Investigating seeking and escaping aspects of tourists' motivations and specific barriers of travel: A study of two national park sites.

摘要

As the United States' population becomes more diverse, destination managers are concerned about how to attract more diverse visitors. Tourists' motivations and barriers influence travelers' destination choice. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate motivations and barriers of travelers with different demographic characteristics.; A questionnaire was developed that included motivation statements, barriers to travel and demographic items. Iso-Ahola's Social Psychological Model of Tourism Motivation (SPMTM) was used as a framework for the investigation of tourists' motivations. Respondents also were asked about their barriers to visiting Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (TPNP) and Nicodemus National Historic Site (NNHS). A mail survey was administered to 1,000 Kansas residents.; A factor analysis of the motivation items resulted in a six-factor solution; all of which could be categorized into seeking or escaping dimensions. The factor 'Seek entertainment/fun' had the highest mean score among respondents, followed by 'Seek family time' and 'Escape crowds'. The Mann-Whitney U test, T-test, and ANOVAs were used to evaluate if there were differences between and among demographic characteristics on the six motivational factors. Significant differences were found, including Non-Caucasians, females, and younger aged respondents tended to rate the seeking motivational factors higher.; Factor analysis of the barriers resulted in two different four-factor solutions for the two sites. When the TPNP barrier factor scores were compared within demographic categories; the Non-Caucasians, females, younger age groups, and less educated rated 'Awareness level' as a more significant barrier. Factor scores of the NNHS barriers also were compared between Non-Caucasians and Caucasians, and there were no significant differences between the groups on the four barrier factors. However, because all the barrier factors' mean scores were low, they may not be seen as inhibitors for either group.; The results showed differences in motivations of seeking and escaping and barriers between the minority and majority populations. Findings may be used by destination managers to attract more diverse visitors. The results of this study also contributed to the tourism literature by providing a benchmark for future studies in which researchers can further validate or invalidate Iso-Ahola's SPMTM.