A RESEARCH ON TOURISM MOTIVATION AND THE DIFFERENCES OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN TOURISTS——A Case Study of Xi'an
GAO Jun1,2, MA Yao-feng1, WU Bi-hu1,3, KANG Xiong1,2
1. College of Tourism and Environment, Shaan'xi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China;
2. School of Management, Yulin College, Yulin 719000, China;
3. The Center for Recreation and Tourism Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Abstract This paper aims to explore the tourism motivations and the differences between domestic tourists and international tourists. The authors provide a case study of Xi'an, a famous Chinese tourism destination. The data are obtained by the method of questionnaire survey. The authors use average value analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory structural equation modeling methods. The result shows that (1) the fifteen tourism motivations is a reasonable set of variables; (2)latent variables of tourism motivations are mainly consist of four variables which are "Relaxation & Entertainment", "Social interaction & Prestige", "Knowledge acquisition", and "Stimulation & Self-actualization"; (3) the tourism motivation conceptual model of which the first order, basic variables are constituted by the fifteen variables and the second order, latent variables are formed by the four major variables is applicable to both domestic tourists and international tourists; (4) there are many differences and similarities in the tourism motivation variables average values and their discreteness, variable relationship and relation compactness both at the first-order variable level and the second-order variable level between domestic tourists and international tourists; (5) there are many differences in tourism motivation variable correlation and the strength between domestic tourists and international tourists. The authors constructs a tourism motivation concept model, revealing tourism motivations' mainly categories, strength, relationship, relation compactness and the differences between domestic tourists and international tourists of Xi'an.
2011, Vol. 26 
