The Choice of the Foreign Touristic Destination: An Analysis of the Motivational Factors among the Algerian Tourists

The objective of this study is to identify the motivational factors related to the choice of foreign touristic destinations among Algerian tourists. A questionnaire was distributed online and the study sample reached 318 Algerian tourists who visited at least one tourist destination outside of the country in 2018 or 2019. The data processing was done using the statistical software SPSS 28. The results showed on the one hand that the main internal motives for choosing a foreign destination are the desire to visit new places and see new natural landscapes, discover new cultures and lifestyles, and live a new travel experience. On the other hand, the main external motivations are the availability of the best quality-price ratio, the safety, and cleanliness of the destination, and the exceptional natural landscapes and historical sites.


Introduction
Tourism is an activity that is characterized by its immense development thanks to the changes that the world has experienced.The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has recorded a significant number of international tourists that reached 1.4 billion in 2019, with a 5% increase compared to 2018, and predicts that this number will reach 1.561 billion tourists in 2020 and 1.8 billion in 2030 (UNWTO, 2019) (Predictions made before the global pandemic of .
In recent years, and with the development that is taking place in the world as well as the growth that tourism has marked in different nations and due to its impact on the economies of several countries, the field of tourism marketing has experienced considerable interest by researchers and marketers, as it is a fundamental field that allows us to understand the needs and desires of tourists and even to understand their touristic behavior, since the tourist represents the key element of the tourism system and activity.
The study of tourist behavior in general and the choice of a specific touristic destination, in particular, may differ from one era to another, and from one nation to another, due to the remarkable changes that the world has undergone, but it constitutes a basis in tourism marketing, it allows the identification of the motivating factors which help marketers to better understand the needs of tourists, and thus attract them to a particular destination to ultimately satisfy them and ensure their loyalty.
The Algerian tourist today is presented with several international touristic destinations especially considering the development that the world has experienced which has resulted in the diversification of the global touristic market.The Algerian Ministry of Tourism and Handicrafts has recorded a significant number of Algerian tourists going abroad for leisure and relaxation purposes, estimated at 5731814 tourists in 2019 (MTATF, 2020), with a positive increase of 2.17% compared to the number of tourists leaving in 2018.This prompted us to ask the following main question: What are the motivating factors for the choice of a foreign touristic destination for Algerian tourists?
To answer this main question, it is important to answer these two sub-questions: 1.
Are there differences in the degrees of importance related to the motivating factors due to the sociodemographic characteristics of tourists?

2.
Are there differences in the levels of importance of motivational factors due to the previous experience of tourists?
The hypotheses formulated are: ➢ H1: There are no differences in the degrees of importance related to internal motivating factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists.
➢ H2: There are no differences in the degrees of importance related to external motivating factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists.
➢ H3: There are no differences in the degrees of importance related to internal motivating factors due to tourists' previous experiences.
➢ H4: There are no differences in the degrees of importance related to external motivating factors due to tourists' previous experiences.
The aim of this study is therefore to study the behavior of Algerian tourists when choosing a foreign touristic destination through the identification of the motivational factors that push and attract them to choose a foreign touristic destination.

