Push-pull Motivating Factors that Influence Local Tourists to Travel within their Country Case Study of the District of Tirana, Albania

The tourism industry is the fastest-growing industry in the global economy. Tourism is always related to human beings and human nature, so it is important to investigate why people travel and analyze their tourism experiences. This paper focuses on the study of motivational factors that influence the decision of Albanians to travel within their country, the importance of domestic tourism, and the degree of influence of these factors on tourism demand. Understanding tourists’ motivations for visiting destinations is important as it helps the market segmentation and allows tourism stakeholders to target them correctly. Data were collected through a well-structured and randomly administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Several 250 questionnaires were distributed in the city of Tirana, but only 200 were collected in total, which can be considered a limitation of the study in generalizing the findings to the entire study population. The study identified four main driving motives when residents travel within the country that proved to be important for the interviewers such as relaxation, local food, language, economic price of housing, and also five attractive factors such as beach, climate, knowledge, entertainment, and culture when traveling to Albanian destinations. These findings can benefit stakeholders in identifying the internal motivations of their potential customers, as well as help marketers who, knowing what motivates local tourists, can create a positive image of the destination, as well as products to attract domestic tourists to these destinations.