Visitor Motivations Research Articles

Mountain Areas and Visitor Usage–Motivations and Determinants of Satisfaction: The Case of Pirongia Forest Park, New Zealand

This paper reports on visitor motivations and satisfaction at Pirongia Forest Park, New Zealand. The study used a derivative of the Leisure Motivation Scale to assess motives, and a factor analysis confirmed five dimensions of ‘relaxation’, ‘social needs’, ‘a sense of belonging’, ‘mastery skills’, and ‘intellectual needs’. From the scales, five clusters were identified; ‘active social relaxers’, ‘enthusiastic visitors’, ‘nature isolates’, ‘relaxers’, and ‘reluctant visitors’. Using regression analysis, it appears that ‘pull’ factors are better predictors of overall satisfaction than motivational ‘push’ factors, but a key aspect is that among local residents who use the Park there is a high level of repeat usage. Management implications are explored.

Perception of visitors towards the role of zoos: a Malaysian perspective

Zoos have multiple roles in recreation, conservation, education and research. There is a lack of information on the motivation and expectation of local visitors who visit zoos in developing countries. A social survey was carried out to identify the perception of visitors towards the roles of three Malaysian zoos. The results indicate that visitors who go to the zoo mainly do so for recreation and they prefer to see attractive and active animals, rather than threatened and healthy animals, although the variation in the mean scores of these perceptions was minimal. The majority of respondents perceived that animals were kept mainly to attract visitors. However, most respondents were knowledgeable on issues related to conservation, education and research in zoos, and would like to see zoos move towards achieving these goals. The respondents perceived the zoos, in priority order, as places for conservation, education, research and recreation. These results may provide some guidance for local zoos in future planning, in particular in designing and improving the facilities and exhibits in order to fulfil their roles effectively.

Segmentation by visitor motivation in three Kenyan national reserves

This study addresses the needs of three national reserves in north central Kenya for developing a tourism strategy aimed at enhancing tourist opportunities at the reserves. In order to adequately address visitor needs, the reserve managers must first understand the motivations for different types of visitors. A factor-cluster approach was employed to identify visitor segment profiles based on their motivations for visiting the reserves. A principal components analysis of motivations revealed eight motivation factors, and three distinct visitor segments were identified using an ipsative clustering method. These segments included Escapists, Learners and Spiritualists. Understanding the differences in these visitor segments will help managers of the reserves better provide alternative activities and services to tourists. Management recommendations include providing scenic and expansive landscape viewing opportunities and developing a more competent and knowledgeable ranger corps capable of visitor education and outreach initiatives.

Traditional Scottish Music Events: Native Scots Attendance Motivations

Events form a key element of any destination's tourism product. There is a growing recognition of this sector's value and economic role, resulting in it becoming an industry in its own right. Investigating attendee motivations therefore becomes an increasing priority for event organizers and tourism organizations generally. Event organizers can improve the various components of their events through the understanding of attendee's motivations. The last decade has witnessed an increase in literature focusing on visitor motivations when attending events. However, there have been very few studies into visitor motivations when attending cultural events, particularly within the context of Scotland. Traditional Scottish music events are a fundamental part of Scotland's culture. This, coupled with the identification of cultural tourism as having "very good prospects" as a niche market for Scotland (www.scotexchange.net), further highlights the need for such a study. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine visitor motivations when attending traditional Scottish music events. Initially, a focus group was held to probe and discuss attendance motivations and to investigate views on the linkages between such events and the Scottish tourism industry. A questionnaire, comprising 15 motivational items represented on a 7-point Likert scale, was then distributed to members of two traditional Scottish music associations. The resulting data (based on a total sample of 110 respondents) were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. A hierarchical cluster analysis was carried out to identify groups of respondents with similar motivations when attending traditional Scottish music events. Key findings include a ranked list of visitor motivations and four discrete groups resulting from the cluster analysis. These groups were identified and labeled according to their dominant characteristics: "Modernists," "Family and Inspiration Seekers," "Social Pleasure Seekers," and "Thrill Seekers." The article expands on these key results, focusing on a discussion of the dominant characteristics within each of the four cluster groups. The article also discusses respondents' views on the linkages between traditional Scottish music events and their role within the Scottish tourism product and cultural tourism. The majority of respondents do believe there is an association between traditional Scottish music events and Scottish tourism; however, debate emerges regarding the quality and range of events available to visitors to Scotland. This exploratory study provides cultural music event organizers with a greater understanding of visitor motivations and characteristics within the context of Scotland by breaking the visitors down into distinct motivational groups. This research adds to the body of literature in the area of visitor motivations when attending events, specifically cultural and music events. This work also contributes to the body of research that has utilized cluster analysis as a segmentation tool. Further research will be recommended in relation to the cluster groups and the portfolio of events currently available as part of the Scottish tourism product.