Literature Review
Several theories have been interested in understanding the motivations of tourists, as motivation is a key element in explaining the behavior of the tourist consumer in choosing a touristic destination (Prayag Girish & Hosany Sameer, 2014).The origin of the theory of motivation is Maslow's theory (1943) which presents the needs of individuals in a hierarchy called Maslow's hierarchy.In 1977 Dann suggested that the motivating factors can be classified into two classes: "Anomie" which refers to getting away from it all as well as "Ego enhancement".Based on Dann's (1977) model, Crompton in 1979 identified seven socio-psychological motivations and two cultural factors or factors that guide visitors to choose their touristic destination, and among these factors "Escape from an environment", "Self-esteem", "Enhancement of family relations", "Prestige" and other factors.In 1982, Iso-Ahola confirmed that two of these factors were the main motives associated with travelers (Prayag Girish & Ryan Chris, 2011), and in 1987 he identified two main types of push and pull motivators: personal and interpersonal.In 1994, Jamrozy & Uysal adopted the push-pull model and classified the motivating factors into two groups, one representing the internal needs and desires of the tourist (push factors), and the second representing the points of strength of the touristic destination (pull factors), and subsequently, this theory has been used in marketing applications and developed in some scientific research (You Xinran, O'leary Joseph, Morrison Alastair & Hong Gong-song, 2000) due to its dynamism which allows researchers to add some other factors to the model (Nikjoo Adel & Ketabi Mahmoud, 2015).Among the studies that have dealt with the motivating factors of tourists in the choice of their touristic destination using the push & pull model are the following: The research by (Jang & Cai, 2002) aimed to find out the motivating factors of British tourists in choosing their foreign touristic destination, using the application of Crompton's model.The results showed that six of the 11 proposed factors were significant in the model, and the most famous of these factors were 'knowledge seeking' and 'cleanliness and safety of the destination'.
The study (Awaritefe, 2004) aimed at exploring the motivations of tourists in choosing Nigeria as a tourist destination.The results of this study showed that the most important motivations were: "personal development", "leisure activities", "beauty of the site", "quality of services", "facilities and location" and "accessibility of these destinations".
The research conducted by (Baharun & Ghalip, 2008) aimed to find out the motivating factors that influenced Arab tourists to choose Malaysia as a tourist destination during the September summit in the year 2004, using a questionnaire that was distributed to these tourists.The results showed that the most important factors that influenced Arab visitors were: "easy access" and "the existence of many interesting places to rest and relax".
The research (Mutinda & Mayaka, 2012) aimed at assessing the factors that determine the choice of local touristic destinations by Kenyan tourists, based on the application of Crompton's push and pull model and using a questionnaire that was distributed to 118 tourists.The results showed that push factors were more significant than pull factors in the choice of local touristic destinations by Kenyans.
The research conducted by (Siripen & Wongleedee, 2014) that aimed at identifying the internal and external motivations for choosing Thailand as a tourist destination.The results showed that the main internal motivating factors were 'having a new experience', 'learning a new culture', 'relaxing in another country', and being willing to learn new activities'.On the other hand, "Thai food", "traditional markets", "good climate", "beach and sand" and "good services" were the main external motivators that influenced tourists to choose Thailand.
The research was conducted by (Nikijoo & Ketabi, 2015) whose objective was to examine the difference between the motivations related to the leisure destination "Antalya" and the cultural destination "Istanbul" in Turkey by Iranian tourists using a questionnaire that was given to 401 tourists.The results showed that "ego enhancement" and "escape" were the most important motivating factors, and tourists who traveled for ego enhancement were those who chose the cultural destination "Istanbul".
The research by (Antara & Promeswari, 2018) whose aim was to identify the main factors related to tourists and tourist destinations according to Crompton's model, which influenced the choice of the tourist destination "Bali" using a questionnaire that was given to 100 tourists.The results showed that the most important touristrelated factors were: 'culture', 'interpersonal relationships', and 'personal development', and the destinationrelated factors were: 'climate', 'health and safety' and 'outdoor activities'.
The particularity of our study can be summarized firstly in its case study, i.e. this study is applied to Algerian tourists who have chosen a touristic destination abroad for leisure and relaxation reasons, and secondly, in the motivational factors, i.e. in our study, we tried to add new external motivational factors or pull factors to the applied push & pull motivational models, such as certain items in the quality and price factor and the variety of the tourist offer factor.

Overview of motivational factors
The term motivation refers to the state of need that drives the individual towards actions that can bring satisfaction (Moutinho Luiz,1987).In the field of tourism and travel, tourism motivation represents a psychological stimulus capable of determining the desire to travel (Mahika Elena Cristina, n.d), it is also defined as the set of forces that attract the tourist to make decisions regarding travel, choice of touristic destination (Sangpikul Aswin,2008)

a. Internal Motivation Factors:
Internal factors are also called "push factors", they are intrinsic and intangible motivations, they represent the forces and needs that come from the individual, and among these factors: are the need to rest, the need to get away, self-discovery, relaxation, adventure... etc.These factors help to answer the question: why do tourists choose a particular destination and not another (Epperson Arlin, 1983)?

b. External Motivation Factors:
External factors are also called "pull factors", they represent the attributes of the destination that influence when, where, and how tourists travel (Prayag Girish & Ryan Chris, 2011).They result from the attractiveness of the touristic destination and include tangible resources such as beaches, leisure facilities, and cultural attractions and intangible resources such as the destination's climate, cultural visits, marketing... etc.They help to understand what attracts tourists to the chosen destination (Epperson Arlin,1983).

