The paper deals with tourists’ motivation and application of existing theoretical models on motivation in rural tourism. The
authors examine why tourists travel and what is the main motivation in choosing their destinations. The primary drivers for
travelling are needs to escape from daily routine, workplace, but also social needs such as meeting other people, experiencing
something unique or unusual. The Maslow’s 5-stage theory on motivation to satisfy five basic human needs, extended by
cognitive, aesthetic and self-actualization needs, is applied for the analysis of tourists’ needs. The authors also apply other
motivation models in tourism, such as Plog´s psychographic or Iso Ahola´s model of the social psychology of tourism. The paper
brings practical examples of motivation using the Iso Ahola´s model of the social psychology of tourism.