The influence of distance and prices on the choice of tourist destinations: The moderating role of motivations

The literature of tourist destination choice pays great attention to the direct impact of the attributes of “distance to the destination” and “prices of the destination”, but does not reach any consensus around them regarding their—inhibitory or attraction—effect. Alternatively, our study proposes that the effects of distance and prices are moderated by tourist motivations at the moment of choosing a destination, which leads us to make hypotheses to explain this decision through the interaction between destination attributes and the personal motivations of the individual tourists. The methodology applied estimates random coefficient logit models, which control possible correlations between different destinations and consider tourist heterogeneity. The empirical application carried out in Spain on a sample of 2127 individuals, shows that the dissuasive influence of distance and prices on the selection of destinations is moderated by motivations, in the sense that the motivations have a direct (increasing the dissuasive effect) or inverse (reducing the dissuasive effect) moderating effect on the influences of distance and prices.