Travel Career Pattern Theory of Motivation

Travel career pattern is an approach to understanding the travel motives of tourists. The concept was originated from travel career ladder developed by Philip L. Pearce, which denotes five different levels of travel motivation. Travel career pattern framework comprises 14 factors that are divided into three layers: the core motives, the middle motives, and the outer motives. The core motives that include novelty-seeking, escaping/relaxing, and relationship building are viewed as very important for travelers regardless of their travel experiences and life-stages. The other motives consist of nature, self-development (host-site involvement), kinship, self-actualization, self-enhancement, stimulation, isolation, nostalgia, autonomy, social status, and romance. Various studies in different settings show that the Travel career pattern approach can be applied to a cross-cultural context. This chapter aims to explore the concept of travel career pattern and its usage. More specifically, the first aim is to address the elaboration of travel career pattern theory of motivation, while the second purpose is to depict the use of travel career pattern in tourism research