Leisure Motivation amongst Tourists

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to comparatively study the leisure motivation, stress and anxiety amongst Indian and Foreign tourists visiting the Taj Mahal and also see gender differences between these variables. Purposive sampling was done and data collected from a total of 60 tourists (30 Indians and 30 Foreigners) visiting the Taj Mahal during the hot and sultry month of July. The Leisure Motivation Scale (Beard & Ragheb, 1983) was used to measure motivation for participating in leisure activities and the Stress and Anxiety levels was measured from items taken from the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Six hypotheses were examined to test different relationships between Indian and Foreign tourists with reference to the three variables taken for this study. Gender specific relationships were also tested. The results indicate that: (1) There is no significant difference in leisure motivation scores between Foreign and Indian tourists visiting the Taj Mahal. (2) There is a significant difference in stress levels between Foreign and Indian tourists visiting the Taj Mahal. (3) There is no significant difference in anxiety levels between Foreign and Indian tourists visiting the Taj Mahal. (4) There is no significant difference in leisure motivation scores between male and female tourists visiting the Taj Mahal. (5) There is a highly significant difference in stress levels between male and female tourists visiting the Taj Mahal. (6) There is highly significant difference in anxiety levels between male and female tourists visiting the Taj Mahal.