Travel Career Ladder Research Articles

Digital nomads: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

Purpose This study aims to address the need for robust conceptual foundations in the digital nomadism discourse through a systematic literature review (SLR). It delves into digital nomadism within sustainable tourism, providing valuable insights to foster community development. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a rigorous eight-step process that combines an SLR and a system dynamics approach. In the SLR phase, the authors use the theory, context, characteristics and methodology framework to identify key variables for a dynamic model of sustainable tourism through digital nomadism, following detailed search and selection criteria based on PRISMA guidelines. The second phase uses causal loop diagrams (CLDs) from the literature review to visualize relationships and inform future research directions. The CLD model is validated through literature-based and stakeholder interaction processes, focusing on the social, economic and environmental dimensions, resulting in the development of a robust conceptual model. Findings This study identified 28 theories, including agency–structure theory, travel career ladder theory, stakeholder theory and grounded theory, among others. Semi-structured interviews were the primary research method. Major themes explored encompass community interactions, work lifestyles, cultural aspects, financial considerations, infrastructure and policy. The proposed conceptual model aims to scrutinize relationships across economic, environmental and social dimensions, providing a foundation for investigating and promoting sustainable tourism. Research limitations/implications Policy implications involve refining taxation policies to maintain tax bases, promoting collaborative economic models and enforcing environmental regulations. Additionally, integrating community planning infrastructure and implementing demographic strategies to manage potential population shifts are crucial. Policies supporting education, skill transfer, health and well-being initiatives contribute significantly to fostering sustainable tourism practices and enhancing community vitality. Originality/value To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first in the digital nomadism space to propose a conceptual model for sustainable tourism adoption.

Research on Consumption Behavior Preferences of Backpackers

With the continuous improvement of China's per capita GDP, people have higher and higher requirements for the quality of life, and tourism has become a rigid demand for people's lives. As a new form of tourism in China, backpacking has been favored by people. More and more people are joining the backpacking tourism. Therefore, it is urgent to develop the backpacking tourism market. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of backpackers’ consumer behavior preferences will help promote the backpacking tourism market and even the development of the entire tourism industry. Based on the research results at home and abroad, this paper studies the backpacker's consumer behavior preferences. Taking tourism consumption behavior theory and travel career ladder theory as the theoretical basis, it deeply analyzes the behavior characteristics of backpackers in the three stages of tourism decision-making, tourism experience, and tourism feedback. According to the analysis results, some suggestions are provided for the development of the backpacking tourism market.

Slum Tourism as a Catalyst for Poverty Alleviation Among the Philippine Urban Poor: Government Policies Needed

Slum Tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism practices. Media mileage and advertising are the primary contributors in slum tourism's rapid growth in popularity and practice. As such, more discussions on this controversial practice ascended. The expanded popularity of slum tourism also fueled debates about the practice. Arguments in favor and against the practice of slum tourism ascended. The tourists, the locals, and the tour companies have their own distinct motivations in engaging in Slum Tourism. Tourists are primarily motivated by their internal motives for social interaction, exploration, curiosity, and the desire to make an impact. This paper intends to propose policy measures that would provide safety net, including standards and regulations, with respect to the practice of slum tourism in the Philippines. This study adopts three theoretical foundations: (a) Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Needs, (b) Pearce’s (1991) Travel Career Ladder, and (c) Lee’s (1966) Push and Pull Model. Strictly considering the economic, social, environmental, and legal aspects of the practice of slum tourism and as a result of the analysis derived from existing literature and the Philippine setting, the author suggests certain policy measures that will provide safety net for the local community, the tourists, and the local economy. These include; (a) Policy for the creation of a Destination Management Team for slum sites; (b) Policy for the creation of Guidelines that enumerate the Do’s and Don’ts in slum tourism; (c) Policy for data collection, monitoring, and evaluation; and (d) Creation of a Policy Framework for slum tourism.

Tourist motivation: an integral approach to destination choices

PurposeThe 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.Design/methodology/approachExamining responses from 202 Hong Kong residents who have travel experience, this study divides the respondents’ psychographics into three types.FindingsUsing 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.Originality/valueThe study provides implications for tourism marketers as well as the tourism literature by suggesting an integrative approach for a better understanding of tourist motivations.

