UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies

Business School

MOTIVATIONS FOR SILENCE TOURISM

Master's Thesis, Tourism Marketing and Management

Tuulia Pelkonen (269457)

Supervisor: Juho Pesonen

15.6.2020

2

ABSTRACT

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies

Department

Business School

Author

Tuulia Pelkonen

Supervisor

Juho Pesonen

Title

Motivations for silence tourism.

Main subject

Tourism Marketing and

Management

Level

Master’s thesis

Date

15.6.2020

Number of pages

66+8

Abstract

Nowadays’ busy lifestyle and noisy living environments have caused a growing phenomenon of

seeking places for quietness and relaxation also on holidays. Silence and silence tourism as con-

cepts are challenging as those can be understood differently depending on the background of the

person. Theory part of the study focuses on silence, tranquility, silence tourism and travel moti-

vation. This is a quantitative study and regardless of it, has an explorative purpose aiming to find

something new regarding the meaning of silence tourism and what distinguishes silence tourists

from the other tourists, especially in terms of motivations. For data collection was used online

survey through which 471 responses were gained. Responses for the survey were collected in

social media using convenience sampling methodology. Collected data was analyzed by using

IBM SPSS Statistics 25 -program. At first, all the responses were analyzed by descriptive statis-

tics for getting an overall image of the respondents, which after segmentation was made by using

K-means clustering forming three clusters: “Silence tourists”, “Potential silence tourists” and

“Not interested in silence tourism”. Responses of each cluster were analyzed by using different

analysis methods. Responses were analyzed by using either crosstabulation, comparing means

or multinomial logistic regression analysis. Findings of this study pointed out the clear asso-

ciation between silence tourism and nature tourism, which is in a line with prior studies. ”Silence

tourists” had notably more experience of nature tourism holidays compared to other clusters.

”Silence tourists” had also more experience of nature tourism holidays with silence tourism ex-

periences and they were most interested in buying nature tourism services that are based on

silence experiences. ”Silence tourists” were more interested in travelling rural or nature desti-

nations than the other segments. Almost every respondent in the study expected silence tourism

being relaxing. ”Silence tourists” expected silence tourism being also enjoyable, exciting, fa-

vourable and fun notably more than the other segments. Both ”Silence tourists” and ”Potential

silence tourists” were very motivated to spend time in nature and increase knowledge whereas

their motivation to get away was statistically significantly lower compared to those who were

”Not interested in silence tourism”. Findings of the study clarified the position of silence tourism

among other tourism types and contributed new insights both theoretically and managerially into

silence tourism literature, which is yet scarce.

Key words

silence, tranquility, silence tourism, travel motivation

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TIIVISTELMÄ

ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO

Tiedekunta

Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja kauppatieteiden tiedekunta

Yksikkö

Kauppatieteiden laitos

Tekijä

Tuulia Pelkonen

Ohjaaja

Juho Pesonen

Työn nimi (suomeksi ja englanniksi)

Motivaatiot hiljaisuusmatkailuun. Motivations for silence tourism.

Pääaine

Tourism Marketing and

Management

Työn laji

Pro Gradu -Tut-

kielma

Aika

15.6.2020

Sivuja

66+8

Abstract

Nykypäivän kiireinen elämäntyyli ja meluisat asuinympäristöt ovat johtaneet kasvavaan

ilmiöön, jossa myös lomilta haetaan hiljaisia, rauhallisia ja rentouttavia paikkoja. Hiljaisuus ja

hiljaisuusmatkailu ovat käsitteinä haastavia, sillä ne voidaan ymmärtää eri tavoin riippuen esi-

merkiksi kultuurisesta taustasta. Tutkimuksen teoriaosa keskittyy hiljaisuuden, hiljaisuusmat-

kailun ja matkustusmotivaation tarkasteluun. Tutkimus on kvantitatiivinen, mutta sillä on silti

eksploratiivinen tarkoitus löytää jotakin uutta liittyen hiljaisuusmatkailun käsitteeseen ja

tekijöihin, jotka erottavat hiljaisuusmatkailijat muista matkailijoista erityisesti matkustusmoti-

vaatioiden osalta. Aineistonkeruumenetelmänä käytettiin kyselyä, johon saatiin mukavuusotan-

