cultures, interact with local people, increase my knowledge, and relax mentally. Niggel
and Benson (2008) also found that the top four push motivations for backpackers visiting
South Africa were: to discover new places and things, to broaden knowledge about the
world, to escape from everyday work, home and leisure scene/monotony of the daily
routine, and to have a good time with friends. The findings of these studies suggest the
existence of a set of core backpacker motivations. The motivations, to explore other
cultures, increase one’s knowledge and relax mentally, were all in the top four most
important considerations in both the BRG study (Richards and Wilson 2004) and the
study in New Zealand (Newlands 2004). This is similar to the top four motivations found
in the South Africa study (Niggel and Benson 2008).