TOURIST MOTIVATION WITH SUN AND SAND DESTINATIONS: SATISFACTION AND THE WOM-EFFECT

To study the tourist consumption process, the present work suggests a new conceptual framework of tourist motivation. This framework for tourist motivation proposes causal relationships for important constructs in the consumption process: between motivations to travel, tourists' satisfaction, and intentions to communicate with others by word-of-mouth (WOM). A review of current tourism and marketing literature suggests two body-related dimensions (i.e., sun and warmth, fitness and health) and two mind-related dimensions (i.e., culture and nature, escapism). The study tests an instrument to measure the dimensions of tourist motivation. A research model investigates the relevant relationships among the constructs and uses a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Analysis of 1,222 outbound charter tourists from Norway tests the model. The results confirm that body and mind are useful as a framework to assess tourist motivations. People have many motives for visiting sun and sand destinations. Satisfaction was, as expected, found to impact WOM. However, only mind-related motives affect satisfaction with the destination, and tourists prefer to talk about culture and nature motivations, in particular, to others. These findings are of great importance due to the great influence of WOM in tourism marketing. The findings point to the importance of recognizing the differences in tourist motivation for traveling and what tourists are inclined to tell others when arriving back home.