Travel Motivation of Muslim Tourists Are They Really Different?

In this chapter the researchers seek to benchmark holiday travel motivation of Muslim tourists against Western and Asian groups. The Travel Career Pattern (TCP) model was used as the framework for the study. In the TCP approach, three layers of importance among travel motivations are specified: the core, the middle layer, and the outer layer. By selecting a suite of seven cases with large samples, the researchers identified some similarities and differences in holiday (not pilgrimage based) travel motivation between the Muslim traveller group and the Western and Asian samples. Although novelty, escape and relaxation are viewed as important core travel motives for all groups of travellers, Muslims especially emphasise the value of (strengthening) relationships while adding the value of seeing nature as a core travel driver. Muslim travellers, compared to other groups, also highlight stimulation in the middle layer and nostalgia in the outer layer of travel motives. Taken together, these results confirm the perspective that understanding Muslim tourists is about more than specifying needs for halal food and prayer rooms but can be built on recognising strong and distinctive emphases in their motivational profile