Exploration

Although tourism seems embedded in contemporary lives with little connection to the ancestral past, in evolutionary psychology, humans are motivated to travel for more than pleasure. Exploration is a common motivation for people to travel and reveals the origins of tourist behaviour. Exploration is important terminology in tourism studies. First, exploration explains the deeper-rooted question of why people wish to travel. Second, exploration and adventure tourism products are becoming increasingly popular. With a decay in innovation and knowledge spillovers from exploration, tourists get their experience of exploration from alternative tourism, ecotourism, backpacking tourism and exploration/adventure tourism. Different from their predecessors, adventure tourists today explore with faster access, safe programmes and comfortable accommodation. Consumers are motivated to seek out unexpected experiences and pleasure in their adventures. Perceptions of novelty, value, conservation focus, authentic cultural experience and freedom of exploration are drivers of customer satisfaction.