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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.

Examining responses from 202 Hong Kong residents who have travel experience, this study divides the respondents’ psychographics into three types.

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.

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.

The World Islamic Tourism Mart in Malaysia has been attracting Muslim tourists from all over the world to choose Malaysia as their Islamic tourism destination. This paper aims to implement the concept of the travel career ladder (TCL) with the main purpose of the antecedents of travel motivation toward Malaysia for Islamic tourism destination (MMITD).

The theoretical model was tested using the structural equation modeling technique with partial least squares. A self-administered questionnaire was designed, distributed and collected from 180 effective participants who had visited Malaysia.

The findings revealed that the Islamic compliance with self-esteem needs, the Islamic compliance with relationship needs and the Islamic compliance with physiological needs have significant effects on Malaysia My Islamic tourism destination.

The scope of this research paper is limited to TCL including the Islamic compliance issues with self-fulfillment, self-esteem, relationship, safety and physiological needs. A small sample size was obtained with participants from the Muslim countries. A future study should be comprehensively conducted on larger and diverse sampling methods with participants from the Muslim and the non-Muslim major countries, as this paper particularly discusses the theoretical and managerial implications for the anticipated future studies.

The study yet attempts on the part of academicians in Malaysia, what travel motivational factors influence Islamic tourists to travel MMITD. Based on the previous literature and researcher’s experience, it is a new phenomenon and investigation on MMITD.

Perhaps more than any other country, the island nation of Singapore offers a bridge among cultures. Using data from multinational cohorts of international tourists studying in Singapore, this chapter reveals the travel patterns and preferences of Indian students whose tourist behaviors are less well understood. This chapter aims to identify their key motives using Pearce and Lee’s travel career pattern model. It also aims to identify the destination-based factors that attract Indian students in Singapore. The findings suggest that the students’ travel motives are linked to kinship and collectivism, and they are most concerned about price and safety when choosing destinations. This chapter reveals core motives and how the students can be welcomed in the next steps of their travel trajectory.

The purpose of this paper is to review the relevant literature on travel motivation and provides a scenario‐based discussion on the applications of travel motivation theories in the industry practice. The paper offers an invaluable practical interpretation of travel motivation and related management issues.

A comprehensive literature review on travel motivation is conducted to acknowledge the major theories. Two scenarios are presented and discussed by linking two motivation conceptual schemes, Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and Plog's allocentrism/psychocentrism model, to practical issues in travel management.

The literature review discloses that travel motivation theories have evolved over time. By linking theories to industry practice, the paper advocates that travel managers be more conscious of travelers' internal psychological needs when designing travel services/products.

This paper offers a good understanding of travel motivation by discussing theoretical applications in real‐world situations.

This paper aims to examine the differences in expenditure and satisfaction level between first-time and repeat spectators to a motor sport event, as well as differences in their intention to return and to recommend the host destination.

A structured questionnaire was developed and data were collected on-site during the 2012 Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC) in Sardinia via 210 interviews. A series of descriptive analysis, independent t-tests, chi-square tests and regression analysis were run for the purposes of the study.

Findings showed first-timers spend more and are more satisfied than repeaters, even if no significant differences were reported. Repeaters reported to be more willing to return and to recommend, with significant differences, only in the intention to return.

The study is based on a convenience sample of a relatively small size, and it might be influenced by the idiosyncratic characteristics of the location. Further, it does not consider the mediating effect that the budget of spectators and their travel/event career ladder can exert over their behaviour.

Destination marketers and event organizers need to run their marketing operations to renew their customer mix and/or to increase the standard level of quality to be delivered to repeaters. Further, their marketing and communication strategy should be personalized, and incentives should be given to encourage both groups to purchase multiple products simultaneously.

The paper adds to the growing, and often still inconsistent, research aiming to compare first-timers’ and repeat visitors’ behaviours by offering insights from the context of motor sport events, where no published paper exist so far.

The interests of outbound Chinese tourist behaviors have been of much recent research interest, yet the youth segment has received relatively little attention. By surveying young Chinese in Macao this chapter provides some glimpses into their aspirations and planning for future travel. The definition of “young” in this chapter is people aged between 18 and 35 years which is adapted from the Pacific Asia Travel Association in its “Young Tourism Professional” program. The impetus lies in the potential malleability of preferred destinations for this new generation of Chinese tourists since the precedents of the past and the limitations of language and group control over travel have weakened in the last 10 years.

The swift and wide‐ranging changes that present‐day society is undergoing are leading to an increasing personalization in consumer behaviour patterns. These are increasingly less well explained by socio‐demographic and economic criteria. This effect seems to be particularly well reflected in tourism. As one of the chief characteristics of this market is its heterogeneity, there is a need to include other variables, such as lifestyle, in order to segment it more adequately. This would permit a greater depth of knowledge of the variables influencing tourist behaviours, rendering them accessible to businesses, which could thus better satisfy tourists’ needs and wants by matching the services they offer more efficiently to them. Defines the construct “lifestyle” based on the activities, interests and opinions approach. Offers in addition certain innovations of scholarly interest, but also of practical use for business. Although this variable is not a brand‐new concept, it is still being actively researched.

The purpose of this paper is to explore domestic experiential travel by Chinese millennials, a group of consumers who will increasingly influence the global travel and tourism industry.

A qualitative research method was adopted to explore motivations and memorable experiences of Chinese millennials who successfully mountain biked the Qinghai–Tibet Highway in China.

For Chinese millennial mountain bikers in Tibet, experiential travel motivations and experiences are important. During the trip, they challenged their mental and physical abilities, enjoyed nature, bonded with friends and perceived a warm welcome by Tibetan families. This study adds to existing knowledge on experiential travel, as it was found that transformation was perceived as important outcome of the trip. Participants perceived personal change in attitude and behaviour, which will help them face everyday life challenges.

Further research could focus on gaining insight into other types of Chinese adventure tourists, on comparing wishes and demands of Chinese with other mountain bikers and on developments in transformative travel.

Adventure tourism organisations could adjust their tourism product range to cater more for Chinese millennials who aim to improve their physical and mental skills.

In-depth research into motivations and experiences of Chinese millennials is scarce. The influence of Chinese millennials on the tourism market is already large and will continue to increase.

In addition to individual differences, variations in visitors’ motivations may result from temporal variance. The leisure ladder model (LLM) is one of the most representative motivation models, which proposes patterns for an individual's temporal dynamic nature. This study attempts to examine empirically the ageing and experiential variations of the theme park visitors’ motivations, which underlie the model. Using stratified and systematic sampling techniques, survey data were collected from visitors to four leading theme parks in Taiwan – an Asian island nation. Limited support for the ageing variation was found and its changing pattern was also recognized in this study. A relatively more discriminating scale to measure the extent of visitor's experience was also suggested.