Influences of pro- all-inclusive travel decisions Wineaster Anderson, Catalina Juaneda and Francisco Sastre Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to identify the motivations for choosing all-inclusive package tours when traveling, and to specify the visitor and travel attributes associated with those motivations. Design/methodology/approach – A specific visitor-exit-survey involving all-inclusive tourists visiting the Balearic Islands (n ¼ 843) was conducted during the summer of 2006 at the Airport of Palma de Mallorca. Then, through discrete choice models-binary logit, relationships between the identified motivations and specified attributes were analyzed by looking for the attributes that are more associated with each motive. Findings – The study results show that tourists traveling through all-inclusive tours attach more importance to the motivations related to convenience and relaxation, economies of resources as well as safety and security in their vacationing processes; with specific tourist and trip attributes influencing the probability for confirmation. Practical implications – Understanding the motivation of different tourist profiles visiting the destinations is useful in managing the tourism industry for satisfying specific tourist segments without jeopardizing the interests of the host community. A full understanding of all-inclusive motivation would help travel organizers and marketers to plan, design and deliver products and services that cater for the specific needs of the all-inclusive market, with the aim of capturing the financial benefits which are the central element of the economy. Originality/value – There is still little knowledge in the literature about all-inclusive package tourism. Specifically, the knowledge of tourist motivation with reference to the tour mode choice within the tourism landscape is still diluted, and therefore the motive behind one traveling through certain tour modes like all-inclusives continues to miss the ground works. Nor have the factors that influence evaluation of the motivations related to the decision of this type of trip have been much studied, which renders this field of study one of the underdeveloped areas in the tourism social sciences. The paper attempts to contribute where there is this lack of knowledge. Keywords Tourism, Motivation (psychology), Spain Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction The motivations that lead tourists to choose a certain destination have been extensively studied which is reflected in the number of contributions to the literature in the field. However, the specific motivations that influence tourists in their choice of a certain type of tour mode have not received the same amount of attention. Choice of tour mode can be considered one decision nested in travel style choice that tourists prefer for each holiday experience. In this sense, Woodside and Dubelaar (2002) contend that similar behavior patterns can be found among visitors to a destination who have chosen the same type of travel style and made a series of similar decisions as a result. Tourists’ motivations play a fundamental role in the choice of travel style and, therefore, tour mode. Studying the specific motivations behind choosing package tours is indispensable for many mass tourism destinations, whose offer is essentially based on this type of product. As Becken and Gnoth (2004) indicate, ascertaining the behavior and characteristics of tourists associated with each travel style PAGE 4 j TOURISM REVIEW j VOL. 64 NO. 2 2009, pp. 4-18, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1660-5373 DOI 10.1108/16605370910963482 Wineaster Anderson is Researcher in the Department of Applied Economics, University of Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and Lecturer in the Department of Marketing, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Catalina Juaneda is Chair Professor and Francisco Sastre is Professor, both in the Department of Applied Economics, University of Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Received: 26 August 2008 Revised: 20 October 2008 Accepted: 18 December 2008 The research was enabled by the PROGECIB-9B project financed by the Conselleria d’Economia, Hisenda i Innovacio ´-Govern de les Illes Balears; to whom the authors are very grateful.