By Dr. Katie Blake, PhD | Social & Cultural Psychologist, Travel Psychology Expert
On paper, I went to Memphis for a work conference. That's what was on my calendar, and it's what I told people when they asked.
But I brought my mom along, and if I'm honest, the conference was never really the point. I was born in Memphis. I wanted to go home.
What strikes me now is who I brought with me. Of everyone I could have taken on that trip, I took the one person who had been there at the very beginning. My mom wasn't just keeping me company. She wasn't born in Memphis, but on some level it's home for both of us, and she was going home, too.
Most of us have a trip like this, where the reason we give isn't quite the reason we go. Researchers have been studying that gap for decades. Here's what they've found about why we travel, and how knowing your real reasons can lead to better trips.
Something Pushes Us Out the Door Before Anything Pulls Us Somewhere
Ask most people why they picked a destination and they'll tell you about the place: the beaches, the food, the history, the friend who swore it changed their life. Those are real reasons. But travel motivation researchers have spent decades arguing that they come second.
In 1977, the sociologist Graham Dann asked a deceptively simple question in the Annals of Tourism Research: what makes tourists travel? Drawing on interviews with more than 400 winter visitors in Barbados, he made the case for two kinds of forces.
Pull factors belong to the destination. Sunshine, a slower pace, friendly locals, a famous view. Push factors belong to us. They're the inner restlessness, needs, and pressures that make us want to leave in the first place.
Dann argued that push comes first, both logically and often in time. You usually decide you need to get away before you decide where to go. The place answers a question you were already asking.
He named two push factors. The first was anomie, a sociological term for the sense that ordinary life has lost its meaning or its anchors, and travel promises a way out of that. The second was ego-enhancement, the wish to feel recognized, special, or a little more important than you get to feel at home. Dann suggested that together these feed a fantasy world, one we plan periodic escapes into.
Almost 50 years later, the push-pull model is still one of the most widely used frameworks in travel motivation research. Most of the newer theories build on it in some way.
Every Trip Is Part Escape and Part Search
A few years after Dann, the social psychologist Seppo Iso-Ahola offered a model that I find even more useful for everyday travelers. Writing in the Annals of Tourism Research in 1982, he proposed that two forces drive leisure travel at the same time: escaping and seeking.
Escaping means getting away from something, whether that's routine, stress, or a familiar environment that has started to feel heavy. Seeking means moving toward something rewarding, like rest, challenge, learning, or a feeling you can't find at home.
He added a second layer. Both forces can be personal or interpersonal. You might be escaping your own to-do list, or escaping the people around you. You might be seeking something for yourself, like a sense of mastery, or seeking connection with others, like time with a travel companion or new people on the road.
That gives you four combinations, and most trips mix all of them in different amounts. Later researchers have tested the model with real travelers. In a 2006 study in the Journal of Travel Research, David Snepenger and colleagues found support for all four dimensions, and tourism experiences scored especially high on personal escape and personal seeking.
What I love about this model is how forgiving it is. Wanting to escape gets a bad reputation, as if it means you're avoiding your life. Iso-Ahola's view suggests escape and search usually travel together. We get away from one thing in order to go looking for another.
The Reasons Under the Reasons We Give
In 1979, the recreation and tourism researcher John Crompton published one of the most cited studies in the field. In "Motivations for Pleasure Vacation," also in the Annals of Tourism Research, he used in-depth interviews to dig beneath the reasons people gave for their trips.
He identified nine motives. Two were cultural, and they line up with pull: novelty and education. The other seven were socio-psychological, and they line up with push:
Escape from a perceived mundane environment
Exploration and evaluation of self
Relaxation
Prestige, or how a trip makes us look to others
Regression, the freedom to act in ways we wouldn't at home, sometimes a little more childlike or carefree
Enhancement of kinship relationships, like strengthening family bonds
Facilitation of social interaction, or meeting and connecting with new people
Here's the finding I think most travelers would benefit from knowing. Crompton found that these socio-psychological motives were unrelated to the attributes of any one destination. In other words, the need for escape or reconnection can be met in a lot of different places. The beach in the brochure is often standing in for something deeper.
As I see it, that's freeing. If you know what you actually need from a trip, you have far more options than you think.
The Best Trips Feed Three Basic Needs
The travel motivation models above come mostly from tourism research. To understand why some trips leave us restored and others leave us empty, I like to bring in one of the most influential theories in all of psychology: self-determination theory.
The psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan developed it over decades at the University of Rochester. (Iso-Ahola's 1982 paper actually cites Deci's early work on intrinsic motivation.) In a landmark 2000 article in American Psychologist, Ryan and Deci summarized the research behind three innate psychological needs:
Autonomy, the sense that your choices are your own
Competence, the sense that you're capable and growing
Relatedness, the sense of being connected to other people
When these needs are met, the research shows people tend to be more self-motivated and psychologically healthier. When they're thwarted, motivation and wellbeing drop.
Self-determination theory also draws a line between intrinsic motivation, doing something because it's rewarding in itself, and extrinsic motivation, doing it for an outside reason like approval, obligation, or a reward.
