MOTIVATION AND ANTICIPATION IN POSTINDUSTRIAL TOURISM

This paper examines tourist motivation and anticipation as interrelated phenomena in a conceptual tourist cycle framework where anticipation comes first. Key points of motivation are discussed, methodological difficulties are explained, and a suggestion is put for-ward that a motivational study should have ordinary or everyday life as its starting point. The macro- and micro-sociological characteristics of post-industrial societies that influence tourism are outlined, with particular reference to Western Europe. It is argued that there now exists a 'tourist culture' in which the cognitive and affective aspects of motivation and anticipation are deeply rooted, and an attempt should be made to understand the consequences of this cognitive revolution.