EJTHR 2019; 9(1): 27-37

Research Article

Mourad Mansour*, Alhassan G Mumuni Motivations and attitudes toward domestic in https://doi.org/10.2478/ejthr-2019-0004 received February 25, 2019; accepted May 3, 2019 1 Introduction

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest tourism gen- Abstract: Beginning with the establishment of a Supreme erating market in the (World Tourism Organ- Commission for Tourism and Antiquities’ (SCTA) in 2000, ization [WTO], 2019). According to the Supreme Commis- there have been official attempts by the government of sion for Tourism and Antiquities’ (SCTA) (2014) forecasts, Saudi Arabia to encourage domestic tourism in order to domestic tourist trips in Saudi Arabia are expected to reach tap into the huge amounts that Saudis spend annually 128 million in 2020. These trips are expected to contribute on vacations. This paper examines the motivations and $70.9 billion (SAR 263.1 billion) in total to the country’s attitudes of consumers toward tourism destinations and GDP in 2019. According to the same source, the tourism activities within the country (domestic tourism). Using contribution to GDP in 2020 will exceed 7%. Vision 2030 data collected through a structured self-administered has set aside $64 billion to invest in culture, leisure and questionnaire, the study finds that familiarity and trust entertainment projects over the next decade, which will of the local environment, perceptions of the safer domes- significantly add to the attractiveness of the country as a tic environment, and limitations imposed by respond- touristic destination (WTM, 2019). ents’ vacation timing are the primary motives for choos- As an additional means to diversify the Saudi ing to spend their vacations locally, while lack of quality economy away from oil by tapping into this huge Saudi domestic tourist sites and services (including entertain- vacation expenditure, in April 2000, the SCTA was estab- ment facilities), lack of tourism information, insufficient lished to develop and promote tourism in the Kingdom. tourism organization services, and the harsh local envi- Since its establishment, the SCTA has been active in ronmental conditions during summer are factors that developing plans to expand the country’s capabilities as ‘push’ people from spending the vacations locally. Atti- a tourist destination by focusing on showcasing the diver- tudes toward domestic tourism are generally negative, sity of archaeological and historical sites in the country, as although there are significant differences in attitudes well as its high-quality infrastructure and modern attrac- between respondents who prefer domestic destinations tions. The SCTA has stressed the importance of develop- and those who prefer to travel out of Kingdom. Implica- ing tourism in the Kingdom and urged the Saudi business tions of the findings are outlined and discussed. community to invest and contribute to the implementa- Keywords: Domestic tourism; Motivation; Attitude; Saudi tion of tourism projects in the country. SCTA is optimistic Arabia and hopeful that these efforts will help promote domestic tourism to Saudi vacationers. Clearly, the success of these plans and expectations require a good understanding of Saudi vacation tourism behaviour. Yet with only a few exceptions, there is a dearth of published studies on this subject. The purpose of this study was to fill this dearth by examining motiva- tions and attitudes toward domestic tourism among con- sumers in Saudi Arabia (both nationals and expatriates), *Corresponding author: Mourad Mansour, Department of Manage- that is, it examines factors motivating them to spend ment and Marketing, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Mine- their vacations visiting domestic destinations rather than rals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, E-mail: [email protected] travel abroad. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following Alhassan G Mumuni, Department of Marketing, Western Michigan research questions: University, Kalamazoo, USA

Open Access. ©  Mourad Mansour, Alhassan G Mumuni published by Sciendo. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons At- tribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives . License. 28 M. Mansour, A. G Mumuni