Self-determination theory wasn't built for travel, so what follows is my own application of it. But I see these needs all over the trips that stay with us. Autonomy is choosing your own itinerary, or deciding to skip the museum and sit in a café all afternoon. Competence is figuring out a train system in a language you don't speak, or making it to the top of a trail. Relatedness is the late dinner with a travel companion, or the stranger who walks you to the right bus stop.
The extrinsic side shows up, too. Crompton's prestige motive is a good example. A trip planned mostly so it looks impressive to other people can still be fun, but I think it's less likely to feed those three deeper needs. The same goes for trips we take purely out of obligation.
To be fair, most trips are a mix, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying the photos. The question is whether something underneath is getting fed, too. If you want a starting point for figuring out what feeds you, my piece on matching your travel to your personality is a good next read.
Why We Travel Changes as We Do
If you've noticed that what you want from a trip isn't what you wanted ten years ago, there's research on that, too.
The tourism psychologist Philip Pearce spent years developing what he called a travel career approach. Just as people move through stages in a working career, he proposed that travelers' motives tend to change as they gain experience. In a 2005 paper in the Journal of Travel Research, Pearce and Uk-Il Lee tested the idea with interviews and a large survey.
They found a core set of motives that mattered to almost everyone, regardless of experience: escape, relaxation, strengthening relationships, and self-development. They described these as the backbone of travel motivation.
Around that backbone, priorities shifted. More experienced travelers put greater weight on engaging with the places they visited, like experiencing different cultures, and on being close to nature. Less experienced travelers were more drawn to motives like stimulation, personal development, a sense of security in their relationships, nostalgia, romance, and recognition.
I find that reassuring. It suggests there isn't one right reason to travel, and the reason that fits you now may not be the reason that fits you later. A first big trip that's mostly about excitement and a story to tell, and a later trip that's mostly about sitting with a place and its people, can both be exactly right for who you are at the time.
Knowing Your Real Reason Can Make a Better Trip
When I run my Memphis trip through these models, it starts to make a lot more sense.
The conference was the pull, the official reason with a date and a location attached. The push was something older: a longing to stand in the place where my story started. In Iso-Ahola's terms, there may have been a little escape in it, but mostly I was seeking something, and seeking it with someone. Crompton would call part of it the enhancement of kinship relationships. Self-determination theory would point to relatedness. And Pearce and Lee would recognize relationship enhancement as part of the backbone of nearly every trip.
None of that was on my calendar. But looking back, I think it explains why I didn't go alone, and why it felt like so much more than a work trip.
You don't have to wait until after a trip to figure this out. Before your next one, it can help to ask yourself a few honest questions:
What am I hoping to get away from? A routine, a stress, a version of myself I'm tired of?
What am I hoping to find? Rest, challenge, beauty, a feeling I can't name yet?
Who do I want to find it with? Or is this something I need to do alone?
Could another place give me the same thing? Crompton's research suggests the answer is often yes.
Am I going for me, or for how it looks? There's room for both, but it helps to know which one is driving.
The answers won't always be tidy. Sometimes you'll only understand the real reason once you're standing in the place, or even after you've come home.
I've written before about what home really means and about why leaving a place can break your heart. Memphis taught me the other side of that. Sometimes the reason we go somewhere is to return. And sometimes the best thing we can do is bring along someone who calls it home, too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do people travel?
Psychology research points to a mix of inner needs and outer attractions. Common motives include escape from routine, relaxation, strengthening relationships, self-discovery, novelty, and learning. Most trips involve several of these at once.
What are push and pull factors in travel?
Push factors are the inner needs that make us want to leave, like stress, boredom, or a desire for recognition. Pull factors are the features of a destination that attract us, like beaches, culture, or food. The sociologist Graham Dann argued in 1977 that push usually comes first.
What is the seeking-escaping model of travel motivation?
Social psychologist Seppo Iso-Ahola proposed that travel is driven by two forces at once: escaping something (routine, stress, other people) and seeking something (rest, challenge, connection). Both can be personal or interpersonal.
Is wanting to escape a bad reason to travel?
No. Escape is one of the most common travel motives in the research, and it usually comes paired with seeking something rewarding. In my view, it falls short mainly when escape is the only thing a trip is doing, and the same stress is waiting for you at home.
How does self-determination theory apply to travel?
Self-determination theory says people thrive when three needs are met: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. It wasn't designed for travel, but trips that let you choose freely, build a skill, and connect with people tend to feed all three.
Do travel motivations change with age or experience?
Research by Philip Pearce and Uk-Il Lee suggests they do. Escape, relaxation, relationships, and self-development matter to nearly everyone, but more experienced travelers put more weight on engaging with local cultures and nature.
If this resonated, I write about the psychology of travel — where we go and how those places change us — every week on Psychologie. Subscribe here to get it straight in your inbox.
Katie Blake, PhD is a social and cultural psychologist, travel psychologist, and writer based in the USA. She is the publisher of The Journal of Travel Psychology and the founder of The Postcard Société. She works with individual travelers and leading travel and hospitality brands on psychology-informed experiences and campaigns. Available for media inquiries, expert commentary, podcast appearances, and brand collaborations — visit drkatieblake.com/press.