Keywords

JEL Classification

1 Introduction

Τhe main purpose of this paper is to make an approach to the issue of motivation in Tourism, having as research field, the Acropolis Museum of Athens. The main research questions that occupied this research were given below:

Which are the motivations for traveling and obtaining a tourism behavior—the push factors (Question block C1).

By which criteria a person chooses a travel destination—the pull factors (Question block C2).

More specifically, how important was for the tourist the visit to the Acropolis Museum of Athens, in order to choose Greece as a travel destination (Question C3).

2 Literature Review

Motivation is a psychological element that guides individuals' behavior and decisions and has been given special consideration in relation to options regarding tourism and other leisure activities. Although not all tourists can be homogenized in terms of a consumer behavior, it is important for tourism management to understand how they make decisions when choosing their travel destination and what kind of services and products meet their needs in the best way (Heitmann et al., 2011).

In the beginning it was the need. As early as the middle of the twentieth century, Abraham Maslow (1943) started to investigate the motives of human actions and stated that they exist in order to meet human needs. When one need is met, individuals seek to satisfy the next and continue to do so until the “self-realization”, a concept introduced by Maslow (1954). The needs of people were organized in the well-known Maslow Pyramid, with 5 (five) horizontal levels which actually expanded to seven according to a review of the same theory. This indisputable finding, that behind the motives lay fundamental human needs, has since been a solid theoretical background for understanding this key issue.

Šimková & Holzner's research (2014: 661) attempted to link the levels of human needs, with tourism, revealing how tourism responds to these needs. More specifically:

  1. 1.

    The physiological needs of the first level for the support and maintenance of life are related to gastronomy and the provision of accommodation in tourism.

  2. 2.

    The needs for security of the second level are very important in the field of tourism. A calm and safe environment is a prerequisite for the tourism experience and is determined by the friendly behavior, the sense of calm, the traditions, and the degree of hospitality at the destination.

  3. 3.

    Social acceptance and self-esteem needs, characterizing the next two levels that are linked to tourism with the tourist's need to feel a member of the host society, to develop relationships with the locals, to become accepted, familiar, and “belonging”. At the same time, a person satisfies needs of self-esteem, through the sense of success from practicing social skills in an unfamiliar environment, where the routine and comfort of everyday life is absent.

  4. 4.

    Finally, to the top of the pyramid lay the cognitive and aesthetic needs, the needs for knowledge and aesthetic satisfaction, which are covered by understanding the culture and history of a place, by learning the heritage and by enjoying the arts and the beauty of the landscape or the structured environment in a destination.

As the Ancient Romans have stated, the “primum vivere, deinde philosophare” principle is also true in this case and so, another concept about human needs is prominent, that of self-realization which corresponds to tourism with the need for personal cultivation and development through travel, the feeling of inner fulfillment, the meaningful experiences, and the unfolding of the personal potential through various occasions.

Decision-making for destination selection according to some scholars consists of five (5) stages (Kotler, 2010) and, first of all, is the recognition of the need. The potential tourist feels a difference between his current situation and a desired one for himself. After having the information that one needs about destinations from various sources, such as family, neighbors, friends, newspapers, social networks, and tourism fairs, a market intention begins to emerge. Choosing between similar tourism products the person evaluates the alternatives, depending on the prevailing needs of the consumer and the destination that may best meet these needs. The degree of satisfaction results from the relationship between the consumer's expectations and the final intake of the product or service.

One of the main motivations for travel is the escape from the daily routine and work, but also social needs for meeting other people and experiencing unusual and unique events (Šimková & Holzner, 2014). Tourist motivations are very important factors for better communication with customers and support for tourism businesses.

The psychographic system of S. Plog (1974) attempted to explain the variation in the popularity of tourist destinations, according to the different personality types of tourists. Personality traits are what determine their travel patterns and preferences. Having defined two types of personality at opposite ends, the dependable (or psycho-central) type and the venturer (or other-central) type, with the intermediate-central type in between, he created the Diagram of the Psychographic Positions of Destinations (1972). The ideal position of the destinations was determined in the middle, essentially in the position corresponding to the middle-central type of personality.

Destinations move in the psychographic curve, depending on how well they ensure the satisfaction of the initial motivation of tourists to travel to the specific destination. The ignorance of the psychological data and the motivations of the tourists by the planning and marketing of the tourism development in a destination can lead to the gradual degeneration of the destination until its complete decline and often this process which takes time to be completed is not perceived, except when it is too late. In fact, Plog strongly expresses the concern that the inability to plan tourism development in accordance with the psychological data of the personality of tourists and the disproportion depending on the time and the cost invested by the tourist in relation to the offered experience result in the demotion of the importance of travel in a person’ s life and the inevitable replacement by other activities, such as video games and home entertainment series.

Satisfaction that people expect and which determines their tourist behavior, according to Iso-Ahola (1982), is associated with two driving forces: Escape (escape) and search (seeking). The element of escape refers to the fact that the person leaves behind the daily environments in which he moves, the daily problems, the routine, the stress, the tension, while the element of the search refers to the pursuit and acquisition of rewards and benefits, such as obtaining knowledge, feeling emotions, acquisition of social, athletic, and other skills (Iso-Ahola, 1982: 258).

Motivation for tourist behavior and satisfaction of needs are in an interactive relationship and as Dann (1981) argued, to consider motivation as an unconscious process and to study satisfaction detached from its motivations, is of little value.

Returning to the theory of Iso-Ahola, if on a case-by-case basis tourism is considered to be more of an escape activity than an activity of seeking and obtaining rewards and benefits does not mean that this second weaker part of the comparison is less important than the first. Also, as the same scholar points out, the opposite can happen, giving the example that if one lives and works in the Bahamas, may not have a strong motivation to escape, but may have a strong motivation for personal rewards and thus travels to Greece, “To learn more about the history of the human species” (Iso-Ahola, 1982: 258). Then, the second factor acts as a “threshold” for the realization of the journey and vice versa.

The two main factors of escape and search (escaping and seeking) have both personal and interpersonal dimensions which the individual is called to manage in his attempt to decide what is most important for his journey. He can also escape from a close personal environment or a wider and interpersonal environment, such as family, friends, co-workers, and can claim purely personal or interpersonal rewards, such as with old friends in a new environment or young people, friends in an old environment, or with family, etc. He may also choose to travel with a group of strangers, in order to satisfy the need to escape from the everyday environments of the familiar persons.

The components of escape-search are present in every leisure activity (Iso-Ahola, 1982: 312–13) and tourism in particular (Iso-Ahola, 1982). The way in which the individual chooses and accepts one or the other factor or both, as primary causes and purposes for the journey, determines the choice of specific plans and behaviors to achieve the goals (Iso-Ahola, 1982: 260).

Finally, a very interesting theory is that of Crompton and Mc Kay (1997), presenting the incentives for tourism, as a combination of push and pull factors, where the internal motivations are considered as push factors and the external stimuli, that make a person willing to travel, are considered as pull factors.

In conclusion, tourism is a dialectical process between push and pull factors, in order to achieve the optimization of meeting the needs, as individuals strive for the best result and for a form of social interaction through travel. It simultaneously provides a way out of something and the ability to seek out some experiences, transforming the escape from a simple escape into a constructive and complex action.

3 Methodology

The research was conducted with a quantitative methodology and as a method of data collection a questionnaire (Appendix 1) was used, which was distributed to a random and representative sample of 300 foreign tourists in the months of June to September 2019, at the exit of the Acropolis Museum of Athens (Cohen, 2007). In the questionnaire used in this survey, a five-point Likert scale was used with appropriate verbal matching of the answers (1—Not at all, 2—slightly, 3—moderately, 4—much, and 5—Very much).

That means, low values (lower than 3) correspond to a disagreement, median values (close to 3) correspond to a neutral view, and high values correspond to an agreement (greater than 3) with the attitude expressed by the corresponding question. In the present study, the push and pull theory (Crompton & Mc Kay, 1997) was taken into account. As far as the motivation is considered to be the internal impulse, which is investigated by the C1 block of questions, the C2 block of questions are considered as factors of attraction, from an external stimulus. The relationship between motivation and criteria even restores and researches the relationship between the two blocks of questions (C1–C2), in exploring which element attracts the individual the most as an external stimulus (the pull factors), when the individual is motivated internally by specific needs (the push factors).

The data were analyzed with appropriate statistical software (IBM SPSS version 25). In this work, besides the descriptive statistics presented as mean value ± standard deviation for each variable, parametric and non-parametric tests were conducted. More specifically, the means’ equality test was used for one, two, or more than two samples (t-test and ANOVA test), as the sample size is sufficiently large, although the variables are of ordinal scale. In any case, the corresponding non-parametric one-sample Wilcoxon signed rank test, Mann–Whitney U test, and Kruskal–Wallis test were used to confirm the above results. Especially, in the case of more than two samples, the robust tests of equality of means by Welch and Brown-Forsythe were conducted, in the cases that the test of homogeneity of variances failed. All pairwise comparisons were conducted by using Bonferroni or Tamhane’s T2 adjustment.

The sample consists of 167 women (55.67%) (Fig. 1) and the respondents’ age distribution is presented in Fig. 2, where it is observed that as age increases, the corresponding percentage decreases and majority of respondents belong to the age group of 20 to 30 years old. Most of the respondents are university graduates (54.33%) while 25.00% of the sample have a master's or doctoral degree. In addition, 19.00% of the sample have completed secondary education and 1.67% have completed a basic education (Fig. 3). The sample consists of private employees at a rate of 37.00%; students at a rate of 21.67%; civil servants at a rate of 11.67%; and the rest are entrepreneurs, freelancers, and others (Fig. 4). Majority of visitors come from Europe and America (Fig. 5). Some of the countries of origin where the sample comes from are Germany, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine, etc. (Appendix 2).

Fig. 1
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Frequency distribution of respondents by gender

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Fig. 2
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Frequency distribution of respondents by age

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Fig. 3
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Frequency distribution of the respondents according to the educational level

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Fig. 4
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Frequency distribution of respondents in terms of professional status

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Fig. 5
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Frequency distribution of respondents in terms of origin

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4 Results

Respondents had a high degree of agreement in various attitudes expressed by questions included in blocks C1, C2, and C3 of the questionnaire used. More specifically, for questions of block C1, the averages per question are given in Fig. 6 in ascending order.

Fig. 6
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Mean values of C1 group’s questions. Red color corresponds to questions expressing disagreement (mean value statistically significant lower than 3—p < 0.01). Orange color corresponds to questions expressing neutral attitude (mean value non-statistically significant different than 3—p > 0.10). Blue color corresponds to questions expressing agreement (mean value statistically significant greater than 3—p < 0.01). Green color corresponds to questions expressing high agreement (mean value statistically significant different than 3—p < 0.01)

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It is observed that the respondents had a significant degree of disagreement with the attitudes: «To obtain prestige and social status» (not at all to slightly agreement) (1.78 ± 1.11, t = −9.025, p < 0.01) and «To have a healing experience that help me recover, after a difficult period or trial in my life» (slightly to moderate agreement) (2.58 ± 1.34, t = −5.440, p < 0.01).

Respondents had a neutral view (moderate agreement) on attitudes, as: «To live adventurous or even risky experiences and feel like an explorer» (2.88 ± 1.22, t = −1.657, p = 0.099) and «To give meaning to my life» (3.10 ± 1.28), t = 1.354, p = 0.177).

In addition, respondents had a significant degree of agreement (moderate to much) in the following seven (7) attitudes (i.e., mean value greater than 3): «To live meaningful experiences that will enable me to understand my deeper self» (3.19 ± 1.29), t = 2.550, p = 0.011); «To escape the boredom of everyday life and routine» (3.22 ± 1.24, t = 3.087, p = 0.002); «To give myself the ability to be «transformed» through unprecedented and unique experiences» (3.49 ± 1.15, t = 7.353 p < 0.01); «To relax and calm in quietness and nature» (3.53 ± 1.05, t = 8.729, p < 0.01); «To interact with the local people» (3.64 ± 0.97, t = 11.457, p < 0.01); «To collect moments and not things, as I do in my country of origin» (3.67 ± 1.14, t = 10.318, p < 0.01); and «To feel emotions, like surprise, inspiration, harmony, freedom, love» (3.78 ± 1.09, t = 12.390, p < 0.01).

Finally, respondents had a statistically significant very high degree of agreement with three (3) attitudes (mean value greater than 4, i.e., much to very much agreement): «To view specific monuments, museums, works of art, cultural heritage» (4.03 ± 1.07, t = 19.693, p < 0.01); «To satisfy my quest for knowledge and first-hand information» (4.04 ± 0.90, t = 19.896, p < 0.01); and «To learn about different places and people» (4.34 ± 0.79, t = 29.120, p < 0.01). The aforementioned results of parametric tests are in line with those of non-parametric controls (Appendix 3).

As regards the gender, women (3.35 ± 1.23) had a higher mean value than men, in the attitude described by the statement «Τo escape the boredom of everyday life and routine» (3.05 ± 1.23) (t  = −2.097, p = 0.037) (Table 1). Similarly, women (3.90 ± 1.11) had a higher mean value than men in the attitude «To feel emotions, like surprise, inspiration, harmony, freedom, love» (3.62 ± 1.05) (t = −2.225, p = 0.027) (Table 1). Women also (4.44 ± 0.79) had a higher mean value than men in the attitude «To learn about different places and people» (4.20 ± 0.81) (t = −2.624, p = 0.009) (Table 1).

Table 1 Equality of means as regards sex—parametric and non-parametric tests
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As regards the age, respondents with age from 20 to 30 years (3.21 ± 1.25) had a higher mean value in attitude «To live adventurous or even risky experiences and feel like an explorer» than respondents with age greater than 51 years (2.43 ± 1.28) as well as than respondents with age from 41 to 50 years (2.66 ± 0.92) (Fig. 7) (Appendix 4—F = 6.985, p < 0.01).

Fig. 7
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Mean values of «To live adventurous or even risky experiences and feel like an explorer» as regards age

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Similarly, respondents with age from 20 to 30 years (3.41 ± 1.27) had a higher mean value in attitude «To live meaningful experiences that will enable me to understand my deeper self» than respondents with age greater than 51 years (2.69 ± 1.30) (Fig. 8) (Appendix 4—F = 4.624, p = 0.004 < 0.01). Once again, respondents with age from 20 to 30 years (3.69 ± 1.09) had a higher mean value in attitude «To relax and calm in quietness and nature» than respondents with age greater than 51 years (3.13 ± 1.06) (Fig. 9) (Appendix 4—F = 4.637, p = 0.003).

Fig. 8
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Mean values of «To live meaningful experiences that will enable me to understand my deeper self» as regards age

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In addition, respondents with age from 31 to 40 years (4.07 ± 1.07) had a higher mean value in attitude «To collect moments and not things, as I do in my country of origin» than respondents with age from 41 to 50 years (3.84 ± 0.89) (Fig. 10) (Appendix 4—F = 5.050, p = 0.002).

Fig. 9
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Mean values of «To relax and calm in quietness and nature» as regards age

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As regards education, respondents with postgraduate studies (4.27 ± 0.78) had a higher mean value in attitude «To view specific monuments, museums, works of art, cultural heritage» than respondents with basic and secondary education (3.84 ± 0.99) (Fig. 11) (Appendix 5—F = 4.985, p = 0.015). In the contrary, respondents with postgraduate studies (2.41 ± 1.02) had a lower mean value in attitude «To live adventurous or even risky experiences and feel like an explorer» than respondents with basic and secondary education (3.10 ± 1.36) (Fig. 12) (Appendix 5—F = 7.860, p < 0.01). In addition, respondents with postgraduate studies (2.76 ± 1.19) had a lower mean value in attitude «To give meaning to my life» than respondents with university education (3.21 ± 1.21) (Fig. 13) (Appendix 5—F = 5.486, p = 0.005).

Fig. 10
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Mean values of «To collect moments and not things, as I do in my country of origin» as regards age

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Fig. 11
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Mean values of «To view specific monuments, museums, works of art, cultural heritage» as regards education

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Fig. 12
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Mean values of «To live adventurous or even risky experiences and feel like an explorer» as regards education

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In the case of questions of block C2, the corresponding mean values per question are given in Fig. 14 in ascending order. It is observed that the respondents had a significant degree of disagreement in the attitudes «Sporting and physical activities in general» (slightly to moderate agreement) (2.59 ± 1.05, t = −6.774, p < 0.01) and «Possibilities of night entertainment and recreation» (2.82 ± 1.07, t = −2.905, p = 0.004).

Fig. 13
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Mean values of «To give meaning to my life» as regards education

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Fig. 14
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Mean values of C2 group’s questions. Red color corresponds to questions expressing disagreement (mean value statistically significant lower than 3—p < 0.01). Orange color corresponds to questions expressing neutral attitude (mean value non-statistically significant different than 3—p > 0.10). Blue color corresponds to questions expressing agreement (mean value statistically significant greater than 3—p < 0.01)

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Fig. 15
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Mean values of «Cultural heritage, History and Sights (Museums, Archaeological Sites, Galleries, etc.)» as regards age

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Fig. 16
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Mean values of «Possibilities of night entertainment and recreation» as regards age