Methodology
The methodology of this research can be summarized in these three points:

a. The Method of Data Collection:
To achieve the objectives of the study, a sample survey was conducted and the tool used for data collection was the questionnaire.The questions asked in this questionnaire were taken from previous studies that dealt with the motivational factors of tourists, and more specifically the push and pull motivational factors, except we added other factors and elements (items) that have not been dealt with before such as economic factors.This questionnaire is composed of four sections, the first section grouped the socio-demographic questions, the second section grouped the questions related to the planning of the stay, such as the last local destination visited, the third section grouped the internal motivational factors or 'push factors' that influenced the Algerian tourist to choose the destination he mentioned in the previous section of the questionnaire, and the last section grouped the external motivational factors or 'pull factors'.The motivational factors in this study were evaluated according to a four-point Likert scale (not at all important, rather not important, rather important, and very important).
The questionnaire was distributed on the internet using Google forms and more specifically on social networks.

b. The Study Population and Sample:
The target population represents Algerian tourists who made a trip for relaxation and leisure to a local tourist destination in 2018 or 2019 (because of the Covid 19, it was so difficult to travel from 2020 to 2021).The sample size for this study reached 318 Algerian tourists who are over 18 years old.

c. Methods of Analysis:
To achieve the set objectives, the descriptive statistical approach was used, and for the statistical analysis tools used in this study, we cite Alpha Cronbach's test which helps to measure the reliability of the answers of the questionnaire, person's test to measure the internal consistency of the questionnaire, descriptive analysis of the variables of the study using the analysis of the mean and standard deviation, and to meet the hypotheses of this study we turned to the one-factor ANOVA test and the T-test for two independent samples.

a. Analysis of the Reliability of the Questionnaire:
To test the reliability of the questionnaire in this study, Cronbach's Alpha test was used on the part of the internal and external motivation variables and the extracted results are presented in the table below: It can be seen from the results that all Cronbach's Alpha values are above 0.7 and therefore the degree of reliability of the study questionnaire responses is high.

b. Analysis of the Validity of the Questionnaire:
To test the validity of the questionnaire in this study, the Pearson test was applied to check the internal consistency between the items of the questionnaire axes and the overall value of that axis.From the table presented above, we can see that all the correlation coefficients between the items of this axis, which group the internal motivations and the total value of this axis are statistically significant at the 0.05 level of significance.As we can also see, the minimum value of the correlation coefficients is equal to 0.280, while the maximum value is equal to 0.618, and therefore all the items of this axis are internally coherent with the axis to which they belong.From the table presented above, we can see that all the correlation coefficients between the items of this axis, which groups the external motivations, and the total value of this axis are statistically significant at the 0.05 level of significance.As we can also see, the minimum value of the correlation coefficients is equal to 0.325, while the maximum value is equal to 0.581, and therefore all the items of this axis are internally coherent with the axis they belong to.

c. Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Study Sample:
We have tried to present in this section the most important socio-demographic characteristics, which are: the tourist's gender, age, socio-professional category, and family situation.This study was limited to a sample of 318 individuals representing Algerian tourists who made a trip for leisure and recreation to a foreign touristic destination in 2018 or 2019, the percentage of male tourists was higher than that of female tourists (58.2% vs. 41.8%respectively).Regarding age, more than half of the sample was between 18 and 29 years old at 53.8%, followed by those between 30 and 39 years old with a percentage of 40.6% which means that the study sample included a high rate of young people.On the other hand, it is also noticeable that the socio-professional category diversified and the category of employees had the highest percentage, with a rate of 55.3% followed by executives with 20.4% and those with independent professions with 18.6%.For the family situation of the respondents, the largest percentage belonged to single tourists with 66.7%.