1. What are the key factors affecting consumers’ deci- study methodology is presented in the following section, sions to spend or not spend their vacations visiting followed by the analysis and the results section, and domestic tourism destinations in Saudi Arabia? In finally, we present the conclusions and recommendations. particular, a) what specific factors ‘pull’ consumers in Saudi Arabia to international tourism destinations? b) what specific factors ‘push’ consumers in Saudi 2 Literature review Arabia away from domestic tourism destinations? The tourism destination choice decision is a complex one 2. What is the nature of consumer attitudes toward that involves, among other factors, individuals’ motiva- domestic tourism in Saudi Arabia? tions, past experiences, and information collected about potential destinations (Prayag & Hosany, 2014; Seyidov & 3. Do the motivations and attitudes vary across demo- Adomaitiene, 2016; Abdul Aziz et al., 2018). In particular, graphic and psychographic segments of the popula- the role of motives in vacation and tourism choice deci- tion, and if so, are there clearly identifiable psycho- sions has received considerable attention in the literature. graphic segments in the domestic tourism market in In vacation and tourism decision-making, the Saudi Arabia? recourse to motives seeks to answer the question ‘why does a person choose to travel on vacation, and what The study has both academic and managerial significance. determines his or her choice of vacation destination?’. It From an academic standpoint, it adds to and extends the is generally believed that for any particular market, the few previous studies on Saudi vacation tourists (e.g., answer to this question is essential to predicting future Seddon & Khoja, 2003; Bogari et al., 2004; Mumuni & vacation/tourism travel patterns, and can help suppliers Mansour, 2014) in three important respects. First, contrary in the tourism industry develop appropriate marketing to Seddon and Khoja (2003), it focuses on motivations of strategies to attract tourists. Accordingly, there have been both citizens and expatriate residents of Saudi Arabia to several attempts to answer this question (e.g., Gray, 1970; undertake travel to domestic destinations as part of their Lundberg, 1971; Iso-Ahola, 1987; Witt & Wright, 1992; Uysal annual vacation. Second, in addition to examining pull & Hagan, 1993; Yousefi & Marzuki, 2012; Kasim et al., 2013; and push motivations, we also examine attitudes toward Nassar et al., 2015; Abdul Aziz et al., 2018). domestic tourist destinations in Saudi Arabia, extending Lundberg (1971) proposed a list of 18 motivational the work of Bogari et al. (2004). This inclusion is impor- factors, which he subsequently categorized into four tant because while motivations are relevant only for those main groups – educational and cultural, relaxation and who choose to visit domestic destinations, attitudes are pleasure, ethnic, and other motives (e.g., weather, health, more ubiquitous, can provide additional information on sports, and sociological motives). In an exploratory study the drivers of domestic tourism, and can help distinguish involving a large number of unstructured interviews, domestic vacationers from those who choose not to vaca- Crompton (1979) identified seven push motives (escape tion domestically. Third, in contrast to Bogari et al. (2004), from a perceived mundane environment, exploration the present study focuses on non-religious tourism, and and evaluation of self, relaxation, prestige, regression, includes a broader range of vacation possibilities than enhancement of kinship relationships, and facilitation the nature-based recreation studied by Seddon and Khoja of social interaction) and two pull motives (novelty and (2003). Thus, this study has the potential to contribute to education). In his motivation theory of travel choice deci- a broader academic understanding of domestic tourism sions, Iso-Ahola (1987) proposed four travel and leisure behaviour in an important country in the Arab and Islamic motivation dimensions and divided the push and pull world. From a managerial perspective, the study provides factors into personal and interpersonal factors. According valuable information to aid the SCTA in its efforts at devel- to him, people are motivated to find leisure pursuits in oping, promoting, and encouraging domestic tourism order to leave behind the personal and/or interpersonal among citizens and expatriates of Saudi Arabia. Based problems of everyday life and to obtain personal and/or on the study findings, we develop recommendations for interpersonal rewards from their chosen leisure pursuit. developing domestic tourism promotion strategic plans Shoemaker (1994) suggests that a tourist will choose and campaigns to help the SCTA realize its goals. the destination or type of vacation that will best satisfy In the next section, the relevant tourism literature that his/her needs and desires. He provides a list of the most formed the basis for the study and from which ideas for important travel motives, including factors reflecting edu- measuring study constructs were derived is reviewed. The Motivations and attitudes toward domestic tourism in Saudi Arabia 29 