As the weekend approaches, you sometimes feel like getting away somewhere for no particular reason. Your repetitive routine may feel stifling, or a single photo of the sea you happened to see may stir you. So what exactly makes people travel, and why do they pick that particular place out of so many?
Tourism studies explains this question by dividing it into a force that pushes us from within and a force that beckons from outside, and this is called ‘push-pull theory.’
In this article, we will look in turn at where push-pull theory came from, what the forces that make people leave and the forces that draw them in are, and how the theory is used in tourism practice.
Understanding Push-Pull Theory
An Idea That Began in Migration Research
The push-pull idea originally came from population migration research, which sought to explain why people leave their hometowns and move elsewhere. After Ernst Ravenstein, a 19th-century geographer who worked in Britain, set out the laws of migration, the American sociologist Everett Lee in 1966 explained migration by dividing it into factors at the place of origin that push people away and factors at the destination that pull them in.
Tourism scholars noticed that this framework fits travel well, too. In 1977, Graham Dann organized the motives that move tourists around push factors, and in 1979, John Crompton interviewed actual travelers and broke down travel motives in concrete terms.
If migration means moving the base of one's life, travel means leaving for a while and coming back. But both are alike in that people move only when a reason to leave and a place they want to go line up together.
The Force That Pushes: Push Factors
Push factors are desires that arise within the traveler. Crompton listed the psychological motives that lead people to travel as follows.
(1) Escaping everyday life
The wish to step away for a while from the same places and the same work and catch one's breath.
(2) Rest and recovery
The desire to relieve physical and mental fatigue and regain energy.
(3) Getting to know oneself
The wish to reflect on oneself in an unfamiliar environment and discover a new side of oneself.
(4) Strengthening relationships
The desire to spend time with family or friends and grow closer to them.
In addition, the wish for recognition from others is also cited as an important push factor, while the curiosity to see and learn new things is a travel motive that Crompton classified separately as a cultural motive. Dann in particular held that the wish to fill the emptiness of everyday life and the wish to show oneself off are what call people to travel.
Push factors create the resolve that ‘I want to get away,’ but they do not yet decide where to go.
What is interesting is that these desires differ from person to person, and even for the same person from one period to another. An office worker who has had a busy year may look for rest first, while a student about to graduate may want new experiences and learning more. So tourism studies also examines how push factors change with a traveler's age, life stage, and past travel experience.
The Force That Beckons: Pull Factors
Pull factors are the attractions a destination has. They can be described as the force that makes someone who has decided to travel choose one place among many candidates.
- Natural attractions: The natural appeal found only there, such as the sea, mountains, hot springs, and climate.
- Cultural attractions: Ancient sites, festivals, food, and the local people's way of life.
- Facilities: Conditions that make travel convenient, such as accommodation, transportation, safety, and tourist information.
- Cost and image: Reasonable prices, along with the impression of the place pictured in people's minds.
Even with the same push factor of ‘wanting to rest,’ one person is drawn to a quiet seaside village and another to a well-equipped city hotel. In the end, a destination is chosen when the desire from within and the attractions outside match each other. That is why each destination strives to show clearly what desires it can fulfill.
Uses and Limits in Tourism Practice
Push-pull theory is widely used in tourism marketing. Regions and travel agencies first look at why people want to get away, then promote their own area's attractions that match those desires. For example, they might highlight quiet scenery and lodging for office workers who want rest, and hands-on programs for families who want to learn.
It also helps in segmenting tourists by motive. Even people who visit the same place are satisfied by different things depending on what drew them there.
However, this theory has its limits. Real travel decisions are heavily shaped by practical constraints such as time, money, health, and who to go with, and push and pull alone can hardly capture these fully. The two forces also influence each other, so a stunning photo of a destination can create a desire to travel that did not exist before.
Push-pull theory is a concept that lets us examine separately the wish to travel and the reasons for wanting to go to a particular place. Knowing it gives you a deeper understanding of why you are drawn to a destination and why tourist destinations promote themselves the way they do.
First looking into what you want when you set off: that is the first step of the wisdom to find the trip that suits you.