d. The Main Touristic Destinations Visited:
According  According to the results of the statistical survey carried out, 202 tourists (63.5%) visited their destination for the first time, i.e. they have no previous touristic experience in the same destination, while 116 tourists (36.5%) have already visited their destination, i.e. they already had experience in the same destination.

e. Motivating factors for choosing a foreign touristic destination:
To find out the main motivational factors, we were interested in four factors, internal (push factors) and four external (pull factors), and the analysis was based on the calculation of the arithmetic mean and the standard deviation of each factor and their items, and the evaluation was made as follows: if the value of the mean is less than or equal to 2, then the motivation is low, if the mean is between 2.01 and 3 then motivation is medium, and if the mean is greater than 3 then motivation is high.

Internal Motivation Factors:
The following table shows the four internal motivators, their items and their arithmetic mean and standard deviation: It can be seen that the set of internal motivating factors scored a high arithmetic mean evaluated at 3.17, which means that there is a significant proportion of Algerian tourists who considered these factors as important in the choice of their foreign touristic destination.This value is accompanied by a standard deviation of 0.361, which is low and signifies a low dispersion of the values around their mean.As can be seen, the most important internal motivating factor was the first factor "the need for discovery and knowledge " with a high arithmetic mean of 3.49 and a low standard deviation of 0.473, i.e. 91.26% of the tourists who considered it important.This factor is characterized by the desire to visit new places, followed by the desire to see new natural landscapes and the desire to discover new cultures.On the other hand, the second most important motivating factor was "the desire for a new experience" with an arithmetic mean of 3.36 and a standard deviation of 0.508, which means a low dispersion of the values around their mean, i.e. a rate of 86.55% of the questioned tourists who considered this factor as important in their choice process, this factor is characterized by the importance given by the tourists to the experimentation of a new travel experience, followed by the discovery and trying of new touristic activities.While it is noticeable that Algerian tourists are motivated in their choice of foreign destination by the need to get away from the daily routine, this element had a high arithmetic average evaluated at 3.64 and which is part of the third factor entitled "the need for relaxation" which had the third position among the motivating factors related to tourists, that is to say, a rate of importance given to this factor of 70.In the last position, we find the fourth factor entitled 'development of social, family and friendship relations' which had a mean degree of importance of 2.77 and a standard deviation of 0.636, which means that tourists do not consider this factor as motivating in their choice process compared to the other factors mentioned.It can be said that Algerian tourists are motivated in their choice of foreign destination by their desire to discover new touristic places, their desire to live a new travel experience, the desire to see new natural landscapes, and the need to get away from the daily routine.

External Motivation Factors:
The following table shows the four external motivators, their items and their arithmetic mean and standard deviation: It can be seen that the set of external motivating factors had a high arithmetic mean equal to 3.21, which means that a significant part of the tourists considered these factors as important in their process of choosing a foreign touristic destination, this means is accompanied by a low standard deviation evaluated at 0.383, which means that the values are weakly scattered around their mean.It is also noticeable that the factor that had the first place in the degree of importance is the factor of quality and price with a high average equal to 3.34 and a standard deviation of 0.461, that is, a percentage of 89%.In the case of the 5% of tourists who considered it as an important factor in the choice of their touristic destination, this factor is characterized by the tourists' intention to the quality-price ratio of touristic products and services in the first place, followed by their intention to the quality of other touristic services, the quality of accommodation services and the cost of the trip with averages of 3.53, 3.4 and 3.36 respectively.In addition, the factor of natural and historical resources had the second position among the external motivating factors with a considerable degree of importance rated at 3.23 which means that the majority of tourists are interested in outstanding natural landscapes and historical and archaeological places with high degrees of importance.The factor of the variety of the touristic offer also had a high degree of importance, i.e. a rate of 80.73% with higher importance to the variety of the touristic activities.It is also noteworthy that the safety of the destination is the most important motivating factor in the choice process, with an arithmetic average of 3.74.This is logical since for a destination to be attractive, it must ensure the safety of its citizens and of the tourists that visit, and this element is part of the fourth factor related to the other characteristics of the destination, with a percentage of 97.5% of the questioned tourists who considered it important.On the other hand, we note that the proximity of the destination does not represent an important motivation, unlike the other items in this factor, such as the cleanliness of the environment and the ease of access to the destination.It can therefore be said that Algerian tourists are much more attracted to their choice of a foreign destination at first degree by the safety of the destination, by the quality-price ratio, and by the exceptional natural landscapes.
f. Testing the study hypothesis: The first two hypotheses of this study will be tested using the multi-factor analysis of variance ANOVA test, and the other two hypotheses will be tested using the T-test for two independent samples.