cation motives (e.g., attending special events, visiting were related to certain demographic, socio-economic and historical sites); relaxation and pleasure seeking motives travel trip characteristics. (e.g., having a good time, or a romantic experience); In sum, there is a considerable amount of previous ethnic motives (e.g., visiting places of family origin); and research on people’s travel and tourism decision-mak- a group of sundry motives (e.g., sports, conformity with ing. However, Witt and Wright (1992) and Uysal and neighbours/relatives). Middleton and Clarke (2002) devel- Hagan (1993) have suggested that consumer motivations oped a generalized theory of travel motivation in which differ between individuals and from one decision-mak- they lay out six motives for traveling, namely, (i) busi- ing context to another. Moreover, they are inherently ness-related, (ii) physical and physiological, (iii) cultural/ dynamic, that is, past experiences can and are usually physiological/personal/educational, (iv) social/interper- incorporated. Accordingly, one cannot directly extend the sonal and ethnic, (v) enjoying the company of and visiting findings of studies that have examined the travel behav- friends and relatives, and (vi) entertainment/amusement/ iour of consumers in other national contexts to those of pleasure, and (vii) religious motives. Saudi Arabia. Moreover, majority of the past studies have In view of the proliferation of travel and tourism tended to focus on out-of-country tourism. With a few motives in the literature, some attempts have been made exceptions (e.g., Huybers, 2003), domestic tourism has to develop simple but parsimonious categorizations for been relatively less studied. Finally, in the case of Saudi these motives. One such categorization that has attracted Arabia, although the two studies described earlier do considerable research interest is the classification into focus on domestic tourism, they have some limitations. push and pull motives (Lundberg, 1971; Crompton, Bogari et al. (2004) identified nine push factors and nine 1979; Nikjoo & Ketabi, 2015). Push motives are typically pull factors that help explain domestic tourism behaviour socio-psychological factors that motivate an individual to in Saudi Arabia. However, their study sample was drawn travel. On the other hand, pull motives are typically desti- from only and . On the other hand, Seddon nation-related qualities (such as infrastructure or cultural and Khoja (2003) focused mainly on demographic pro- attractions) that influence the destination choice process, files, travel patterns, and interest in nature-based recrea- once the initial desire of traveling has been established. In tion and travel to protected wildlife sites in Saudi Arabia; essence then, pull factors draw individuals to a particular and their sample consisted entirely of Saudis to the exclu- destination after they have been pushed into wanting to sion of expatriates living in the country (about 25% of the travel. population). Another classification is suggested by Gray (1970), The present study is broader and addresses these lim- in which travel motives are categorized into ‘wanderlust’ itations. It also extends the findings of these studies by and ‘sunlust’ motives. ‘Wanderlust’ (literally meaning the examining attitudes towards domestic tourist destinations desire to travel) is described as the desire to exchange in Saudi Arabia. This inclusion is important because while the known for the unknown, to leave the familiar and to motivations are relevant only for those who choose to visit go and see different places, people and cultures. It also domestic destinations, attitudes are more ubiquitous, can includes the desire to visit places for their historical mon- provide additional information on the drivers of domestic uments and associations (and see relics of the past), or for tourism, and can help distinguish domestic vacationers their current fashions and contributions to society. The from those who choose not to vacation domestically. The ‘sunlust’ (literally the search for the sun) motive on the study also focuses mainly on non-religious tourism, and other hand, is characterized by the urge to travel to places includes the domestic tourism behaviour of expatriates that possess better amenities for a specific purpose (such living in the Kingdom. as sports) than are available in the individual’s usual domicile. Other influences on travel and tourism deci- sion-making have also been suggested in the literature. Mourinho (1987) found that the decision to travel was 3 Methodology affected by forces beyond the individual’s role and family Data for the study were collected in a survey conducted in influence, reference groups, social class, and culture and the major cities of Saudi Arabia using a structured self-ad- subculture. He found that tourism decisions involve the ministered questionnaire. Both and English ver- complex interaction of opinion leadership, tourist self-im- sions of the questionnaire were distributed; the English age, information, memory, tourist sources of communi- version was used to cater for the large number of non-Ar- cation, travel motivators, attitudes, and perceived risk. abic speaking expatriates