TABLE OF CONTENTS The determinants of tourism demand are those factors at work in any society that drive and set limits to the volume of a population's demand for holiday and travel (Burkart and Medlik, 1981). The deter-minants of tourism demand explain why the population of some countries has a high propensity to participate in tourism whereas that of other countries shows a low one.
These determinants should be distinguished from motivations and buyer behaviour. Burkart and Medlik describe motivations as 'the internal factors at work within individuals, expressed as the needs, wants and desires that influence tourism choices'. Marketing managers should know why and how consumers make their holiday choices, but it is also necessary to understand how internal psychological processes influence individuals in choosing between different holiday destinations and particular types of product.These processes are known within marketing as aspects of buyer behaviour (Middleton and Clarke, 2001).Here, only determinants are discussed.
Middleton summarizes the determinants under nine headings:
Economic factors
Comparative prices
Demographic factors
Geographic factors
Socio-cultural attitudes to tourism
Mobility
Government/regulatory
Media communications
Information and communication technology.
However, tourism demand is also sensitive to changes in the supply of products and the capacity of supply. As an example, owing to the excellent fast train connections the city of Lyon has become a short-break destination for Belgians.
Probably the most important group is the economic factors, and more particularly the income (or specifically the disposable income) of the population of the...
