Journey of the pleasure seekers: a comparative analysis of hedonic travel motives and behaviour in night-life resorts

The academic discourse on hedonism as a feature of travel motivation has largely focussed upon deviance and hedonistic egoism (Wickens, 2002; Currie, 1997 and Bellis and Hale, 2000) where hedonism is equated with overindulgence and moral decay (Veenhoven, 2003). Attention is given to the marketing implications for the supply of tourism and the societal impacts when problematic relations with the host community arise (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007). The notion of ethical hedonism, however, which is less widely supported, takes a less critical view and views hedonism as natural and healthy (Veenhoven, 2003) whereby people have the right to pursue pleasure as a way of life without harming themselves or others (Onfray, 2007). Advocates of hedonism offer that pleasurable experiences lead to stress reduction and health preservation (Warburton, 1996). It is regarded that hedonic travel motives most occur within the youth market (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007; Tutenges, 2012), however Goulding's research on lived nightlife experiences (2004) notes a rise in 'cognitively young thirty-something’s' as an under-researched, hidden sector, where attitudes to leisure are changing, disposable incomes are high and the quest to maximise net pleasure is strong. Whilst the impact of cognitive age and travel experiences receives some attention in respect of seniors (Iyer et al, 2008; Sellick and Cleaver, 2004; Le Serre et al, 2013; Gonzalez et al, 2009), sparse attention is paid to the impact of cognitive age in the 30 – 40 years of age travel market