TABLE 1.

1
PLOG’S PSYCHOCENTRIC-ALLOCENTRIC MOTIVATION MODEL

Psychocentric and Near-Psychocentric Motivations  0 ns  urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office/

■ Travel for acceptance within a social group
■ Ego enhancement and an increase in social status
■ Travel as a cultural norm, including paid vacations required by law (more common in European
countries)
■ Visits to places seen or read about in the news, especially travel news
■ Visits to amusement parks
■ Pleasure, fun, enjoyment, parties
Mid-centric Motivations
■ Rest and relaxation
■ Visiting close friends and relatives
■ Health, including a change in climate, search for sunshine, visits to spas and medical treatment
■ Change of pace or ‘escape’ for a short period of time
■ Perceived glamour or prestige of a destination
■ Appreciation of nature, including trips to national and state parks, forests, lakes, canoe trips, ocean
coasts
■ Sensual indulgence, including food (gourmet meals, buffets), comforts and luxuries for the body,
romance
■ Shopping for souvenirs, gifts, luxury and specialty products, jewelry, art, cars, antiques
■ Transportation experiences, including cruise ships, comfortable trains, buses, airplanes and cars
■ Pre- and post-travel experiences, including trip planning (anticipation, learning, dreaming) and sharing
pictures and describing the trip upon return
■ Family or personal matters
Near-Allocentric Motivations
■ Religious pilgrimage or inspiration
■ Gaming, including casinos and horse races
■ Participation in sports events and sports activities
■ Travel as a challenge or test of endurance, such as rock climbing, mountaineering, sky and underwater
diving
■ Business travel, conferences, meetings, conventions
■ Theater and special entertainment
■ Temporarily trying out a new lifestyle or home
Allocentric Motivations
■ Educational and cultural motives, including learning and appreciation; scientific or purposeful trips with
expert leaders
■ Genealogy research, study and exploration
■ Search for the exotic (from a Western perspective, major destinations include the Pacific islands,
Southeast Asia, and  st1? ns  urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags/West Africa)
■ Satisfaction from a sense freedom, including anonymity through travel; air and sea experiences; fast
trains and cars
■ Meeting people and making friendships in foreign places
■ Sharpening perspectives, such as an awakening of senses or a heighten awareness of the world

Source: Plog, S. (1987) Understanding psychographics in tourism research, In Ritchie J. and Goelder C.
(eds) Travel Tourism and Hospitality Research, New York: Wiley

A model is a simplification of reality that tries to eliminate all but the most impor-
tant factors to explain how something works. Because human behavior is so complex,
no single model will ever be able to address all of the variation in tourist motivations.
The psychographic model does not consider the fact that people travel with differ-
ent motivations on different occasions, and even at different times on a single trip.

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