Tourist Expectations and Motivations in Visiting Rural Destinations. The Case of Extremadura (Spain)

According to the UNWTO (2020), Spain received 83.7 million tourists in 2019. To our knowledge, few studies have delved into the impact of tourism on Spanish semi-depopulated areas. This article aims to develop an explanatory model of tourist motivations and expectations in visiting those areas in the Region of Extremadura, in south-west Spain. The model uses Maslow's hierarchy of needs to rank factors such as the destinations' socioeconomic conditions and tourists' satisfaction with their experience. The sample consisted of 6,106 personal interviews with visitors. The hypotheses about causal relationships were formulated by using a multivariate analysis model. The variables that explained the reasons for making a trip to these types of regions were essentially socioeconomic (SEC). The model can be applied to other social and territorial contexts to verify whether the hierarchy of motivations takes different forms.