WebinarOnline
Understanding the modern tourist: Psychological drivers, ethical marketing and managing destination impacts
Friday, 18 December 2026
This session examines the motives, emotions and social influences behind tourist behaviour, then connects those insights with ethical marketing, visitor management and the protection of destination communities, cultures and environments.
About this event
Tourist behaviour is shaped by more than price, convenience or the appeal of individual attractions. Motives, emotions, identities, social norms and previous experience all influence how people imagine, select and interpret travel. This webinar examines these psychological drivers and considers what they mean for ethical marketing and the management of destination impacts.
The session will explore how travellers seek novelty, belonging, restoration, status or personal development, often pursuing several aims at once. It will consider how expectations form through media, memories and social comparison, then affect satisfaction and conduct during a visit. Recognising this complexity can help practitioners move beyond simple demographic categories and develop more thoughtful accounts of demand.
Marketing can respond to these insights responsibly or use them to intensify pressure. Participants will examine how messages frame desirable experiences, normalise particular behaviours and direct visitors towards specific places. The discussion will address truthful representation, vulnerable audiences and the risk that persuasive communication encourages crowding, cultural intrusion or environmentally damaging choices. It will also consider interventions that make lower impact behaviour easier and socially meaningful.
The webinar links individual psychology with collective outcomes. It asks how research can inform visitor communication, experience design and management without assuming that every traveller behaves predictably. Attendees will gain a practical framework for interpreting motivation, testing behavioural assumptions and evaluating effects on residents, environments and local culture. By combining psychological insight with ethical judgement, the session aims to support marketing that respects traveller agency while contributing to better managed and more resilient destinations.