ABSTRACT
Within the wider literature on tourist motivation, much attention has focused on the concept of the travel career model. This model, which has been crafted and developed through collecting data from multiple markets, originated with work in the 1980s and continues to be trialled and tested in a number of contemporary studies. The first aim of the chapter is to provide readers with a concise academic history of the development of this moderately influential set of tourist motivation ideas. The material discussed covers the criticisms and the modifications to the early phases of the approach and, as a by-product of that discussion, reveals some of the forces that shape academic inquiry. The central section of the chapter turns from the academic history to the more immediate attributes of the travel career pattern for assessing and categorizing contemporary tourist demand at several different scales of analysis. The penultimate section offers examples of using the approach. The final component of the work reflects on the development of the ideas and offers subtle directions for its further refinement.
