Maslow's Matrix model - Classification of tourists

The state of mind of tourist influences them to travel and visit new places (Dann, 1981). All tourist experiences are to a certain extent motivated by the 'individual's self-perceived identity-related needs' (Bond and Falk,2013). Thus, understanding the underlying motives of the tourists to travel can benefit marketers in quite significant and positive ways (Uysal & Hagan, 1993).Despite the changes in social, technological and economic aspects,researchers have identified the core reasons for going on holidays remain the same. Individuals like to take a break to relax and decrease mental fatigue from their usual schedule (Crompton (1979), Todorovic and Jovicic, (2016)).This group is on the rise due to the intricacies of corporate culture and globalization. Historically a desire to travel and explore places is a fundamental motive embedded in human beings. The explorers who discovered new places were the pioneers who were motivated by self-actualization. This motive is still pertinent in the 21^st century, where travelers visit an exotic location or plan a trip to an innovative location or place. They are not hindered by financial, social, and other barriers that could affect their decision. This degree of self-actualization is in every human being at a varying level. The height of self-actualization could be climbing the highest peak or visit to space.The virgin galactic overwhelming response to the first trip to the space in spite of a high price tag is an example.

On the contrary, there is also a motive of self-esteem associated with travel. People like admiration and adoration from others, and this need is more in some societies compared to others. For example, in Asian societies, the need for acceptance and prestige will be the dominating motive compared to self-actualization. Schutte and Ciarlanntte(1998) proposed a modified hierarchy of Maslow's model; the three higher-level needs are emphasized on social needs for Asian consumers. These are status, admiration, and affiliation, and the lowest two levels are the same. Based on these classifications of the degrees of Esteem and self-actualization, tourists could fall into any of the four-phase quadrants. They are Braggers, Ambassadors, Laggards, and Wanderlust phases, linked propositions, and descriptions are presented below along with the model.

3.1 Braggers

Proposition 1- Tourists who are classified under this phase can be characterized as having high needsof self-esteem and low needsof self-actualization

These are a group of people characterized by a low degree of self-actualization and a high degree of self-esteem. With the rising global trend of increasing travelers, coupled with rampant improvement in communications, provides an ideal environment for this group to thrive. These days' people post photos on social media and other channels about their travel and travel experience. Hotels and other resorts are encouraging consumers to post photos and reviews on this site. This triggers people's mentality, as they feel left out if they do not travel. They do not have a real interest in visiting the place but rather do so for the sake of telling others. They choose destinations that are branded, western, and famous. For example, they prefer a trip to Disney land in France compared to a trekking trip in Nepal. Their orientation is more towards highly developed western countries like the US, UK, Australia, and Western Europe. The people who have less disposable income in the group prefer destinations, which are relatively affordable like Dubai, Thailand, and Singapore, or upcoming destinations like Georgia and Armenia.

The popularity of the destination or the brand value is one of the major deciding factors for this group. They make sure these destinations are safe also prefer to travel in a group. Though their primary motive is self-esteem, safety and belongingness need to play a supporting role in their decision-making. Often they make travel decisions in the fear being left out of a group; if their reference group members are traveling and sharing information on their travel experience, they do not want to be left out. Most of them take a proactive approach by making sure that they visit popular international destinations so they can be the influencers or pioneers among their reference group. This group chooses a popular and safe destination and has a positive attitude towards group travel. They make sure they stay in decent hotels and are not price sensitive. Their motive is to showcase their travel-related stories to others and for some of them in the group fear being left out of the group and are forced to travel. They do limited external research, and often their decisions are influenced by one or two attributes, popularity, and safety. They would only visit a place once and actively believe in visiting more places so that they could brag more. They like to go on Business trips, however not very keen to extend it to leisure activities. They are not keen to capitalize on the bleisure opportunity by extending their trip. For them, if they can visit some of the major tourist attractions in that destination and has enough digital evidence to prove their visit that would suffice for the trip.

3.2 Ambassadors

Proposition 2- Tourists who are classified under this phase can be characterized as having both high needs of self-esteem and self-actualization

Ambassadors represent a group of customers who has high self-esteem and self-actualization. This category is the arguably ideal from a marketer's perspective. They are traveling because they are motivated to find new places, experience culture, learn about the history of the country, and explore new cuisine. They are more adventurous and make sure that they travel to new places every year or even more. They research widely on different location and is willing to travel to a popular and not so popular location. They take a lot of pride in their trips and actively share their experience in all forums possible. Some of them are proactive and would write blogs, provide travel trips using different social media and other online channels. They like to travel widely and are willing to set aside sufficient funds for their travel. They try to overcome financial and social barriers that they are likely to face. The supplementary motives have a small role in their decision-making. They make repeat travel to the same destination, and they would like to explore places that are not accessible. They are driven by the novelty of the location so that they can learn, discover about the place. This would also help them to communicate with others about their travel experience. They are opinion leaders and actively seek information about travel. They can influence the decision making of braggers.