living in Saudi Arabia. The Sheldon and Mak (1987) found that travellers’ decisions 30 M. Mansour, A. G Mumuni questionnaire was initially designed in English and later approaches were used to obtain the sample for the study. translated into Arabic using standard back translation In the convenience sampling part, a mall-intercept sam- procedures. Consistent with the extant tourism literature, pling process was implemented. Cooperation was solicited a number of other key issues were also addressed in the from the management of four large shopping malls in four questionnaire, such as incidence of domestic tourism Saudi cities (, Al-, , and Jeddah) among the population, general vacation preferences, per- for research assistants to mount questionnaire comple- ceived barriers to domestic tourism, importance of various tion booths during one weekend. The assistants then factors influencing choice of vacation destination, pre- intercepted shoppers in the mall, and personally solicited ferred vacation activities, and general vacation travel pref- their cooperation in filling out the questionnaires at the erences. Respondents also provided socio-demographic booth. The snowballing part of the sampling was used to information. reach female respondents. Because of the strict separa- Of these, the key constructs for this paper are motiva- tion between the sexes in Saudi Arabia, male interviewers tions and attitudes toward domestic tourism. To measure cannot contact female respondents directly to request for motivations, respondents were presented with a list of participation in surveys. Thus, the assistants used the help statements about possible reasons why people living in of female members of their families to recruit an initial set the Kingdom (both Saudis and non-Saudis) do NOT spend of willing female respondents who were then requested to their annual vacations visiting places in the Kingdom and recruit their friends and family members to complete the asked to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement survey. Four hundred and fifty-five (455) usable question- on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly agree; 5 = Strongly naires were collected. Because of the mall-intercept meth- disagree). Similarly, attitudes were measured by provid- odology adopted, it is not possible to indicate a response ing respondents with a set of statements about spending rate. Socio-demographic profile of the sample is shown one’s annual vacation visiting places in the Kingdom and in Table 1. Males constitute around 60% of the sample. asked to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement. Majority of respondents is in the age group 18–30 years A similar 5-point response scale was used (1 = Strongly (57%), earn between SR 5,000 and SR 15,000 (US$ 1,333– disagree; 5 = Strongly agree). The lists for both motiva- 4,000) and hold a University degree or diploma. tions and attitudes were obtained through a combination of literature review, focus group discussion and sentence completion tests as part of an initial exploratory study. The focus groups and sentence completion tests were con- 4 Analysis and results ducted using participants of an MBA class taught by one of the authors. The discussions were particularly directed at 4.1 Incidence and Motivations toward identifying Saudi-specific vacation-related factors/activ- Domestic Tourism in Saudi Arabia (Pull ities that could to be added to those obtained from the Factors) literature. Following these, a pilot survey was conducted to test the resulting lists and scales before administering Motivations toward domestic tourism are relevant mostly them in the larger survey. This pilot test used a sample for respondents who have ever spent their vacation vis- of 15 undergraduate students who were asked to fill the iting domestic destinations. Accordingly, in the ques- questionnaire in the presence of one of the authors, who tionnaire, respondents were asked to indicate whether in monitored the relevance of individual scale items as well the past 5 years, they had ever spent their annual vaca- as potential difficulties faced by respondents in complet- tion visiting any place in Saudi Arabia other than the ing the questionnaire. Problems with the questionnaire two religious cities of Makkah and Madinah. were then streamlined for use in the larger study. Those who answered in the affirmative (about 41.2% of the sample, i.e., 186 respondents) then indicated which of the six reasons/motives in Table 2 explains their deci- 3.1 Sampling and data collection sion to spend their vacation visiting domestic destina- tions. As shown in Table 2, the most frequently selected The non-existence of sampling frames in Saudi Arabia motive for domestic tourism is familiarity and trust of the and the associated problems in sampling have been doc- local environment. This is followed by perceptions of the umented elsewhere in the literature (e.g., Abdul-Muhmin, safer domestic environment and limitations imposed by 1998). This was true also for the present study. Accord- respondents’ vacation timing. These are the ‘pull’ factors ingly, a combination of convenience and snowballing Motivations and attitudes toward domestic tourism in Saudi Arabia 31