nalla 471 vastausta sosiaalisen median kautta. Aineisto analysoitiin IBM SPSS Statistics 25 -

ohjelmalla. Aluksi vastaajista muodostettiin yleiskäsitys, minkä jälkeen vastaajat jaoteltiin kol-

meen ryhmään klusterianalyysin avulla. Ryhmien eli klustereiden nimeksi annettiin “Hiljaisuus-

matkailijat”, “Potentiaaliset hiljaisuusmatkailijat” ja “Eivät kiinnostuneita hiljaisuusmat-

kailusta”. Klustereiden vastaukset analysoitiin ristiintaulukoinnin, keskiarvovertailun ja multi-

nomiaalisen regressioanalyysin avulla. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittivat selvän yhteyden

hiljaisuusmatkailun ja luontomatkailun välillä, mikä on linjassa aiempien tutkimusten kanssa.

“Hiljaisuusmatkailijoilla” oli huomattavasti enemmän kokemusta luontomatkailusta verrattuna

muihin segmentteihin. Heillä oli myös huomattavasti enemmän kokemusta hiljaisuusmatkailu-

elämyksistä osana luontomatkailua, ja he olivat kiinnostuneimpia ostamaan luontomat-

kailupalveluita, jotka pohjautuvat hiljaisuuselämyksiin. “Hiljaisuusmatkailijat” olivat kaikista

kiinnostuneimpia matkustamaan luontokohteisiin sekä kohteisiin, jotka ovat harvaanasutuilla

alueilla. Lähes kaikki vastaajat odottivat hiljaisuusmatkailun olevan rentouttavaa. “Hiljaisuus-

matkailijat” odottivat sen olevan myös nautinnollista, jännittävää, myönteistä ja hauskaa. Sekä

“Hiljaisuusmatkailijat” että “Potentiaaliset hiljaisuusmatkailijat” olivat todella motivoituneita

viettämään aikaa luonnossa sekä lisäämään tietoaan, kun taas pois pääseminen ei ollut heille

merkittävä matkustusmotivaatio. Tulokset selventävät hiljaisuusmatkailun asemaa ja tarjoavat

sekä teoreettisia että johtamiseen liittyviä näkökulmia hiljaisuusmatkailuun.

Avainsanat

hiljaisuus, hiljaisuusmatkailu, matkustusmotivaatio

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ABSTRACT

TIIVISTELMÄ

TABLE OF CONTENT

1.1 Background .............................................................................................................................6

1.2 Objectives and research questions ..........................................................................................8

1.3 Approach, context and delineations ........................................................................................9

1.4 Key concepts ............................................................................................................................9

1.5 Structure ................................................................................................................................ 10

2. SILENCE AND SILENCE TOURISM ...................................................................................... 11

2.1 Silence and tranquility .......................................................................................................... 11

2.1.1 Silence in relation to nature............................................................................................ 11

2.1.2 Silence as a multisensory phenomenon .......................................................................... 12

2.1.3 Different forms of silence ............................................................................................... 12

2.1.5 Silence tourism related health benefits .......................................................................... 15

2.2 Silence tourism and related concepts .................................................................................... 16

2.2.1 Silence tourism ................................................................................................................... 16

2.2.2 Concepts related to silence tourism ................................................................................ 19

2.2.3 Activities related to silence tourism ............................................................................... 25

3. MOTIVATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 27

3.1 Travel motivation .................................................................................................................. 27

3.2 Silence tourism related motivations ...................................................................................... 29

4. METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................................... 32

4.1 Research approach ................................................................................................................ 32

4.2 Data collection and method ................................................................................................... 32

4.3 Data analysis .......................................................................................................................... 33

4.3.1 Descriptive statistics and K-Means Cluster Analysis .................................................... 33

4.3.2 Crosstabulation ............................................................................................................... 34

4.3.3 Comparison of means ..................................................................................................... 35

4.3.4 Multinomial logistic regression analysis ........................................................................ 35

5. RESULTS .................................................................................................................................... 37

5.1. Respondents’ background information – Descriptive statistics .......................................... 37

5.2. Formed clusters – K-Means Cluster Analysis ..................................................................... 41

5.3 Comparison of clusters’ background information – Crosstabulation ................................. 41

5.3 Interest toward silence tourism – Crosstabulation ............................................................... 47

5.4 Travel behaviour – Comparison of means ............................................................................ 49

