Travel motives of visitors to the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa

Abstract

There are a number of reasons why tourists visit a specific attraction  centre; these reasons are called travel motivations. Travel motivations refer to the force(s) behind an individual‘s behaviour. Investigating  tourists‘ travel motives will assist the management of attractions to better cater for the needs of the tourists and will also help them to improve the development of their products. The purpose of this study was to identify the travel motives of tourists to the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa (NZG). The NZG is situated in Pretoria, South Africa, and is classified as an urban attraction. The primary purposes of the zoo are conservation and education. It is therefore of critical importance to establish whether tourists visit this zoo for these reasons. In order to determine the  answer(s) to this question, a questionnaire was used as a research instrument. The questionnaire was distributed at the research site. A total of 273 completed responses were received and were included in the statistical analysis. Seven motives were identified. Among these,  Enhancements of relationships, Education and learning and Nature experience seekers were rated as most important by the respondents.

Keywords: Travel motivation, National Zoological Gardens of South Africa, factor analysis, urban attraction.