Tourism Through My Eyes

By: Jess Johnson

Divulging into the reasons why tourists are tourists and why tourists tour is an interesting conversation. People have their own religions and beliefs, but are all tourists the same? Do we all visit the same places for the same reasons? My answers to those questions are no and no. Not all tourists are the same and we don’t visit the same places for the same reasons. While we might share motivation with others, like maybe trying to escape our own reality or learn something new about a foreign culture, we tourists are not the same. Pearce’s Travel Needs Model perfectly exemplifies the differences in travel motivation across tourists.

Pearce’s Model states that “people have a range of motives for seeking out particular tourism experience” (p. 3). In other words, my family vacation to Cancun, is my mom’s way of keeping the family close while also exposing us to something new and possibly teaching us about Mexican culture (environmental tourism). My visit to Cancun ten years later may now be to understand the history of the pyramids and further educate myself on the culture of the land (historical tourism). I visited the same location but with different motivation and as a different tourist. I also had a different experience in Mexico than my brothers and my parents had. I learned differently while experiencing the same thing.

Other models, while strong in original thought, don’t cover the full span of the theory of tourism. Graburn’s model suggests that we are attempting to shift from the norm, and Iso-Ahola’s model suggests tourists find satisfaction in a trip that is neither overstimulating or boring. Both theories are correct, but Pearce’s model is more representative of a wholistic approach to the theory of tourists, while Graburn and Iso-Ahola only look at one part.