occident, or traditions and modernism. These themes have been mentioned in a lot of booklets and tour guides (Cheung, 1999). Choi et al, 2008 stated that Hong Kong also has other favourable conditions, such as, advantage in geography, safety, convenient to travel and live and special benefits to Mainland Chinese tourists. The countries, which target tourism revenue as their primary national income, always have tourism development scheme. It is included what new manmade attractions should be built, and attracting more tourists come and spend in the country. However, then they can hurt the industry at the same time. The national leadership can produce wide influence in tourism. They will agitate local to be discrimination or ardour in visitors (Lundberg, 1990).

According to the above literature, there are various travel motivations which have reviewed. Satisfying psychological needs is the main reason. Shopping, business travel and cultural travel are the general travel types of Mainland Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong. However, everyone also has different behaviour and two same people do not exist. Therefore, two research questions should be included: is it only pull factors to make more and more Mainland Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong? Secondly, what profile of Mainland Chinese tourists travelling in Hong Kong mainly?