Table 1: Sample demographics

Variable Count % Variable Count %

Age Monthly income* <   . < SR ,  . –   . SR ,–,  . –  . SR ,–,  . –  . SR ,–,  . –  . SR ,– ,  . –  . Over SR ,  . –  . Total    Over   . Total  

Gender Nationality Male  . Saudi  . Female  . Expatriate  . Total   Total  

Education Marital status Elementary  . Single  . Intermediate  . Married  . High School  . Missing   Diploma  . University Degree  . Other  . Total  

* SR = ; US . = SR ..

Table 2: Reasons for spending vacation locally. Table 3: Vacation destination preferences and current year plans

Reason % Yes* General Plan for this year

To spend vacation in a familiar place with  . Destination Frequency Percent Frequency Percent people you know and trust In the Kingdom   .   . Felt it was much safer in the Kingdom than . Out of the Kingdom   .   . most foreign destinations Total  .   Vacation timing did not allow going abroad . Just did not want to go abroad . Felt it would be much cheaper to spend the . Respondents were also asked to indicate where they vacation locally destination generally prefer to spend their annual vacation as well as To enjoy the good tourism facilities availa- . their plans for the current year vacation. Both were dichot- ble locally omous questions with response options ‘in the Kingdom’ Other . and ‘out of the Kingdom’. The distribution of responses to both questions are in Table 3, while Table 4 shows a cross- * Percentages do not add up to  because respondents could tabulation of the responses. select more than one reason. The majority of respondents (73%) indicate a pref- erence for spending their annual vacation outside the that motivate people to choose to spend their vacations Kingdom. Similarly, the majority of respondents plan to locally. spend the current year’s vacation out of the Kingdom. Not 32 M. Mansour, A. G Mumuni

Table 4: Crosstabulation of general vacation preferences and plan for current year’s vacation

General vacation destination In the Kingdom Out of the Kingdom Total preference

   In the Kingdom (.%) ( .%) (.%)    Out of the Kingdom  (.%) (.%) (.%)     Total ( .%) (.%) (.%)

Pearson Chi-Square = .; p < . surprisingly, a crosstabulation between general vacation each mean and the scale mid-point of 3. The results are preferences and current year vacation plans indicates a arranged in order of descending means to indicate an high correlation between the two (Table 4). Majority of ordering from the most important to the least important respondents who generally prefer to spend their vacations barriers to domestic tourism. It is worth noting that from out of the Kingdom also plan to do so for the current year the respondents’ point of view, all the listed factors are (70.6% versus 29.4% who plan to spend it in-Kingdom). important push factors. In relative terms, however, the Similarly, majority of those who generally prefer to vaca- three most important are lack of availability of quality tion in-Kingdom also plan to do so this year (86.4% versus tourist/entertainment sites, poor quality of domestic 13.6% who plan to spend it out-of-Kingdom). tourism services, and lack of tourism information. Together, the results for general vacation preferences, The reasons were factor analysed to identify a reduced current year vacation plans, and the crosstabulation set of broader barriers to domestic tourism using principal between the two indicate a significant lack of preference components analysis with varimax rotation. Four factors for domestic tourism. Just around a quarter of our sample were extracted (Table 6) that together accounted for (about 27%) respondents indicate a preference for spend- 59.15% of the variance. The factors were named ‘Informa- ing their annual vacations visiting domestic destinations. tion’, ‘Quality of facilities’, ‘Environmental Factors’, and This figure contrasts sharply with what Seddon (2003) ‘Tourism Organization’. found. In his study, 59% of his sample preferred to spend To obtain further insight into the data, responses their vacations domestically. This huge decline in the pro- to the four factors in Table 6 were compared between portion of respondents preferring to spend their vacation those who generally prefer to spend the annual vacation domestically (from 59% to 27%) is possibly because his in-Kingdom and those who prefer out of Kingdom using study was conducted after September 11, 2001 and his independent samples t-test (Table 7). sample included only men. Across the board, out-of-Kingdom respondents tend to agree more that the four factors are barriers to domestic tourism. However, the differences between their percep- 4.2 Barriers to Domestic Tourism (Push tions and those of in-Kingdom respondents are statisti- Factors) cally significant only for the environment and tourism organization factors. To ascertain factors that ‘push’ consumers from spend- ing their vacations locally, respondents were also pro- vided a list of possible reasons why people living in the 4.3 Attitudes toward Domestic Tourism Kingdom may not spend their annual vacations visiting places in the country and asked to indicate their level of To ascertain attitudes toward domestic tourism, respond- agreement or disagreement with each statement using a ents were provided with a list of possible descriptive 5-point Likert scale (1= Strongly agree; 5 = Strongly disa- statements and asked to indicate the extent to which they gree). The list was generated from the focus group discus- believe each statement is a true or false descriptor of Saudi sions conducted during the exploratory research phase. residents who choose to spend their annual vacations vis- Table 5 shows means on the responses, as well as results iting places in the country. A 5-point response scale was for one-sample t-tests to examine the differences between used (1 = Absolutely True; 5 = Absolutely False). The state- Motivations and attitudes toward domestic tourism in Saudi Arabia 33