‘Escaping to the gallery’: understanding the motivations of visitors to galleries

Abstract Whilst market research and academic studies by sociologists have identified the personal and socio‐cultural factors that influence visits to galleries, there has been less attention to the area of motivational research. Understanding motivations is important as it reveals the underlying reasons why visitors choose to participate in specific leisure activities. This paper focuses on the motivations of two groups of visitors at events at an art gallery. A pre‐tested motivational scale built around three factors, learning, social/family interaction and Escapism explained 71.5% of variance. Escapism explained 29.4% of that variance and was the core motivation. The findings of the research are important to both academics and practitioners as previously learning was thought to be the main motivation. This study should be replicated in other settings to evaluate whether gallery and museum managers need to re‐consider the purpose, content and marketing of their programmes in a post‐modern society. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Comparative Approach to Analyzing Local Expenditures and Visitor Profiles of two Wildlife Festivals

Wildlife festivals are growing in popularity and warrant additional studies of festival visitors. However, comparisons of visitor demographics, motivations, activities, and local expenditure patterns between festivals are difficult because different methods of measurement are used. By using a comparative approach, this study evaluates, with the same methods, the visitor characteristics of two similar wildlife festivals in Western Canada. While providing site-specific context, this study notes variations in total local expenditure patterns, visitor motivations, and visitor activities that result from, in part, different visitor demographics, activities offered, other attractions, and rates of overnight stays. Visitors to these festivals were slightly older and had higher educational levels than the general public, which was consistent with visitors to other wildlife festivals and ecotourists in general.

Heritage Site Management: The Link between Visitors' Pre-Visit Perceptions, Motivations and Expectations

ABSTRACT This study attempts to explore the significance of visitors' perceptions of a site relative to their own heritage as a factor in understanding tourist behavior and for the management of heritage settings. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was chosen as the focus of the current research, which is composed of two field studies. The first, relates to tourists who had already decided to visit and was conducted among people waiting in line to enter the site. The second field study, conducted at different locations in Amsterdam, referred to potential visitors (had not yet decided to visit the site). The results Indicate that the individual's perception of the site relative to his/her own heritage is a key factor in understanding both motivation to visit and expectations of the interpretation provided. Implications of the findings for researchers and practitioners are presented.

Historic Waterfronts as Tourism Precincts: An Experiential Perspective

Over the last few decades, urban waterfronts worldwide have become places of significant change. Many have essentially lost their working port functions and have been redeveloped for other purposes, often incorporating significant leisure and tourism functions. Others, however, have maintained a significant portion of their original commercial maritime activities, but have still become a focus for leisure and tourism pursuits. This paper explores two such waterfront precincts in major Australian cities: Fremantle in Perth and Williamstown in Melbourne, places with long histories in shipping but very recent histories in tourism. The focus of the paper is on understanding how tourists experience these places, and what it is about such precincts that contribute most to their touristic appeal. The basis for the research was a series of structured interviews with both domestic and international visitors to each precinct. Fifty-six individual interviews were conducted in Williamstown and 30 interviews involving 48 individuals were conducted in Fremantle. In both cases, the interviews were conducted over a two-day period. The results shed light on why and how such places appeal to tourists and also provide guidance on how to maintain their appeal. Relaxation and taking time out from the everyday city were important visitor motivations, and the waterfront setting contributed to these. Fremantle, however, provided more depth to the tourists' experiences because it offered greater opportunities to engage actively with the setting and others who occupied it, rather than simply experiencing it in a passive way as appeared to be the case in Williamstown. Significantly there was a strong feeling that the working port element was an important part of Fremantle's appeal, along with a very strong connection to history through a well-conserved physical fabric. The lack of depth in the Williamstown experience seemed to limit the visitors' ability to appreciate the precinct's history, with its most positive features relating to the pure physicality of its waterfront setting. More generally, the results provide some key insights into the functions that tourism precincts perform within the overall urban tourism experience and how significant precincts are to such experiences. They reinforce earlier findings of the previous studies conducted by the researchers that intimacy, authenticity and a strong sense of place are vital elements of the tourist experience in urban precincts, and precincts are at the core of the urban tourism experience.

The Impact of Direct Appeals on Clickstream and Response at Promotional Websites

ABSTRACT Direct appeals such as Click Here! Buy Now! are commonly used in promotional programs online. The purpose of this study is to provide a theoretical model and empirical test of how direct appeals impact the clickstream and response. An experiment was conducted using a real web promotional program. Prospects were invited to a promotional website. Direct appeals were systematically either shown or hidden. The resulting clickstream and response were recorded for tests of the hypotheses. The findings support the proposed model and show that direct appeals work by inducing a direct clickstream by heightening or changing visitor motivation to an implemental state. As a result, more responses are received via a direct rather than an indirect clickstream path.