What travel motivational factors influence Muslim tourists towards MMITD?

PurposeThe 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).Design/methodology/approachThe 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.FindingsThe 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.Research limitations/implicationsThe 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.Originality/valueThe 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.

Retirement motivation among ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ participants

‘Malaysia My Second Home’ is an international retirement migration programme aimed at attracting the lucrative retiree market to choose Malaysia as their residence. This study implemented the concept of the Travel Career Ladder (TCL) (Pearce, 1991), with a purposeful sample of 30 participants who had retired to Malaysia. Questioning was directed towards their motives for selecting Malaysia and the analysis indicated that the majority of the motivation themes clustered in the seeking of self-fulfilment needs. Among motivation themes discovered are meaningful second life, positive instant thoughts, central travel location, positive retirement book description, food variety, tranquillity and simple life, political stability and security, and ease of communication. The study also revealed a challenge in applying TCL to its findings as some motivational themes simultaneously represent various TCL hierarchies. The theoretical, marketing and managerial implications of the study are discussed.

“Touristic Fun”: Motivational Factors for Visiting Legoland Windsor Theme Park

This study revealed the motivation constructs for visiting Legoland Windsor tourist attraction. Data was collected from visiting families using semistructured interviews and nonparticipant observations. Grounded theory was employed and the construct of “fun” that emerged as the main motivator for families to visit was deconstructed into its push–pull parts using traditional and revised push–pull frameworks, and contrasted to the travel career ladder model. The study offered an insight into the notion of fun as a motivator for families to visit a theme park. More importantly, by deconstructing the notion of fun associated with family theme park, a touristic setting, this study offered a significant contribution to knowledge; it provided a theorization of the concept, “touristic fun,” previously undertheorized. It also contributed to the literature on motivation, particularly, to visiting family theme parks. The study has also several implications for the development, management, and marketing of attractions of this type.

What Drives People to Travel: Integrating the Tourist Motivation Paradigms

People's motivation to travel has long been discussed on a multidisciplinary basis characterized by three distinct motivation paradigms, namely, Plog's (1974) “travel personality,” P. L. Pearce's (1988) “travel career ladder,” and Cohen's (1972) concept of “strangeness–familiarity.” This study uncovers the underlying consistence of these paradigms by proposing an integrated motivation framework and justifies it by applying this framework to tourist behavior research. This study concludes by arguing that a comprehensive perspective should be taken for conceiving a more accurate pattern or image of tourists, in the sense that tourist behavior patterns can be interpreted on an individual level by applying the travel personality, in a diachronic dimension by the travel career ladder, and from a holistic perspective by the concept of strangeness–familiarity.

To Travel or to Compete? Motivations of Masters Swimmers

The underlying motivations behind participating in sports event such as a swim meet are complex and varied especially for adult participants. These motivations may be related to the thrill of the competition, or the excitement of traveling to a new pool or aquatic facility. Investigation of motivations behind participation can enable aquatic facility managers to create memorable experiences that boost participation and encourage repeat visitors that have social and economic benefits for the aquatic facility and event. We motivations of Masters swimmers using the Participant Motivation Questionnaire (PMQ) modified for swimmers and the Travel Career Ladder (TCL) at the 2006 USMS Short Course Championships. Descriptive and multivariate statistics revealed that Masters swimmers participated primarily for competitive reasons with travel only as a secondary motivator. Participating to be with other members of their team was revealed as another important motivation.

A Study of Female Travelers' Needs Trajectory and Family Life Cycle

ABSTRACT This study examined female travelers' needs and preferences trajectory by adopting the concepts of modernized family life cycle and the travel career ladder. The results supported the travel career ladder model to an extent, yielding four major needs, namely, relaxation, relationship, self-development, and self-esteem oriented. The patterns of female travelers' needs of the travel career ladder and travel preferences were varied across different stages of the family life cycle and employment status. The results indicated that providing total relaxation, socialization, and self-development opportunities can be examples of potential marketing communication emphases for tourism marketers targeting at female travelers.