Test of the First Hypotheses of the Study H1:
The first hypothesis of this study states that there are no differences in the levels of importance related to internal motivational factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists.The null and alternative hypotheses are: ➢ H0: There are no statistically significant differences at the α = 0.05 significance level in the degrees of importance related to internal motivating factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists.
➢ H1: There are statistically significant differences at the α = 0.05 level of significance in the degrees of importance related to internal motivating factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists.According to the results of the multi-factor ANOVA test, the overall F-value of the model is equal to 2.025 with a significance value equal to 0.001 which is lower than the significance level α = 0.05, which means that we reject H0 and accept H1 and say that there are statistically significant differences at the significance level α = 0.05 in the degrees of importance related to the internal motivating factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists.We also notice that the variables "gender" and "age" have a significance value lower than 0.05 which shows that there are differences in the degrees of importance related to the internal motivating factors due to these variables and this can be explained by the linkage of the internal motivating factors to the behavior of the tourists and therefore they can mark significant differences due to the socio-demographic characteristics of the tourists.It can then be concluded that the first hypothesis of this study is invalidated.

Test of the Second Hypothesis of the Study H2:
The second hypothesis of this study states that there are no differences in the degrees of importance related to external motivating factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists.
➢ H0: There are no statistically significant differences at the α = 0.05 significance level in the degrees of importance related to external motivating factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists.
➢ H1: There are statistically significant differences at the α = 0.05 level of significance in the degrees of importance related to external motivating factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists.According to the results of the multi-factor analysis of variance ANOVA test, we notice on the one hand that the overall F-value of the model is equal to 1.130 with a significance of 0.287 which is higher than the level of significance α = 0.05, which means that the null hypothesis is accepted and therefore there are no statistically significant differences at the level of significance α = 0.05 in the degrees of importance related to the external motivating factors due to the socio-demographic characteristics of the tourists.On the other hand, we notice that the variables "gender", "age" and "socio-professional category" are not significant, while the variable "family situation" has a significance value lower than 0.05, which means that there are statistically significant differences in the degrees of importance linked to external motivating factors due to the tourist's family situation.It can be concluded that the second hypothesis of this study is confirmed.

Test of the Third Hypothesis of the Study H3:
The third hypothesis of this study states that there are no differences in the degrees of importance related to internal motivating factors due to tourists' previous experiences.
➢ H0: There are no statistically significant differences at the α = 0.05 level of significance in the degrees of importance related to internal motivating factors due to tourists' previous experience.
➢ H1: There are statistically significant differences at the α = 0.05 level of significance in the degrees of importance related to internal motivating factors due to tourists' previous experience.According to the results of the T-test shown above, we notice that the value of T is equal to 0.901 with a significance of 0.343 which is higher than the significance value α = 0.05 and therefore we accept the null hypothesis and conclude that there are no statistically significant differences at the significance level α = 0.05 in the degrees of importance related to the internal motivating factors due to the tourists' previous experience.Thus, the third hypothesis of this study is confirmed.

Test of the Fourth Hypothesis of the Study H4:
The fourth hypothesis of this study states that there are no differences in the degrees of importance related to external motivating factors due to the previous tourist experience.
➢ H0: There are no statistically significant differences at the α = 0.05 level of significance in the degrees of importance related to external motivating factors due to tourists' previous experience.
➢ H1: There are statistically significant differences at the α = 0.05 level of significance in the degrees of importance related to external motivating factors due to tourists' previous experience.According to the results of the T-test shown above, we notice that the value of T is equal to 0.448 with a significance of 0.504 which is higher than the significance value α = 0.05 and therefore we accept the null hypothesis and conclude that there are no statistically significant differences at the significance level α = 0.05 in the degrees of importance related to the external motivating factors due to the tourists' previous experience.Thus, the fourth hypothesis of this study is confirmed.

