3.1. Maslow´s hierarchy of needs in connection with rural tourism
3.2. Plog´s psychographic tourists´ profile
3.3. Iso Ahola´s model of the social psychology of tourism
4. Research and results
The Iso Ahola´s model of the social psychology of tourism was used for the analysis of main motives for
travelling and selection of a desired destination. Our questionnaire contained scale items (12 items that characterize
the four motivation dimensions), according to Snepenger et al. (2006). Responses were marked according to their
weight (5 – highest weight, 1 – least weight) – see Table 1. All answers were then summarized and averaged.
Responses were furthermore classified for students from tourism degree programs and social degree programs, and
for rural tourism and international tourism (see Table 2 and Figure 1).
From the results we can conclude that motivation dimension of seeking prevails in both rural tourism as well as
international form of tourism (in case of international tourism it is even higher). The highest grade was given to
”seeking personal rewards“, which actually says that the main motives of UHK students are telling others about their
new experience, inspiration, happiness, etc. The second motivational dimension is “escaping personal
environments“ esp. items “to have a change from my everyday life“ or “to get away from normal environment“. It
corresponds with the result of Snepenger et al. (2006). In rural tourism the second motivation dimension is “seeking
interpersonal rewards” – esp. motivational factors as meeting new people and friends. These are then followed by
escaping