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The experience of young European travelers in connection to their Interrail trip
Dalarna University, School of Culture and Society.
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Interrail is said to be the most flexible way to explore Europe. For this reason, it was interesting to find out how big of a role the time on the train plays as part of the transportation, as well as what about the experience makes young European travelers (aged16-29) enthusiastic to buy an Interrail Pass. The research question for this study is, therefore: how do young European travelers give meaning to transportation and experience, during their Interrail trip? This master thesis examines Interrail through the eyes of young European travelers, focusing on transportation and experience. Understanding the motives, emotions, and perception is critical for a tourism business like Interrail. For this reason, travel motivation theories have been taken into account as part of the literature framework. Additionally, an insight into the customer journey model and the phases the young European travelers go through when they consider traveling with Interrail is looked at. Finally, the value perceptions young Europeans give to the journey decision-making of their travels are also taken into account. Furthermore, sustainability has been looked at to see whether a relationship could be found to the buying behavior of an Interrail Pass. Content and thematic analysis were carried out to uncover hidden information about how young European travelers describe the value of their travels. Language is what the analysis has been based on. The data for this study is, therefore, derived from reviews and quotations of travelers’ posts on the Interrail community forum. 92 reviews by 86 people from 18 different nationalities have been taken into account in this study. The researcher found two overarching themes, namely train features and tourist features. These themes are in line with the ’transportation’ and ’experience’ factors of the research question. The answers that particularly came forward as a result of the content and thematic analysis were ’freedom’ and ’flexibility’ and ’the memorable experiences’. The young European travelers specifically refer to this as the ability to always change their minds about the next destination. In addition, the young European travelers’ independence is greatly enhanced by their spontaneous and unplanned thoughts during their trip- accounting for memorable experiences. Not only does this research align with the European Commission's present goals for tourism, but its outcomes are also both relevant and important to the marketing strategy for an Interrail Pass. In the future Interrail can market its offers accordingly to young European travelers. Furthermore, a better understanding of the travel motives of the young European travelers can help develop products that meet their needs, and places can create ideal conditions for unique tourism experiences.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022.
Keywords [en]
Interrail, European, Young Travelers, Travel Motivations, Value Perceptions
National Category
Other Social Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-42146OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-42146DiVA, id: diva2:1687779
Subject / course
Tourism Studies
Available from: 2022-08-16 Created: 2022-08-16Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf