Autonomous/controlled travel motivations and their effect on travel intentions of Indian Millennials: a mixed method approach

ABSTRACT

With the self-determination theory (SDT) as grounding, the current study uses qualitative investigation with twenty-five respondents and a two-stage quantitative validation with 782 respondents, to propose seven travel motivations for Indian millennials. These motivations are knowledge-seeking, escape, sense of accomplishment, experience stimulation, social relationships, destination rewards, and social media compulsion. These motivations are mapped to specific regulations in the SDT and organized into autonomous and controlled motivations. Both autonomous and controlled motivations have a significant impact on travel intentions. A judgemental sample of Indian millennials is drawn from the eligible client-list of a prominent tourism agency used as the sampling frame. The study guides destination managers to position their destinations aligned with the motivations that drive Indian millennials to travel.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian millennials
• travel motivation
• self-determination theory
• autonomous motivation
• controlled motivation
• travel intention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [AM], upon reasonable request.

Notes

1 These estimates were made pre-COVID-19 pandemic and may not be accurate

2 The article reports numbers from a sample-based study, which cannot be considered as a census

3 No reference for protecting the firm identity

4 CVR = (N_e-N/2)/(N/2); N_e: Experts considering an item essential; N: Number of experts

5 T-test was conducted for each proportion and the estimated t-values were evaluated at 95% level of significance

6 The independent sample t-test was conducted for each proportion and the estimated t-values were evaluated at 95% level of significance.

7 Y: Dependent Variable; X: Independent Variable; TI: Travel Intention; KNL: Knowledge Seeking; ESC: Escape; SOA: Sense of Accomplishment; SCR: Social Relationships; EXP: Experience Stimulation; DSR: Destination Rewards; SMC: Social Media Compulsion; β: Standardized regression coefficient; AM: Autonomous Motivation; CM: Controlled Motivation.

 

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anish Yousaf

Anish Yousaf is working as Assistant Professor at the ICFAI Business School, IFHE University, Hyderabad. His research interests include Customer-Based Brand Equity Assessment and Brand Building Process especially for spectator sports, sports marketing, and retail management. He has published several papers in the area of sponsorship and its impact on brands.

Abhishek Mishra

Abhishek Mishra is a Professor in the Indian Institute of Management, Indore. He did his PhD in the area of Product Design and its implications on Brand Equity from IIM Lucknow. He has publications in leading marketing journals, like Journal of Brand Management and his research interests are in the area of New Product Development, Product and Brand Management and Fuzzy Sets and Systems.

Insha Amin

Insha Amin is working as Assistant Professor at the ICFAI Business School, IFHE University, Hyderabad. Her research interests include service quality, tourism and hospitality, eco-tourism and community-based tourism. She has published multiple papers in reputed international journals of hospitality and tourism.