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Respondents also had a neutral view of attitudes in question «Shopping and local market» (i.e., moderate degree of agreement) (2.92 ± 1.13, t = −1.275, p = 0.203). In addition, respondents had a significant degree of agreement(i.e., mean value greater than 3, meaning agreement moderately to much) on attitudes «Low cost of goods and services» (3.13 ± 1.06, t = 2.183, p = 0.029); «Easy transportation» (3.31 ± 1.07, t = 5.085, p < 0.01); «Safe socio-political situation at destination» (3.40 ± 1.13, t = 6.163, p < 0.01); «Gastronomy and local cuisine» (3.58 ± 1.05, t = 9.490, p < 0.01); «Friendly environment and inhabitants» (3.68 ± 0.97, t = 12.254, p < 0.01); «Cultural heritage, History and Sights (Museums, Archaeological Sites, Galleries, etc.)» (3.83 ± 0.97, t = 14.770, p < 0.01); and «Natural environment and climate (sea, sun, mountain, snow, forests, etc.) (3.98 ± 0.95, t = 18.026, p < 0.01).

As regards the gender, men and women have the same degree of agreement and disagreement in all the attitudes expressed by the questions of the second block. As regards the age, respondents with age from 20 to 30 years (3.59 ± 1.09) had a lower mean value in attitude «Cultural heritage, History and Sights (Museums, Archaeological Sites, Galleries, etc.)» than respondents with age from 31 to 40 years (4.04 ± 0.77) and respondents with age greater than 51 years (4.02 ± 0.85) (Appendix 4—F = 4.758, p = 0.003 < 0.01). In addition, respondents with age greater than 51 years (2.32 ± 1.09) had a lower mean value in attitude «Possibilities of night entertainment and recreation» than respondents with age from 20 to 30 years (3.06 ± 0.95) and with age from 31 to 40 years (3.05 ± 1.15) (Appendix 4—F = 9.220, p < 0.01).

As regards educational level, respondents with postgraduate studies (4.17 ± 0.95) had a higher mean value in attitude «Cultural heritage, History and Sights (Museums, Archaeological Sites, Galleries, etc.)» than respondents with basic and secondary education (3.058 ± 0.92) and respondents with university education (3.76 ± 0.96) (Appendix 5—F = 4.758, p = 0.003 < 0.01).

In the question “How important motivation was the visit to the Acropolis Museum for choosing Greece as a destination?”, the corresponding mean value is greater than the median, i.e., 3, (3.57 ± 1.30, t = 7.731, p < 0.01) expressing a moderate to much degree of agreement. The 56% of the participants answered that they considered the visit to the Acropolis Museum, for choosing Greece as a destination, as an important motivation from much to very much (Fig. 18).

Fig. 17
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Mean values of «Cultural heritage, History and Sights (Museums, Archaeological Sites, Galleries, etc.)» as regards education

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As regards age, respondents with age from 20 to 30 years (3.34 ± 1.40) had a lower mean value in attitude «How important motivation was the visit to the Acropolis Museum for choosing Greece as a destination?» than respondents with age greater than 51 years (4.02 ± 1.02) (Fig. 19) (Appendix 4—F = 4.375, p = 0.005 < 0.01).

Fig. 18
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Distribution of respondents in question “How important motivation was the visit to the Acropolis Museum for choosing Greece as a destination?”

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Fig. 19
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Mean values of «How important motivation was the visit to the Acropolis Museum for choosing Greece as a destination?» as regards age

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5 Conclusions

In conclusion, push factors (Crompton & Mc Kay, 1997) that are related to experiencing emotions, creating memories, having meaningful experiences, and also experiences with transformative power to self are included in the middle to high ranking of the requests and needs of the people who took part in the research. At the same level of importance is also the need to interact with other people at the destination. The strong need to escape from boredom has been confirmed, a kind of escaping everyday life, as has been defined in Iso-Ahola’ s theory (1982) about the two main factors of “escaping” and “seeking” and also the need for calm and relaxation.

Three factors marked a very high percentage of agreement in the questionnaire’s statements and are related to the desire to see the authentic monuments and works of art, to satisfy the thirst for knowledge and to get to know different places and peoples. The data of ANOVA analysis on the special preferences of the respondents according to gender, age, and educational level showed that women responded more positively than men to factors such as experiencing emotions, escaping the boredom of everyday life, and the desire to acquire knowledge.

As far as it concerns the pull factors (Crompton & Mc Kay, 1997), the visitors of Acropolis Museum in our sample were not attracted by activities such as sporting and physical activities, nor by nightlife possibilities, and also they had a neutral attitude on shopping and local market opportunities. On the contrary, they were moderately to much attracted by specific socio-economic factors, such as the safe social environment, the friendly behavior of the residents, the low cost of goods and services, and the easy transportation. They were strongly attracted by cultural heritage and natural environment and these attitudes through the ANOVA analysis appeared uniformity between men and women, regarding the grade of agreement of the research participants.

