Come away with me: the uses and gratifications of leisure travel magazine readership
Abstract
This study examines the uses and gratifications of reading leisure travel magazines. A mixed method was applied. It sought to confirm four motivations based on past research and to find new motivations. Furthermore, it aimed to correlate these motivations with intensity of one's intent to travel to foreign places, one's frequency of domestic travel, one's frequency of foreign travel and the intensity of one's interest in foreign places. Finally, it examined whether a difference in motivations existed between primarily print readers and primarily electronic readers. Ten interviews with leisure travel magazines readers were conducted, and then an online survey was administered in which 269 people responded (231 actually completed). This study confirmed four motivations (Surveillance, Interaction, Diversion, and Guidance) from previous research and found two new motivations, Inspiration and Retrospection. Furthermore, it discovered that people who frequently travel domestically are more likely to be motivated by Inspiration to read leisure travel magazines and that people who have high interest in foreign places are motivated to read as a form of diversion and to obtain guidance. No significant relationship was found between motivations and intensity of one's intent to travel to foreign places or one's frequency of foreign travel. Additionally, no significant difference in motivations exists between primarily print platform readers and primarily electronic platform readers.
Degree
M.A.