Revisiting the Push–Pull Tourist Motivation Model: A Theoretical and Empirical Justification for a Reflective–Formative Structure

This study introduces a novel reflective–formative hierarchical model specification for the classic push–pull tourist motivation construct, aligning its measurement with the theoretical distinction between intrinsic “push” drives and external “pull” attributes. Unlike the traditional reflective-reflective structuring of tourist motivation we defied the higher order factors (novelty, knowledge and facilities as formative. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on a purposive sample of 319 international tourists, we empirically validate the reflective–formative (reflective first-order, formative second-order) model. The reflective–formative model showed a superior fit and predictive power: it explained substantially more variance in key outcome constructs (social motives (R2 = 53.60) and self-actualization (R2 = 23.10)) than the traditional reflective–reflective specification (social motives (R2 = 49.30) and self-actualization (R2 = 21.70)), which is consistent with best-practice guidelines for theoretically grounded models. In contrast, the incorrectly specified reflective–reflective model showed stronger effects between unrelated constructs, supporting concerns that choosing the wrong type of measurement model can lead to incorrect conclusions. By reconciling the push–pull theory with measurement design, this work’s main contributions are a theoretically justified reflective–formative model for tourist motivation, and evidence of its empirical benefits. These findings highlight a methodological innovation in motivation modeling and underscore that modeling push–pull motives formatively yields more accurate insights for theory and practice.