International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research

Purpose – This study focuses on the Portuguese tourist decision process in terms of traveling to exotic places. Based on the push-pull motive model defined by Crompton in 1979, this paper seeks to propose an integrated approach to understand tourist motivations and how these contribute to the perception of a destination.

Design/methodology/approach – A structural model and a categorical principal component analysis are used to assess to what degree motivational factors may influence perceptions about a destination. The empirical study is supported through data from a sample of 1,097 individuals who travelled by plane to exotic places, during 2004.

Findings – The findings show that push and pull motivations influence the way tourists perceive the destination but the resulting image does not determined the intrinsic motivations.

Research limitations/implications – The study has the restriction of being limited to the Portuguese case. However, these findings open paths for further investigation, namely extending to other destinations and to tourists with different incentives and nationality.

Originality/value – This study contributes to the overall understanding of why tourists adopt specific behaviors. In specific, motivations and perceptions were combined in order to understand why people could be pushed to travel to exotic destinations and how they form their perceptions.