5.4 Motivations for silence tourism - Multinomial logistic regression analysis ......................... 51

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6. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................ 53

6.1 Theoretical contribution, managerial implications and future study suggestions ............... 53

6.1.1 Meaning of silence tourism ............................................................................................. 53

6.1.3. Interest toward silence tourism ..................................................................................... 55

6.1.5 Travel behavior............................................................................................................... 57

6.1.4. Silence tourism motivations........................................................................................... 57

6.2 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................ 59

6.3 Reliability and validity .......................................................................................................... 60

SOURCES ....................................................................................................................................... 62

APPENDICES...................................................................................................................................1

Appendix 1. Survey used in this study.

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Aspects of silence and their relations to tranquility.

Figure 2. Concepts closely related to silence tourism (framed) and their relations

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Silence tourism related motivations in previous studies.

Table 2. Forming of clusters using two selected questions.

Table 3. Division of respondents’ country of residence.

Table 4. Overview of respondents’ sociodemographic factors.

Table 5. Overview of respondents’ background information and travel behaviour.

Table 6. Number of cases in each cluster.

Table 7. Comparison of clusters’ sociodemographic variables.

Table 8. Comparison of clusters’ background information and travel behaviour 1.

Table 9. Comparison of clusters’ background information and travel behaviour 2.

Table 10. Comparison of clusters’ country of residence.

Table 11. Comparison of division of clusters’ country of residence.

Table 12. Comparison of clusters’ interest toward silence tourism.

Table 13. Comparison of clusters’ travel behaviour.

Table 14. Motivations for silence tourism. Note: Nagelkerke 0,218.

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Nowadays people live more in urban areas than in the past. There are not many silent places in

the world due to the industrial revolution, urbanization and increased amount of the cars. Tour-

ist flows, utilization of natural resources such as mining, deforestation, and oil drilling, as well

as air traffic and heavy freight transport, cause technological sounds almost everywhere. Be-

cause of technological inventions and Earth’s population, the sounds of human activity extend

beyond, last longer and are noisier than before. The underwater soundscape of the oceans has

also changed. In general, soundscape has become more one-sided, as technological sounds in-

clude the sound of engines, which do not vary significantly across continents, cultures, or sea-

sons. Natural sounds, in turn, vary with seasons and vegetation zones as before, but the engine

sound is always the same, and it usually blanket weak sounds of nature such as snow raining

on the ground. (Ampuja, 2014, pp. 38-39.)

Travelling is often linked with spare time, which is for relaxing and getting away from daily

routines. On their freetime, people are looking for events and occasions to get new and pleasant

experiences. Different kind of sounds are often needed to create those experiences. (Jokitulppo,

2014, p. 226.) So, in addition to the time spent working or studying, we hear a lot of sounds

during our freetime. There are many people whose daily life is busy, as it is full of action,

meetings, hobbies and work (Angeria, Jokela & Leinonen 2006, p. 38). So, living environments

are noisier than before, lifestyles are busier, and the feeling of rush is common for many people

all over the world. All this together causes a stress. Nurmi (in Angeria et. al. 2006, p. 38) states

that humans tend to stress in unpleasant soundscape which may be harmful.

Simultaneously, the peace and silence of nature are seeked to balance hectic life (Jokitulppo,

2014, p. 226; Erken, Ataner & Tanriöver, 2019.) There are many visitors seeking tranquility

(Grenier, 2007). Also, meditation, yoga and many kinds of pampering treatments have in-

creased. It can be expected that more and more travellers are looking for relaxation, silence and

nature experiences without distractions. (Angeria et. al. 2006, p. 38. Own translation.) Travel-

lers may seek silence and invigorating sensory landscapes to balance busy and exhausting

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weekdays (Jokela, Leinonen, Tukiainen, & Vahteri, 2006, p. 62) Tranquility is mentioned as

one of the motivations for increased visits at religious sites (Choe, Blazey & Mitas, 2015).

The topic of this thesis, silence tourism, is globally interesting, reasonable and relevant due to

the growing phenomenon of seeking places for quietness and relaxation. As Han (2019) appo-

sitely points out, “it seems to imply that tranquility may not be just an emerging concept, but it

can be the phenomenon that has existed ubiquitously without being properly recognized (p.