Marketers could use them to be their ambassadors in promoting their destinations, hotels, resorts. They do not make any distinction between a developed country and a developing country; for example, they are equally excited to visit Australia and Vietnam. The primary motive is to experience a new place and inform others about this experience. They would like to travel widely and spent more time in a destination. The main objective is for thorough learning about this place. The group, which shows an exceptionally high degree of self-actualization and self-esteem, some of them are travel gurus or have the potential to become travel gurus. Some of them have many followers for their blogs and in their social media accounts. They are more likely to follow an extended decision-making, treading through all the five steps. They evaluate a destination using various attributes and do an extensive external search. They actively seek business trips , capitalizing on bleisure by extendingtheir business trips,

3.3 Wanderlust

Proposition 3- Tourists who are classified under this phase can be characterized as having low needsof self-esteem and high needs ofself-actualization

A group of people who like to travel widely to learn more about the world dominates this category of tourists. A study of young tourists' profiles and attitudes revealed that learning about new cultures, finding new places, Understanding natural and artistic heritage, interaction with the local community, and connecting with nature are the motivations considered essential to travel (Buffa, 2015). This group of people is looking for a life-enriching experience by traveling to these destinations. They widely research, do a thorough external search, and would follow an extended decision making in their travel decisions. This group shares similar traits of the classifications identified by Richards (2015), in a study of 34000 travelers, he identified three categories, namely, nomads, backpackers, and flashpackers. Nomads seek contact with local people and try to learn about daily life in the chosen destination; they prefer living at local people's homes. Backpackers usually flock together and wander like nomads, and flashpacker is the most connected traveler and are likely to mix work and leisure. Millennials are expected to dominate this category, and they keep a low profile on their travel. They like to connect and discuss new travel plans with people having similar attributes. They are driven by a passion for discovering the world. They are not constrained by financial and social barriers. The real motives for them are personal development, unlocking personal potential, and self-fulfillment. They believe in sustainable tourism and have strong views in favor of caring and preserving tourist destinations. A study on millennial tourists found evidence that these travelers are concerned about the environment and are willing to behave pro-environmentally (Han et al. 2017). The secondary motives, like safety and belongingness, has little effect on their decision making. They go to the place, which have security issues if they perceive the destination can offer them the desired satisfaction. Even psychological needs like food, shelter is not a grave concern for them. This group is willing to compromise on their supplementary motives to achieve their self-actualization stage. Though this group is dominated by millennials , generation Y and Baby Boomers can be also part of this group.A recent study by Huber (2019) foundthat senior citizens who are above sixty and experiencing life course transitions due toissues like the death of partner ,stressful situations and illness are motivated to travel. It seems their motivation to travel is triggered by self-actualization as they venture , the personal development , inner satisfaction that they derive from the travel experience would help them to negate the issues that they are confronting.

3.4 Laggards

Proposition 4- Tourists who are classified under this phase can be characterized as having both low needsof self-esteem and self-actualization

Finally, the fourth category is called Laggards; this group has low self-esteem and self-actualization. They are confined and satisfied with their surroundings; they do not like to get out of their comfort zone. They feel an uneasiness about anything that will disrupt their routine. They hold a negative attitude towards travel. There could be multiple reasons behind this differing attitude. In the case of laggards, the supplementary motives play an influential role in their decision-making. Their level of concern regarding safety and security is high. They believe the majority of the destinations pose a threat in some way or another and have a high degree of uncertainty avoidance. Some of them have phobias regarding air travel, eating food from outside. They prefer the safety and security of their homes. They like spending holidays at home, confined to their couches.They hold high ethnocentric views, believing their territory is the best.They travel and visit destinations out of compulsion.

Supplementary motives like belongings influence their travel decision, they visit places to meet close relatives, friends, and to attend other inevitable social functions. Intense peer pressure and reference group influence can force them to travel. If ambassadors and braggers are in their reference group, they are coerced to travel. Their decision making is nominal; often they visit places because other group makes the decision for them and has little influence on the choice of destination, mode of travel, and the number of days of travel. For some of them in this group, they have to travel as part of their job commitments. Though they are forced to go for a business trip, their travel is limited to the task associated with the travel, and often comes back home immediately after their meetings or achieving an associated task or even early. They do not avail or even think about capitalizing on bleisure opportunities. This group is similar to the psychocentric identified by Plog (1974). Laggards share common traits like tendency to travel less and high anxiety levels (Uncertainty avoidance).

Questions:

1. Critically evaluate the proposed model, do you agree with arguments presented?
2. What is the applicability of this model particularly to Tourism marketers.