Heritage Site Perceptions and Motivations to Visit

The present study has two main objectives: (1) to further explore the motivations of potential visitors to a heritage site, and (2) to explore whether the relationships among the tourists’ perceptions of the site relative to their own heritage are related to their motivations for the visit. The sample is composed of potential visitors to Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. The results reveal the existence of motives often ignored in previous studies, including emotional involvement and bequeathal of the site's narrative. The findings also indicate a distinct relationship between tourists’ perceptions of a site relative to their own heritage and the motivations for visiting the site. The study contributes to the understanding of tourist behaviors relative to heritage settings along with implications for the marketing of heritage settings.

Motivations of Young People for Visiting Wine Festivals

This article investigates the motivations of young visitors (35 years old and under) at two wine festivals in Texas and Indiana. Fourteen motivational items were identified in which tasting wine, being entertained, and being with friends were perceived to be important motives for young visitors. In addition, differences were compared between the young and older visitors. Young people were found to attach more importance to enjoying entertainment, finding thrills and excitement, and being with friends. Interestingly, young visitors also viewed tasting wine more importantly than their older counterparts. The findings are discussed in comparison with those of the extant literature on event motivations and young visitors to wineries. Practical implications of the study's findings are presented.

Nontraditional Activities and Interpretation at National Parks: Conflict or Coexistence?

This study examined some nontraditional uses of a national park. During 2003, a survey was conducted to determine the activities and motives of visitors at Cowpens National Battlefield (CNB) in South Carolina. A total of 301 visitor groups completed questionnaires (77.4 percent response rate). A majority of visitors (53 percent) had been to the park two or more times in the past 12 months. About 87 percent stayed one to two hours per visit. Slightly over 40 percent of respondents said that exercise was their primary reason for visitation and nearly 60 percent had participated in fitness activities on previous trips. In contrast, interpretation was mentioned only 18 percent of the time when visitors were asked what they “liked most” about CNB. Although fitness is not resource-dependent, it is consistent with “healthy” activities promoted at national parks. Perhaps interpretation can be used to merge exercise with education, thus broadening the base of support for public lands.

Sightseeing in the mansions of the dead

This paper looks at a type of tourism visit which inhabits an ambiguous and relatively unmapped territory of meaning, crossing boundaries between the conceptual domains of pilgrimage, commemoration and pleasure-seeking. These visits and activities have developed in response to traumatic histories, and also reflect the growth of secular forms of spiritual experience, in which the pursuit of revelation is personal rather than hierophantic. Sites of Holocaust memorialization raise questions of memory and forgetting, guilt and redemption, meaning and ownership, with particularly acute force. However, even these most consecrated and highly cathected sites are experienced through the mediation of mimetic forms and processes of representation which significantly re-order testimony and evidence. Furthermore, the grounding of collective memory in sacralized locations and structures tends towards the distancing, externalizing and disarming of traumatic memory. Under these conditions, visitor motivations and experiences are polysemic: fractured, ambivalent, unstable, and resistant to paradigms of either the sacred or the profane.

Conceptualising Art Exhibitions as Special Events

ABSTRACT Art galleries are increasingly staging special events as part of their programs and visitor research has shown that a result of this trend is a change in the demographics of the people who visit galleries. Audiences have become more mainstream and consequently galleries have begun to conceptualise their visitors as tourists who have specific needs and motivations. This paper explores the literature that frames, and is thus relevant to research about short-term art exhibitions. It provides an analysis of the current literature, with a particular focus on the motivations of visitors attending short-term art exhibitions. The literature supports the argument that short-term visual art exhibitions should be recognised within the scope of special cultural events.

Motivations of equestrian tourists: an analysis of the colonial cup races

While the motivations of visitors to mainstream professional sporting events have been well documented, comparatively little is known about equestrian tourists. The purpose of this study was to assess the fan motivations, sport identification and expenditures of tourists attending an annual steeplechase. The event chosen for this study was the 31st Annual Colonial Cup Races, held in South Carolina, USA. Wann and Branscombe's (1990) team identification and Wann's (1995) sport fan motivation scales were adapted for use in this study. Responses from 222 equestrian tourists were used to answer four research questions. Regardless of respondent sex, equestrian tourists were most likely to be motivated by entertainment and group affiliation needs and least likely to be motivated by escape and self-esteem needs. However, comparisons based on identification level (low, medium, high) resulted in significant differences in four of the seven motivations and on-site expenditures. Further, there was a significant positive relationship between identification level and six of the seven motives tested as well as on-site expenditures. Sport identification may prove to offer useful insight into motivations and expenditures within an equestrian context. Marketing efforts for equestrian events can be adapted to promote identification and reflect the motivations that are descriptive of this tourism niche.