Table 5: Ranking of reasons why people do not spend vacations visiting domestic destinations

Reason Mean SD t* The existing tourism sites are not well maintained . . - . The quality of domestic tourism services is poor compared to other foreign destinations . . - . Lack of tourism information (e.g. maps, guides, etc.) . .  -. There are no entertainment places like cinemas, theatres . . -. There are no local package tours (group tourism plans) . .  -. People don’t know about good tourism sites in KSA . . -. The weather is unfavourable during the annual vacations . .  -. Most tourist attractions in KSA are for families only . . - . There are no good festivals during the vacation periods . .  -. The expenses for visiting local places is much higher than for some foreign destinations . . -. It is difficult to get suitable bookings on Saudi Airlines to local tourism destinations . . -. There are no good natural attractions like rivers, mountains, etc. . . -.

There is nothing new to explore . .  -.

* p < . for all the t-values

Table 6: Factor analysis of barriers to domestic tourism in Saudi Arabia

Factors Loading

F: Information

People don’t know about good tourism sites in the Kingdom .

Lack of tourism information (e.g., maps, guides, etc.) to help people .

F : Quality of Facilities

The existing tourism sites are not well maintained .

The expenses incurred visiting local places is much higher than for some foreign destinations .

The quality of domestic tourism services is poor compared to other foreign destinations .

It is difficult to get suitable bookings on Saudi Airlines to local tourism destinations .

F: Environment

There are no entertainment places like cinemas, theatres, etc. .

There is nothing new to explore .

The weather is unfavourable during the annual vacations .

F: Tourism Organization

There are no good festivals during the vacation periods .

There are no local package tours (group tourism plans) .

ments were derived from the sentence completions tests On the whole, respondents believe that residents who conducted during the exploratory research phase. Mean choose to spend their vacations locally do so because they scores on the responses and results of one-sample t-tests have family in the places they are visiting, because they to examine differences between each mean and the scale have large family sizes, and because they are conserva- mid-point of 3 are shown in Table 8, arranged in order of tive and very religious. To obtain further insight into the descending means to indicate an ordering from the most data, the responses were factor analysed to ascertain if true to the least true descriptors. the attitude statements can be reduced to a smaller set of 34 M. Mansour, A. G Mumuni

Table 7: Differences in perceived domestic tourism barriers by general vacation preference

General Vacation Preference Barrier In-Kingdom (n = ) Out of Kingdom (n =  ) t Sig Information . . . . Quality of facilities .  . . .  Environment . . . . Tourism organization . . . .

Table 8: Attitude statements about spending vacations locally

People who spend vacation locally… Mean SD t

have family in the places they are visiting . . -. have big families . . -. are conservatives . .  -. are very religious . . -. are very concerned about their safety . . -.  just want to satisfy their families that they have taken them somewhere, no matter where. . . - . have limited income . . - . do not have the time to go abroad . . - . are good decision makers . .  . * are mostly expatriates . . .

