Identification and Analysis of Foreign Tourists Motivations for Travelling to Isfahan

Tourism is one of the important issues in global economic and an important source of foreign exchange earning for developed and developing countries. Nowadays، tourism industry has attracted considerable amount of planning efforts and investments. Tourism development depends on several factors such as transportation، living standards، tourism industrialization، and identification and satisfaction of tourist’s needs، and wants. The success of a tourist destination not only depends on qualifications of the destination، but also proper planning for attracting tourists and introducing destination and its facilities to target markets is necessary. Understanding tourists’ travel motives is one of the basic assumptions for tourism market segmenting and planning. The goal of tourist market segmentation is to provide proper services for each group of tourists. According to previous studies، studying the relation of tourists’ demographical variables with their travel motives is also very important. Theoretical In discussing tourism issues، the first question that comes to the mind of tourism planners، researchers، experts، and policy makers is that why people travel? What are the destinations selected? And what are the motives and reasons for selecting specific destination? Studying travel motives is an important issue، because it helps tourism planners and policy makers to understand which destination is proper for a specific tourists group and what specification should a specific destination have to attract tourists. Travel motives may include leisure، the level of expenses، shopping opportunity، adventure، handicrafts، visiting ancient and historical places، learning about new culture and trade. Exploratory factor analysis is a technique used for exploring dimensions of a phenomenon and used to decrease the items of its measurement scale. Factor analysis technique has been used to identify the travel motives of tourists who visited Isfahan. After performing a pilot study، a number of 200 foreign tourists have been selected in a convenient sampling method. For the purpose of the study a self-administered questionnaire has been provided to the respondent. After applying the principal components analysis technique and Equamax Rotation Technique to the surveyed data، six principal motives for traveling to Iran have been identified. It is should noticed that for higher accuracy، the elements with factor loading of less than 0. 5 have been eliminated. According to the results of exploratory factor analysis، five items including، improve personal knowledge، visiting ancient places، visiting museums، visiting historical and cultural attractions and learning about new places are grouped in one dimension and since they are about cultural activity، it has been named as cultural motive. These items have explained 61. 45% variance of new factor. Based on results، three items of professional purposes، friend’s persistence and inexpensive costs are placed in one group and based on their content it has been named as coercion motive. These three items have explained 75. 7% variance of new factor. Two items are about cleanness standard and perfect weather. These items have explained 60. 7% of variance of the dimension which is named as hygiene motive. The items of shopping and handicraft are grouped in one dimension which explained 84. 1% variance of the dimension and is named as shopping motive. Two items were placed in a group which explained 61. 1% variance of the dimension which is named as Leisure Motive. Three items of physical activity، nature beauty and finding new experience are placed in one group and named as adventure motive. These three items have explained 58. 9% variance of new factor. Applying Xi Bartlett statistic as goodness of fit test، we examined the quality of grouping the items and extracted factors. The values of Bartlett''s chi-square، significance and morality rates Kiasar Olkin are presented in Table 8. The Kiasar Olkin value should pass over 0. 5 and Bartlett''s chi-square with specified degree of free indicate fit goodness of factor Analysis and exploit of respective factor. In Table 8، results of Test of fit goodness for each exploited factor have been shown. Since the Kiasar Olkin value for each factor passes 0. 5، this shows that the samples size (200) is good enough for factor analysis. Also، the significant values show that all exploited factors have goodness of fit in factor structure. In order to examine the relation of demographic variables with tourists'' motivations، analysis of one-way variance has been used. Results of the analysis indicate that no significant relationship (Sig. 0. 238) exist between tourists’ nationality and attention level which tourists pay for cultural، coercion، shopping، and adventure motives. But the relation between tourists'' nationality and the level of attention which they pay for hygiene motive was significant (Sig. 0. 02). In other words، tourists with different nationality pay different level of attention to hygiene، and the minimum average was for Japan، Colombia، and Korea and maximum average was for Turkey، and Irish. Also، the results show that the level of coercion، leisure، cultural and adventure motives is different for males and females. Females had stronger cultural motive and the level of coercion، adventure، and leisure motives was stronger for females than males. Results also indicated that there is significant relationship between marital status and cultural، coercion، and leisure motives. Among studied population tourists who were single had shown stronger motive to visiting cultural attraction than married tourists. Also، married tourists had shown stronger coercion and leisure motive than singles. Moreover، there was no significant relationship between marital status of tourists and their shopping and adventure motives. Also، no significant relation was found between tourists’ education levels and their coercion، leisure، shopping، and adventure motives. But the average of cultural motive was more significant for tourists with university education than tourists with lower educational level. In order to examine the relation of duration of staying in destination with tourists'' traveling motives، we divide the duration into four intervals: 3 to 7، 7 to 14، 14 to 28، and more than 28 days. Results indicate that there is no significant relationship (Sig. 0. 055) exists between duration of staying and cultural motive. Also، tourists who had 3 to 7 days and 14 to 28 days stay at Iran had more leisure motives than other groups. Tourists who had 3 to 7 of days of stay at Iran had more shopping motive than other groups. Also tourists who stayed at Iran for more than 28 days had more adventure motives than other groups. Finally، the results indicated that 77. 5% of respondents had cultural motive، more than 40% of respondents had hygiene motive and 15. 5% of them had coercion motive for visiting Isfahan. Also 40% of respondents seemed to have shopping motive and 41% adventure motive for travelling to Isfahan. In this article the motives of inbound tourists for traveling to Isfahan have been examined. The results of exploratory factor analysis identified six main motives for traveling to Isfahan which include coercion، cultural، shopping، leisure، adventure and hygiene. Also، the relationship between demographic variables and traveling motives has been examined، and results indicated that there is a significant relationship between these variables and tourists'' motives. Tourism planner and manager can utilize this typology in order to categorize tourism market and serve them receptive services. Based on the results of the study، it is believe that the Isfahan tourism planners and managers must recognize their target market and plan according to their needs.