301).” Wide amount of different kind of tourism fields related to silence tourism support the

argument that tranquility is “everywhere”, so it is related to many other forms of tourism, for

example to rural tourism. So, it is time to aim to get new knowledge of this phenomenon.

Finland as a country, in turn, is a great destination to take advantage of this study. A country

known about silent culture and people – what would be a better destination for silence tourism?

Visit Finland used to have silence as one of the themes for marketing Finland as a destination.

On Visit Finland’s website, silence was presented as an attractive and positive thing which is

easy to reach (Silvennoinen & Veijola, 2012). Silence is an important aspect in tourism in Fin-

land and as it has suggested, could even be used as an attraction in itself (Komppula, Konu &

Vikman, 2017). However, Visit Finland do not have the silence theme anymore in their mar-

keting, which can be seen as a sign about ambiguous meaning of the terms silence and silence

tourism. Silence and silence tourism as concepts are challenging, as those can be understood

differently depending on the background of the person. Same word means different things for

different people. For example, for Finns silence is usually something positive, but this is not

the case with every nationality. The culture a person belongs to, has an influence on how sound-

scapes are evaluated (Ren, Kang, Zhu & Wang, 2018, p. 376). Similarly, Dann (1981) talks

about the same kind of phenomenon regarding tourist motivation when it is seen as auto-defi-

nition and meaning, which refers to an idea that everyone defines the same situation differently.

Using silence tourism product as an example, as Silvennoinen and Veijola (2012) states, infor-

mation about the different kind of travelers, and travelers with different cultural backgrounds

as well as their understanding and needs for silence are needed (p. 37. Own translation). Simi-

larly, Han (2019) suggests that “the tranquility searched by tourists may differ in forms and

vary in importance due to the individually [!] differences and one’s society home (p. 301).” So,

it is crucial to have shared understanding about silence tourism and market it accordingly to

reach a right target group.

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In Finland, term silence tourism has been used in tourism marketing but not much in scientific

studies. Outside of Finland a term tranquility has been used more to describe the same kind of

motivation for travelling in scientific literature. Even though both concepts have the same pur-

pose, to describe this specific type of traveling, the concepts differ from each other. Silence as

a word refers usually only to what we hear, whereas tranquility is more than silence, including

the whole atmosphere of silent moment. However, for example in Finnish language both can

be translated into “hiljaisuus”, which many associates more with silence than tranquility. Tran-

quility is probably what marketers of silence tourism mean by talking about silence. Differences

of the words silence, and tranquility are discussed later in this study. To conclude, there is no

consensus whether the correct term is silence tourism, silence travel, tranquility tourism, or

something else. What matters, is how to sell the product for customers. Selling silence and

tranquility is often described as difficult or at least challenging (Grenier, 2007).

1.2 Objectives and research questions

Purpose of this study is to increase understanding of silence tourism and to figure out who are

those tourists interested in silence tourism and to clarify what distinguishes them from the other

tourists. The reason for choosing this kind of aim for the study is based on the fact that silence

tourism is not much studied and there is no established concept in international scientific liter-

ature about what is silence tourism and who are silence tourists. As silence tourism is not an

established concept in the literature, it is needed to perceive what it is and how tourists inter-

ested in it differ from the other tourists. So, what are their expectations and motivations for

silence tourism, what type of destinations silence tourists are interested and so on? Regardless

of being a quantitative study, this study has an explorative purpose aiming to find something

new but not to explain the earlier information. Exact research questions of this study are follo-

wing:

1. What is the meaning of silence tourism?

2. How silence tourists differ from the other tourists in terms of

a) sociodemographic characteristics

b) interest toward silence tourism

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c) travel behavior

d) motivations for silence tourism?

Research question one regarding the meaning of silence tourism will be discussed in the theory

part through formal concept analysis. Regarding research question two, the focus is on the mo-

tivations for silence tourism. Writer of this thesis has personal passion for the topic, as she has

experienced a lot of enjoyable, silent nature moments, which she thinks would be worth of

sharing with tourists who has not experienced anything similar before.

1.3 Approach, context and delineations

Even though the aim of this study is to increase understanding of silence tourism and silence

tourists, therefore referring to a qualitative study, the approach of this study is quantitative.

