The Addiction Phenomenon and Travel: An Exploratory Study

Background/Objectives: In order to understand tourist behavior focusing on heavy travelers, this study adopted the concept of addiction and seeks to understand what factors are important for explaining tourism addiction behavior. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Using a professional on-line research site, data were collected during November 2015. 500 valid responses were utilized for data analysis and its results were empirically analyzed. A descriptive statistical analysis and factor analysis were conducted to explore the sample. Also, t-test and ANalysis Of VAriance (ANOVA) were used to evaluate hypotheses. Findings: The study results indicate that more severe tourism addiction means a greater amount of travel trips. Compared to purpose-based groups such as those who travel for work, the groups that prefer joy and relaxation were shown to have a stronger tourism addiction and prefer traveling with family or as couples. Tourism motivation and tourism constraints of an individual were each found to have significant effects on tourism addiction. Application/Improvements: This study discovered that tourism addiction itself is the psychological result of a tourist’s attitude. However, future studies will need to study the cause of tourism addiction from various perspectives.