Stanley Plog’s Theory
One of the first attempts to provide a framework within which to analyze tourist behavior was developed by Dr. Stanley C. Plog in 1972. Plog classified the U.S. population along a psychographic continuum – ranging from the psychocentrics at one extreme to the allocentrics at the other and most falling in the mid-centric class in the term “psychocentric” is derived from psyche or self-centered, meaning preoccupied with oneself or one’s own affairs i.e., centering of one’s thought or concerns on the small problem areas of one’s life.

Allocentric, on the other hand, has its origin in the core word alio, meaning, “varied in form”. An allocentric person, thus, is sociable, informal and self-confident. He is characterized by a considerable degree of adventure and an enthusiasm to get as far as and experiment with life.
For the allocentric, travel is a means to express inquisitiveness and satisfy curiosity. By virtue of intensive study, Plog further revealed an interesting phenomenon. While the people at the upper end of the income spectrum were found to be mainly allocentrics, those with the lower income levels were psychocentrics, expected to be seeking for the respective type of destinations.
However, such a relationship may not be that categorical i.e., severe economy constraints may falsify the classification in terms of psychographics. In other words, it may be erroneous as well as illogical to infer that an individual belonging to the budgetary class is always likely to be psychocentric.
Again, Plog agrees that only a little positive correlation between middle income groups and psychographic types is indicated. That is, for this category, income level and psychographics are not closely related and because of relatively higher income, people can choose the preferred type of holiday.
Having given the types of destinations and types of tourists, an explicit, direct linkage between the two classifications does not take into account the significant fact that individuals travel with diverse motivations at different times.
The development of a systematic linkage capable of forecasting travel patterns precisely depends upon two factors – a tourist may have different reasons in different travels, and a particular holiday/ destination is capable of providing multifarious travel experiences suitable to a large number of tourists, depending on the manner in which the tour is designed. In other words, such a linkage warrants the consideration of each trip in isolation and an exploration of the motivations prompting the same.
As suggested in the above figure, travel motivations relate types of tourists (psychographics) and types of destinations in two ways – One, the primary link in terms of tourist flow and tourist satisfaction that will follow when a visitor is guided to the befitting and felicitous type of destination.
For maximum tourist satisfaction, a clear understanding of tourist’s psychological profile and, hence, his/her travel motivations for that specific trip is required. Once these are known, the appropriate types of tour packages (escorted or unescorted, fully planned or pliable), the types of destinations and the types of travel experiences most suited to tourist’s needs and liable to yield uttermost contentment can be recommended.
Two, the secondary link concerns promotion, development, and marketing of tourism in appropriate target markets. It is also true that the knowledge of travel motivations is essential in planning advertising and other promotional strategies.
A comprehension of the types of tourists and travel motivations of such markets will, on the one hand, enable the industry to perceive the types of environment and services to be offered at the destination, and will underlie the message content of the promotion campaign, on the other.
Abraham Maslow’s Theory Abraham Harold Maslow (1 April 1908 – 8 June 1970) was an American psychologist who developed the concept of a hierarchy of human needs ( Malsow 1943), beginning from the basic physiological needs of friendship, love and security, and moving up to the more high level self-actualisation needs, as a human being develops and become more affluent. This model is often portrayed in the form of a pyramid, where the base-levels are identified at the larger sections in the pyramid, of safety and security needs, while the higher-level needs reside towards the apex of the pyramid, indicating that only a lesser number of people eventually reach this level of development. 2.0 Sustainability concerns in tourism
While it is certain that tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries (WTTC 2012), there is no doubt that tourism has a very great impact on the environment. Tourism and travel has been identified as one of the significant contributors to global warming and carbon emissions. Therefore, of late there have been rising concerns about the impact that tourism has on the environment. With people becoming more concerned about global warming and becoming aware of the need to protect the environment, there is now a fast emerging trend, where more and more tourists are beginning to choose destinations and tourism products that embrace good, Environment–friendly Sustainable Operations (ESO) or Sustainable Consumption Practices (SCP). Kouni, the large Swiss tour operator quoted an Association of British Travel Agents study in 2010, which indicated that 22% of their customers actively seek a sustainable holiday product.
This has fuelled a new form of tourism, labelled with many names such as eco-tourism, nature tourism, sustainable tourism etc. In response to these demands, more and more hotels and tourism service providers are beginning to genuinely embrace and practice energy, water, waste and environmental management initiatives. 3.0 The Evolving Tourists Expectation Model (ETEM)
Based on the above trends, the authors have developed an ‘Evolving Tourists Expectation Model’ (ETEM), which identifies the evolving expectations of tourists, towards being concerned about Environmental-friendly Sustainable Operation (ESO) in the tourism products and offerings they purchase. This is actually a gradual process of education, learning and evolution, where the bulk of the tourists (possibly during their first ever holidays abroad) would be satisfied with the basic needs of a good hotel and location at bargain prices. However, as they become more mature travellers and become more sensitised to global environmental issues, they would begin to be concerned about what form of products and services they are purchasing, and how well the service providers embrace ESOs.
The destination itself will mature and evolve over time, from being a cheap run-of-the–mill product, to an environmentally responsible tourist offering, embracing ESOs in response to market demands.
This process of this evolution has been fitted into the Maslow pyramid to establish the ETEM model by the authors. 4.0 Levels of tourist’s expectations in relation to environmental practices
1.Tourists who are easy to satisfy with basic products at cheap prices. These Tourists aim to get ‘good deals’ and usually are not too worried about lack of environmentally-friendly practices in hotels. This category is most often the budget traveller.
2.Tourists who are satisfied with good core products in hotels such as rooms, facilities and food. These tourists aim to get ‘good products’ at ‘good value’, and are usually not that worried about a lack of environmentally-friendly practices in hotels. They usually travel on a limited budget.
3.Tourists who are expecting basic ESOs in addition to good core products in hotels. These tourists aim to stay only at hotels who have initiated environmentally-friendly practices. Most of the current day tourists belong to this segment. Globally this segment is expected to increase with more and more people becoming concerned about global warming and environmental issues. This category will pay slightly more in pursuit of such product and service offerings.
4.Tourists who are insisting on experiencing good ESO and enjoy these practices immensely. These tourists will stay only at hotels who have well-established and well-managed environmentally-friendly, sustainable practices. They will usually pay a higher ‘green premium’ for this.
5.Tourists who would not stay in any hotel which does not have excellent ESO. These tourists are usually spiritual about the concept of sustainability and actively participate and contribute to ESO during their hotels stays. They will pay a premium price to experience a more wholesome and richer experience, such as reconnecting with nature.