The role of cultural distance on travel bloggers' international travel motivations

The purpose of this research is to identify the impact of cultural distance on the international tourists' choices of international destinations. The phenomenological approach of qualitative research methods was used in the research. The research data were collected from 17 bloggers with structured interview forms and evaluated by content analysis. The research data were evaluated in three processes; namely, pre-travel, during-travel, and post-travel. In the pre-travel process, tangible (physical) and intangible (mental) preparation were identified. Increasing cultural distance has increased the uncertainty about destination. This has led to an increase in mental preparation. Travel motivations were gathered in two groups. Push factors are discover, dissimilarity, learning, interest, curiosity, and imagination. Pull factors were, on the other hand, destination culture, nature/ natural beauties and geographical proximity/location. Three themes such as cultural experience, cultural acquisition, and personel alteration were found during travel process. From these results, it was determined that the cultural factors had a significant impact on pre-travel, during-travel and post-travel process. Increased cultural distance was highlighted as a major reason for the participants to choose overseas destinastion. A research model was proposed that cultural distance can be a moderator variable between travel motivation and destination choice. Keywords: Travel Motivation, Push and Pull Factors, Destination Choice,Cultural Distance, Blogger