Experiencing emotions is a significant motivation for traveling. Emotions like pleasant surprise, proximity, feeling of “belonging”, contemplative mood, emotional involvement with the locals during the stay in a destination. The last years many researchers have dealt with the examination of the role of emotions in tourism experience and the possibility of measurement (Bigné & Andreu, 2004; del Bosque & Martin, 2008; Hosany & Gilbert, 2010; Kim et al., 2012; Yuksel et al., 2010; Wirtz et al., 2003). In tourism, emotions arise as a result of evaluating the experience in relation to the goals, motivations, or interests of tourists. In the laws of emotion formulated by Frijda (1988), when something does not respond to the interests and concerns of a person, it ceases to concern the tourist or give any pleasure (Bigné & Andreu, 2004).

Tourism produces voluptuous experiences (Alistair, 2006), which include adventure, challenge, escape and fun (Otto & Ritchie, 1996), and happiness (Gretzel et al., 2006; Floyd & Wooldridge, 1997). Imagination, emotions, and fun are central to voluptuous experiences (Holbrook, 2006) and positive and pleasurable emotions are the most important components of tourism experiences (Tung & Ritchie, 2011).

The search for meaning, in the sense of a deeper revelation of truths about life and self, through contact with culture and arts has an important place along with emotions. As Baumeister (1991: 3) have stated, “every person with his energies builds the meaning of his life. He can dedicate his life to his children, his work, his religious faith or his garden “. It could be added that traveling constructs a meaning to life, for persons who are seeking for experiences that help them realize their true self. As the results have showed, a “moderate” to “much” agreement has been pointed out for the statements about living meaningful experiences and be transformed by traveling and experiencing tourism. This is very relevant to what Mc Cannell (1973) implied with his theory about regarding tourism as a modern pilgrimage in the request of more authentic ways of existence. According to J. Rieger and Jensen (2011), journey is strongly related to the meaning of life and also the divine. In this sense, the journey is closely linked to the person's effort to give meaning to his life and from this arises the necessary inclusion of these parameters in any tourism planning attempted.

In the modern world, the gap of values seems to be a considerable obstacle in obtaining a sense of meaningful life and leaves humans exposed to an existential agony, as the values they have embraced during their life seem limited constructions, instead of having characteristics of universality and timelessness. Thus, death is not only the end of a person’s life but also the end of the values he has embraced during his lifetime (Baumeister, 1991: 6). Individuals not only find meaning in the social and cultural environment in which they live (Baumeister, 1991: 23), but also in other places and societies, as Cohen (1979) has showed in his phenomenology of tourism experience.

Familiarity with values of universal importance, such as democracy or the ideals emanating through art, gives persons a chance to overcome limits and obtain a sense of “belonging” to something bigger and wider than their limited everyday life. May be that explains why the visit to the Acropolis Museum has achieved the high score of 56%, as an important and significant motivation from much to very much, for choosing Greece as their traveling destination.

In her interesting research, Vazeou-Nieuwenhuis (2018) showed that the ability of the persons to travel mentally to faraway times and places increases people’ s desire to search for their lives’ meaning. Especially museums not only give a chance for mental traveling, but make it their main role. Through the real objects and remnants of the past, the historical information, and the museological guidance, visitors may realize that their life stories include more than what is happening in their everyday reality. As Burgelman (2000) has referred “space and time determine our position in the universe” and these key concepts of traveling through time and space are about to be accessible to man, thanks to information and communication technologies. Yet, new experiences are planned based on an alternative model of tourism development and cultural tourism, such as innovative cultural tours in the city of Athens, (Sarantakou & Xenitellis, 2019).

These findings are consistent with other studies that cite spiritual pursuits and the need for enrichment with knowledge as important motivators for leisure in general (Beard & Ragheb, 1983) and vacations in particular (Crompton, 1979; Rubenstein, 1980). In recent years, academics have shown particular interest in understanding the characteristics of the tourism experience (Morgan et al., 2010. Ritchie & Hudson, 2009; Tung & Ritchie, 2011; Wang & Pizam, 2011). Also, the use of Internet is not just a tool for more tourist information, but contains platforms of alternative experiences and a variety of technological products related to tourism and the reception of culture which bring significant changes to tourism consumption and tourism enterprises (Τsartas et al., 2016; Kavoura & Katsoni, 2013). Future research regarding these issues will certainly enlarge the present theoretical frameworks on tourism motivation and advance their applications to tourism planning and development.