Conclusion
At the end of this study, and according to the statistical analysis carried out based on the extracted results, it can be concluded that the choice of a foreign touristic destination by Algerian tourists is a process linked to internal motivating factors which are related to the behavior and desire of the tourists, and to external motivating factors which are related to the touristic destination and its attributes.
Algerian tourists are driven in their choice process on the one hand by the need for discovery and knowledge, by the desire to visit new places and see new natural landscapes, to discover new cultures and new lifestyles, and to live a new travel experience.On the other hand, they are attracted by the quality and price factor, and in particular by the quality-price ratio of the destination's tourism products and services and by the cost of the trip.The results of this study also show that the safety of the destination, its cleanliness, its exceptional natural landscapes, and its historical sites play a significant role in attracting Algerian tourists to foreign destinations.
For the tested hypotheses, the first hypothesis was disproved and it was stated that there are differences in the degrees of importance related to the internal motivating factors due to socio-demographic characteristics, and these differences come from the differences that exist between the behavior of males and female tourists on the one hand and the differences of age on the other hand, while there are no differences in the degrees of importance related to the external motivating factors due to socio-demographic characteristics, thus the second hypothesis was confirmed.The third and fourth hypotheses of this study are also confirmed, it can be said that there are no significant differences in the degrees of importance related to internal and external motivating factors due to the previous experience of tourists in the same visited destination.
The results of this study differ from the results of the research mentioned above, especially for the internal motivating factors, since our study focused on the behavior of Algerian tourists when choosing their touristic destination.While for the external motivating factors, It was noted that there is a similarity with the study of (Jang & Cai, 2002) and (Antara & Promeswari, 2018) in that safety and hygiene or cleanliness are strong points of attraction for choosing a foreign touristic destination by Algerian, British and international tourists.
We recommend that it is important to highlight these motivating factors for them to be used by marketers in their tourism promotion means and tools, especially the internal motivating factors so that national tourists are pushed to local destinations, in addition to improving natural and archaeological touristic places and to offer good touristic services that are suitable for all categories of society to attract tourists to the country's destinations and thus to improve local tourism in Algeria.

Conceptualization
to the data of the Ministry of Tourism and Handicrafts and Family Work, the main touristic destinations for Algerian tourists during the last two years 2018 and 2019, Tunisia was the main touristic destination for the majority of Algerian outbound tourists in 2019 with 49.07% of the total outbound, followed by France, Spain, and Turkey (Direction des Statistiques du ministère du Tourisme, 2019 ).The results of our statistical survey showed us that 54.1% of the questioned tourists visited a foreign destination in 2018 and 45.9% in 2019, and the five main destinations visited are among the ten destinations visited by Algerian tourists in 2018 and 2019 marked by the Algerian Ministry of Tourism and Handicrafts.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The Top Five Destinations Visited by the Tourists Surveyed Source: Created by the authorIt can be seen from the figure above that the majority of the questioned tourists visited Tunisia and Turkey with percentages of 28% and 21.7% respectively, followed by Morocco and Spain with 6.3%.These results can be explained by the orientation of the majority of Algerians towards destinations

Table 1 .
Alpha Cronbach's Test Source: Created by the author.

Table 2 .
Internal Consistency Test for Items on the Internal Motivation Axis

Table 3 .
Internal Consistency Test for Items on the External Motivation Axis Source: Created by the author.

Table 4 .
Socio-demographic Characteristics of Respondents

Table 5 .
Internal Motivational Factors

Table 6 .
External Motivational Factors

Table 7 .
Multi-Factor ANOVA Test for Testing the First Hypothesis H1

Table 8 .
Multi-Factor ANOVA Test for Testing the Second Hypothesis H2

Table 9 .
T-test for two Independent Samples to Test the Third Hypothesis H3

Table 10 .
T-test for two Independent Samples to Test the Fourth Hypothesis H4