ABSTRACT
According to D. Hall and S. J. Page, one of the fundamental questions tourism researchers consistently seek to answer is: why do tourists travel? And this simple proposition remains one of the principal challenges facing tourism research. As Cheng noted, the sharing economy has changed the nature of consumption as consumers may be both consumers and/or suppliers as opposed to the traditional model of organizations fulfilling the supply function. Understanding tourist motivation and decision-making is important for two main reasons: Planning considerations and Economic considerations. In basic terms, such a process involves a ‘purchase’, but in tourism the importance of experiencing a destination environment must be recognized where the tourist becomes a consumer of place or culture, and a purchaser of tourism products. The influential study that stimulated thinking in this area is B. Pine and J. Gilmore’s The Experience Economy, which suggested that this was the next stage in the evolution of a society from a service economy.