* p > .; all other t-values have p-values less than .. attitudinal dimensions. Principal components analysis dimension and marginally significant for the constraints with varimax rotation extracted three factors that together dimension. accounted for 58.33% of the variance. One of the state- ments had loadings less than the threshold for all three factors and was dropped from the final list of factors and variables (Table 9). 5 Conclusions and Based on the factor loadings, the factors were named recommendations as ‘Constraints’, ‘Conservatism’, and ‘Safety Conscious- ness’. Respondents think that patrons of domestic tourism The objective of this study was to examine motivations are either constrained (by income, time, or family size), and attitudes toward domestic tourism among consumers are conservative or are safety-conscious and prefer the living in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, with regard to moti- comfort of their familiar and trusted local environment, vations, we sought to identify the key ‘pull’ and ‘push’ even if it does not have very much to offer. factors affecting consumers’ decisions to spend (or not Responses to the three attitude dimensions in Table spend) their vacations visiting domestic tourism destina- 9 were further compared for respondents who generally tions in Saudi Arabia. For attitudes, our goal was to under- prefer to spend the annual vacation in-Kingdom and those stand how consumers feel about the idea of spending who prefer out of Kingdom using independent samples their annual vacations locally rather than travel to inter- t-test (Table 10). national destinations. We also sought to uncover tourist Across the board, out-of-Kingdom respondents tend psychographic segments in the population, if any. We to have more negative attitudes toward domestic tourism used a structured self-administered survey methodology. than in-Kingdom respondents. However, the differences Prior to examining the motives for domestic tourism, are highly statistically significant for the safety attitude we examined the incidence of domestic tourism and found that within the past 5 years, around 41% of respondents Motivations and attitudes toward domestic tourism in Saudi Arabia 35

Table 9: Factor analysis of domestic tourism attitude statements

Factors/Variables Loading

F: Constraints People who spend vacation locally have limited income . People who spend vacation locally do not have the time to go abroad . People who spend vacation locally have big families . F : Conservatism People who spend vacation locally are very religious . People who spend vacation locally are conservatives . People who spend vacation locally have family in the places they are visiting . F: Safety Consciousness People who spend vacation locally are good decision makers . People who spend vacation locally are very concerned about their safety .

Table 10: Differences in attitudes toward domestic tourism by general vacation preference

Factor In-Kingdom (n = ) Out of Kingdom (n =  ) t Sig

Constraints . . . . Conservatism . . .  .  Safety .  . .  .

in our sample had spent their annual vacation visiting factors that ‘push’ people from spending the vacations domestic destinations. Interestingly, this figure is far locally are lack of quality domestic tourist sites and ser- below the 27% who generally prefer to spend their vaca- vices (including entertainment facilities), lack of tourism tions domestically, or the 28.5% who planned to do so information, and insufficient tourism organization ser- during the survey year. Also, the 27% who generally prefer vices, and the harsh local environmental conditions to spend their vacations domestically contrasts sharply during summer. with Seddon & Khoja’s (2003) finding that 59% of people Although the SCTA and other tourism and hospital- living in Saudi Arabia prefer to spend their vacations ity industry participants have no control over the harsh domestically. We have alluded to the possibility that this summer environmental conditions, they do have control huge decline in the proportion of respondents preferring over the quality of tourism information and organization. to spend their vacation domestically (from 59% to 27%) It is imperative on these industry actors to enhance the could be because his study was conducted immediately quality of tourism facilities, develop an efficient tourism after September 11 and included only males in his sample. information system and facilitate better tourism organi- On the motives for spending vacations domestically, zation to promote domestic tourism among citizens and we find that familiarity and trust of the local environment, expatriates living in the Kingdom. perceptions of the safer domestic environment, and limi- On attitudes toward domestic tourism, we find that tations imposed by respondents’ vacation timing are the people generally view patrons of domestic tourism as primary motives for people choosing to spend their vaca- those that are either constrained by income, time, or tions locally. These are the ‘pull’ factors towards domestic family size, are conservative, or are safety-conscious and tourism. These findings, even for the present study, rein- prefer the comfort of their familiar and trusted local envi- force the suggestion above that the high preferences for ronment, even if it does not have very much to offer. It is domestic vacations in 2003 was probably due to feelings important to point out here that these attitudes cannot of insecurity and concerns about how they will be treated be viewed in isolation of the push factors discussed internationally after September 11. At the same time, the earlier. In essence, respondents seem to be indicating that 36 M. Mansour, A. 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