Hosting a recurring mega-event: visitor raison d'être

Sports events have become ever more prominent as a tool to increase a visitor's awareness and as an attraction to a destination. This possible synergy of sport and tourism, through the use of various sports events, has become an increasing area of research. However, while research has been undertaken with one-off ‘mega’ or ‘hallmark’ events such as the Olympics or World Cup tournaments, little has focused on recurring mega-events in the same location, as tourism attractions. This research sets out to explore the profiles and visitor motivations of participants and non-participants to the Macao Grand Prix Golden Jubilee event, which has taken place each year in Macao since 1954. A recurring mega-event will have undergone a period of evolution and adaptation within its host community as a strategy of sustainability, which also raises issues such as its attractiveness, flow-on benefits, participant loyalty and repeat visitation, as well as the potential to explore newer tourist market segments. The results indicated that there are profile differences, with a degree of participant loyalty, and possibility to widen participant segments and duration in the destination. This reinforces the role and importance of an appropriate and suitable marketing and promotional strategy.

Dolphin-human Interaction: Pro-environmental Attitudes, Beliefs and Intended Behaviours and Actions of Participants in Interpretation Programs: A Pilot Study

This paper reports on a comparison of the management and interpretation practices of two differing dolphin-human interaction sites in Queensland. The major objectives of the pilot study were to compare the management and dolphin-human interaction practices and to measure the post-experience effectiveness of the interpretation programs upon self-reported pro-environmental attitudes, beliefs, intended behaviours and intended actions of participants at the two sites. A further objective was to identify which interpretation practices were most effective in enhancing the intended proenvironmental behaviours and specific actions of the participants. A questionnaire based on the pro-environmental ‘attitudes, beliefs, behaviours and actions’ (ABBA) process, as presented in the paper, was administered to participants immediately after their dolphin-human interaction experience. Overall, visitors to both sites were very satisfied with their experience, but differences occurred between sites in individual satisfaction factors, visitor motivations and the degree to which participants perceived that their intended pro-environmental behaviours and actions were affected and/or enhanced. The effects upon pro-environmental attitudes and intentions were perceived to be directly related to the quality of the interpretation program offered.

The purest of human pleasures: the characteristics and motivations of garden visitors in Great Britain

The practice of visiting gardens has received little research attention in the international tourism research literature, compared with other types of attraction. Globally, garden visiting is a widespread activity, as suggested by the existence of garden visiting schemes, the popularity of garden visiting-based holidays, and the promotion of gardens in local, regional and national tourism development strategies. Great Britain, where garden visits amount to about 16 million each year, is characterised as a nation of garden lovers, and the garden visiting sector is significant in terms of the continued growth in recorded visitor numbers since the 1970s. In an attempt to redress the paucity of research on garden visiting and to highlight the significance and complexities of the sector, the findings of a survey on garden visitors are reported. The paper presents the characteristics, behaviour and motivation of a sample of 546 visitors to 13 gardens in Great Britain. In the light of the empirical findings, a range of implications relating to demand for garden visiting is discussed.

Destination environment quality and tourists' spatial behaviour in Nigeria: a case study of third world tropical Africa

AbstractIn order to ascertain important features of tourist behaviour and destination environments that could form the basis for destination quality improvement in Nigeria, 376 tourists were randomly sampled from seven tourism destinations, using a simple rating scheme in a questionnaire survey. Results obtained showed that activities involving leisure/recreation, cultural appreciation and appreciation of nature, history and cultural artifacts were dominant experiences, values and motivation for destination visit. Results also showed variations in quality of environmental features between tourists in various destinations and between foreign and domestic tourists in their spatial behaviour, values and motivations. The study provides unique implications for tourism planning management and marketing, and a context for cross‐cultural comparison with similar western studies. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.

Segmentation of festival motivation by nationality and satisfaction

Considering the importance of festival market segmentation as valuable marketing tool for promotion and understanding segment characteristics based on motivations, this study attempted to segment festival market using a cluster analysis based on delineated motivation factors. This study also explored any potential importance of motivation clusters and visitor types as factors of influencing their overall satisfaction based on main and interaction effects. A cluster analysis identified four clustered segments for six motivation factors in which the multi-purpose seekers were found to be the most important segment. Domestic segmented clusters were found to be influenced by TV and radio, whereas foreign-segmented clusters were influenced by friends and travel agency, indicating differentiation of promotional strategies. Two-way ANOVA indicates that visitor satisfaction was influenced by motivation and type of visitors, respectively. However, visitor types did not appear to act as an interaction variable for the effect of motivation on overall satisfaction.