Destination goods as travel motives – the case of the tirol

39 Tourism Review, Vol 62, No 3+4/2007

A. Zehrer, H. Siller: Destination Goods as Travel Motives – The Case of the Tirol

The concept of motivational research was de￾veloped during the Post-World War II era and

argued that the consumer’s reason for pur￾chasing a product was sometimes unknown

to himself. Especially in the 50s and 60s, mo￾tive research received big attention for ex￾plaining consumer behaviour. “The field of

motivation seeks to explain why behaviour

occurs. The term ‘motivation’ itself is derived

from the Latin verb ‘movere’, meaning ‘to

move’. Basically, then, motivation refers to

the processes that move a person to behave in

certain ways. Motivation deals with how be￾haviour gets started, is energized, is sus￾tained, is directed, and is stopped” (Wilkie,

1994, p. 123). Motives are a hypothetic con￾struct to explain the inner drive of an indi￾vidual, i.e. the reasons for his behaviour. The

construct attempts to answer the ‘why’ of a

certain action or activity (Foxall, 1980). A

motive therefore is a reason for behaviour,

and motivation is the interaction of all mo￾tives in a concrete situation (Hanna and Woz￾niak, 2001; Schuster, 1988). Motives are

strongly related to emotional processes and

can be characterized as follows: (1) For that

motives may exert influence, they must be ac￾tivated like emotions and cognitions. (2) Mo￾tives have emotional and cognitive compo￾nents. While emotions are triggering acting

processes, knowledge is the basis for goal-ori￾ented action. (3) Motives are not consciously

perceived, but can be realized through think￾ing or questioning (Trommsdorff, 1989).

Expectations are results of experiences,

and while experiences are always related to

the past, expectations are future-oriented

(Figure 1). “Expectations are based on the

customer’s past [travel] experiences, the

opinions of friends and associates, and

marketer and competitor information and

promises” (Kotler et al., 1996, p. 345). The

main task of motivation is to ‘govern’ be￾haviour; motivation leads behaviour into a

certain direction, which is in general posi￾tive for the individual (Blackwell et al.

Dr Anita Zehrer

School of Tourism and Leisure

Management Center Innsbruck (MCI)

University of Applied Sciences

Weiherburggasse 8

6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Phone: +43-512-2070-3332

Fax: +43-512-2070-3399

E-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Hubert Siller

School of Tourism and Leisure

Management Center Innsbruck (MCI)

University of Applied Sciences

Weiherburggasse 8

6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Phone: +43-512-2070-3310

Fax: +43-512-2070-3399

E-mail: [email protected]

1st submission: January 4, 2007

Accepted: August 13, 2007

Purpose – Travel motivation has received considerable attention in the tourism literature. Although

motivation is only one variable explaining tourist behaviour, it is regarded as one of the most important.

Hence, nature-based tourism resources as non-market goods or destination goods have their own eco￾nomic value, which is frequently neglected. This paper seeks to examine this issue.

Design/methodology/approach – The Delphi study among tourism experts attempts to quantify the

value and significance of nature and landscape for tourists’ travel motivation for vacations in the Tirol

at present and in the future.

Findings – The survey shows that particularly in the summer season Nature/Landscape is the most im￾portant theme for summer vacation in the Tirol today and will be even more in 2020. Therefore, it clearly

is one of the most essential travel motives in the eyes of the experts. Nature-based vacation has a strong sig￾nificance and value for the Tirol, with Nature ranging among the top three strengths in the Delphi survey.

Practical limitations/implications – The Tirol provides very good prerequisites with regard to nature

and experts see high importance in natural resources in 2020 in winter and summer alike. This indi￾cates that tourist providers have to continue producing nature-based products, offers and attractions in

order to meet the challenges of the market.

Originality/value – The current findings add to a growing body of literature on travel motivation and the

findings will enhance the understanding of the significance and value of non-market goods for travel decisions.

Keywords: Travel, Tourism, Resources, Delphi method, Austria

Paper type: Research paper

Destination Goods as Travel Motives –

The Case of the Tirol

ANITA ZEHRER & HUBERT SILLER

Abstract

1 Introduction

Tourism Review 3+4/07 20.11.2007 10:57 Uhr Seite 39