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ut nonetheless highly germane factor of word of
mouth communication at all stages of a trip,
including the ever more salient domain of pre-trip
anticipation. Such techniques can be particularly
useful in tapping the increasingly evident nostalgia
motivation in contemporary tourism, one that
is correspondingly difficult to unearth through the
traditional methods of interviewing and questionnaire
completion.
Finally, psychologists and sociologists agree that
tourist motivation, like all motivation, is a highly
subjective issue. The problem thus becomes how to
study the realm of the subjective in an objective or
dispassionate manner. For some �including constructivists
and critical theorists), this is a non-issue,
since value freedom in research is neither possible
nor desirable. For others, subjectivity is explored
not in its individuality but in its typicality. According
to this view, one is not so much concerned about
why John Doe goes on holiday as to why the type of
person John Doe represents decides to take a
vacation. Such a realisation has led to several
typologies in tourism research, and these certainly
constitute a useful starting point in understanding
the tourist. However, typologies in themselves are
heuristic, rather than explanatory, devices and
more still remains to be done at both the theoretical
and methodological level if the basic question of
why tourists travel is to be adequately answered.
References
Dann, G. �1981) `Tourist motivation: an appraisal',
Annals of Tourism Research 8: 187±219.
Parrinello, G.L. �1993) `Motivation and anticipation
in post-industrial tourism', Annals of Tourism
Research 20: 233±49.
Pearce, P. �1982) The Social Psychology of Tourist
Behaviour, Oxford: Pergamon.
Sharpley, R. �1994) Tourism, Tourists and Society,
Huntingdon: Elm Publications.
motivation, intrinsic
GRAHAM M.S. DANN, UK
Intrinsic motivation is an important concept in
social psychological theory and research on
motivation, intrinsic 395
leisure and free time behaviour, and has been
used in explanations of children's play, tourism
behaviour, leisure satisfaction, serious and
forced leisure, and leisure and health. Along with
perceived freedom, intrinsic motivation is one of
the most important psychological characteristics of
leisure. An engagement is more likely to be
experienced as leisure when it is intrinsically
motivated and the rewards for participation come
from engaging in the activity itself. When an
activity is engaged in primarily because of external
rewards or obligations, it is extrinsically motivated
and less likely to be experienced as leisure
�Neulinger 1974).
According to self-determination theory �Deci
and Ryan 1991), people are most likely to be
intrinsically motivated when they are in free choice
situations and behaviour is engaged in out of
interest. When intrinsically motivated, people seek
out optimal challenges and the internal psychological
rewards are based on the innate needs of
competence, self-determination and relatedness.
Relatedness refers to the need to feel loved and
connected to others. In addition to rewards,
extrinsic motivation to participate in an activity
can result from threats of punishment, evaluation,
deadlines, obligations and imposed goals. Research
suggests that if an originally intrinsically motivated
activity is then extrinsically rewarded or regulated,
the overjustification effect can occur. When people
are rewarded or obligated to travel, play games or
volunteer, their behaviour can become overjustified.
In other words, they may begin to attribute
their involvement to extrinsic motives and lose
interest in the activity other than for the reward.
Extrinsic rewards do not always lead to an
overjustification effect. If a person is not intrinsically
motivated to start with, then a reward cannot
hurt because the behaviour could not become
overjustified. Further, if receiving a reward is not
dependent on participating in an activity, then
participation is likely to be experienced as selfdetermined
and the reward perceived as a bonus
rather than as a bribe. For example, people can
experience their work as intrinsically motivating,
and activities that involve rewards, obligations and
commitments at times can be experienced as
leisure.