2. Material and methods
The paper deals with tourists’ motivation and application of existing theoretical models on motivation in rural
tourism. Motivation as an internal drive that guides a person’s behavior and decision making has been examined in
relation to work, sport, travel and other leisure time activities. Motivational research usually includes Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs (1954) and the Iso Ahola´s motivation model (Iso Ahola, 1982). The push-pull theory is another
approach that often complements Iso Ahola’s model (Crompton, 1979). Crompton and McKay (1997) present: push
factors (internal motives) as escaping motives and pull factors (external stimulus) as seeking motives. The main
objective of the paper is, on the basis of the Iso Ahola´s model, to find out main tourists´ motives for traveling.
Results of the paper have been prepared upon strategic quantitative research as well as analysis of publicly available
literature