Developing the Travel Career Approach to Tourist Motivation

The purpose of this study lies in the conceptual adjustment of the travel career ladder (TCL) approach to travel motivation. In this context, the study examined the relationship between patterns of travel motivation and travel experience. This research was conducted through two studies: an interview phase to guide the further conceptual development of the travel career approach and a major survey phase for further empirical exploration of the ideas. Overall results suggested that host-site-involvement motivation (e.g., experiencing different cultures) and nature-related motivation (e.g., being close to nature) were more important factors to the more experienced travelers, whereas motivations such as stimulation, personal development, relationship (security), self-actualization, nostalgia, romance, and recognition had a higher priority for the less experienced ones. Importantly, a core of travel motivation factors including escape, relaxation, relationship enhancement, and self-development seem to comprise the central backbone of motivation for all travelers.

The travel career ladder An Appraisal

This paper examines the state of the travel career ladder concept. It is argued that the research findings thought to support this concept are contradictory. In a sample of UK holidaymakers, it was found that while motives for taking vacations were consistent among all of the sample, those who had had a history of past tourism experience in a destination, or of similar types of holidays elsewhere, indicated a better match between wants and an ability to meet those desires. It seems that it is not a case of changing psychological needs resulting from past tourism experience as proposed by the travel career ladder model but rather a case of better meeting needs.

Korean Outbound Tourism: Pre-Visit Expectations of Australia

In this study Pearce's “Travel Career Ladder” concept was applied to a sample of South Korean tourists to examine motivations for travel to Australia as a holiday destination. Also, focus group interviews were conducted in Korea to assess visitor expectations, motivations and images of Australia. The initial findings from this study indicate that Koreans are primarily motivated to travel to Australia for the chance to experience natural environmental settings. Some aspects of Australia (e.g., Aboriginal history and culture) are little known in Korea but have the potential to attract Korean visitors. The results of this research may enable more effective marketing to Koreans by providing an insight into the most appropriate promotional content and information sources.

Backpackers in Australia:

The term backpacker is widely used in Australia to describe young budget travelers on extended holiday. However, little in-depth research has been conducted on this segment of travelers, with a resulting lack of understanding of their key characteristics and motives. The results of this nationwide study of 690 backpackers reveals that they are primarily motivated by the need for excitement/adventure and meeting local people. Factor analysis was used to examine their motives with respect to PearceÆs Travel Career Ladder, and cluster analysis revealed that not all backpacker respondents had the same motive profile. Four motive-based clusters were found; Escapers/Relaxers, Social/Excitement-Seekers, Self-Developers and Achievers. Nationality was the most pronounced difference across segments. They also differed in terms of expenditure patterns, accommodation and activity structure preferences, and destinations visited.

Mature vs. youth travelers: The Korean market

An important consideration in understanding and predicting tourist behavior concerns the underlying motivation governing the choice of tourist destinations, and the tourists” evaluation and level of satisfaction with the actual experiences (Pearce, 1991). Motivation is a fundamental element in helping to explain tourist behavior. Unfortunately, the research on motivation has only received moderate attention, both conceptually and empirically. A new theoretical framework employed in sociology and social psychology has recently been proposed by Pearce to explain tourism motivation. It is known as the “Travel Career Ladder” (TCL). This paper attempts to reveal comprehensive information on the travel motivations of Korean tourists with regards to overseas trips by employing the concepts predicated in the TCL model. The implications of this research are discussed in terms of the potential of the TCL model, and to what end it can be used to predict tourist behavior and improve the level of cross‐cultural understanding of international tourists.

Recent research in tourist behaviour

The study of tourist behaviour has become an active and significant contributor in the overall analysis of tourism. This paper considers recent research work at James Cook University, an institution whose researchers have had a long interest in tourist behaviour topics. A review of a number of recent research projects in tourist behaviour by the Australian research team is provided and the value of four integrating concepts linking this research is specified. The four concepts highlighted are the travel career ladder which is an approach to tourist motivation, cognitive steps and mindfulness, which are conceptual organisers of how people think and process information and social situations which provides an integrative view of key factors to consider when describing social behaviour. The paper concludes by highlighting some recent commentary on tourist behaviour trends by prominent tourism analysts noting that the specific stream of tourist behaviour studies reported in this article do not fully support th...