Why City Tourism? : Perceptions, attitudes and motivations for countryside people to visit city destinations as tourists

Abstract: Perceptions and attitudes can have a major impact on the motivations for countryside people to visit city destinations as tourists. The findings from this study present the two major motivations; extraordinary experiences and travelling for specific events, along with several further aspects, which motivate people in the countryside to visit cities. However, the motivations can change over time and are not necessarily the same for each visit, thus, the motivations are essential for the decision-making process, travel intentions, as well as meeting the personal wants and needs when travelling. But still, to research the motivations for countryside people to visit city destinations as tourists, it is important to learn their travel behaviour and understand their perceptions and attitudes toward cities, as these aspects have a major impact on the decision-making process, frequency of travel, and choice of destinations. Although, other perspectives impact the decision-making process as well, such as destination image, travel distance, transport, accessibility, economy, and time availability. This indicates that people who live in the countryside tend to travel to cities only for a shorter amount of time, such as weekends or long-weekends, to experience something they cannot in their everyday life, which in turn can feel luxurious. Therefore, the majority of the countryside people associate cities with positive experiences, but the general associations with cities are negative, due to the fact that they would not choose to stay here for longer than their travel intentions.    The purpose of this research is to investigate the motivations of people who live in the countryside to visit city destinations as tourists, study their perceptions and attitudes toward cities and how this impacts their decision-making process and general perspectives of cities. Interviews with 30 people who currently live in the countryside will support the research and answer the research questions, to provide results and connect this back to previous research, which have helped to support the results of this study as well. Suggestions are made for further research on this topic or similar aspects, which can help to improve the understanding of the countryside people’s travel behaviour. As a major theme in the tourism industry is to learn and understand the tourist and the travel behaviours, it is important to do so from all aspects, which could benefit both the traveller, suppliers and further research. The perspectives that have been investigated in this study, have not been researched before, and therefore, it may provide for new opportunities and knowledge about the topic that could benefit future research. Furthermore, future research can help to support the results and knowledge contribution from this research, providing similar results, and improve knowledge about city tourism in the future.