Quantitative study enables studying interrelationships and is therefore a reasonable approach

for the study. In this study, Finland is used as a context being one of the rare destinations in the

world where silence tourism experiences are possible to produce. In addition, the position of

silence tourism in the context of different kind of tourism types in literature is studied.

This study has delineations regarding the selected articles of previous studies related to silence

tourism motivations. There are only first fifteen (15) articles presented in Table 1, which is later

used for comparing the results of this study to those previous studies. The articles were selected

randomly, nevertheless, using suitable keywords which makes sure all of them are somehow

related to silence tourism and motivations. Obviously, more articles would offer better picture

of motivations found in previous studies related to silence tourism.

1.4 Key concepts

Key concepts used in this study and their meanings in this study are explained below. In this

study, following key concepts are used in the meanings as follow:

Silence does not necessarily refer to a lack of sounds, rather, spending time in the silent sur-

roundings is an opportunity to relax, to listen and hear more clearly in a quiet slow-paced envi-

ronment. There are no man-made sounds, only nature sounds such as wind in the leaves of

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plants, raindrops, waves on a lake hitting the shore and birds chirping and other animal sounds.

It is an outer silence which enables experiencing inner silence.

By silence tourism is meant a type of tourism, in which a tourist is encouraged for listening

silence in a silent environment, and, through it, experiencing an inner silence or silence of mind.

Travel motivation refers to a tourist’s inner motivation, also known as push motivation, for

traveling to a certain destination.

1.5 Structure

This study consists of six sections. In the introduction part, background of the phenomenon is

presented. Second and third chapters cover earlier literature about silence tourism and motiva-

tions. After literature part, methodology section tell about how the study is conducted. In the

findings, analysis of the results is presented. In the sixth chapter, findings, theoretical contribu-

tion and managerial implementations are discussed and future study suggestions presented,

which after conclusions of the study are presented.

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2. SILENCE AND SILENCE TOURISM

2.1 Silence and tranquility

2.1.1 Silence in relation to nature

To be able to discuss about silence tourism, it is needed to define what is silence. Many re-

searchers have emphasized that silence does not mean a lack of sounds but rather the sounds of

nature (e.g. Saastamoinen in Haanpää & Veijola 2006; Alhojärvi, 2016; Venäläinen, 2016).

According to Ampuja’s (2014) study, the most common definition of silence is a peaceful

soundscape of nature, which lacks all the sounds related to human action (p. 262. Own transla-

tion.). Therefore, when talking about silence tourism, it cannot be fully separated from nature

tourism since there is a connection between silence and nature in many studies (Komppula et.

al., 2017). Nature tourism is opened up in more detailed in the chapter 2.2.2.

There is a difference between the silence of nature and soundlessness. The silence of nature

includes natural sounds such as bird song, whereas a noise come from people or machines.

Silence is a state of nature, where is no disturbing sounds and where the sounds of nature are

attenuated. (Saastamoinen in Haanpää & Veijola 2006, p. 37. Own translation). In a study about

soundscape expectations of rural tourism, participants’ attitude towards natural sounds were

positive (Ren et. al., 2018). Silence is not clearly delimited soundscape of nature (Alhojärvi,

2016.) Silence is not soundless, however, sounds regarded as noise cannot belong to it (Veijola

in Silvennoinen & Veijola, 2012, p. 24). Similarly, Vikman (in Silvennoinen & Veijola 2012,

p. 35) states silence is not too loud sound, but meaningful sound, and sound which is waited

and hoped. Silence is pleasant (Komppula et. al., 2017).

In Tuomo Alhojärvi’s interview to entrepreneurs who took part to the silence tourism network

as a part of ESR-initiative executed by University of Eastern Finland in years 2013 -2015, it is

agreed among tourism entrepreneurs that silence is related to the nature broader than just in the

sense of sound environment. Silence can be related to the rhythm and tempo of nature. Settling

down to the tempo of nature means taking the rhythm of natural light, which often means a

change to sleeping habits, usually going to bed earlier and waking up earlier. Tempo of nature

is unhurried and peaceful and getting into it requires calming down. (Alhojärvi, 2016.) There

is also an evidence that forests, representing here a nature, helped tourists to get silent mood

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(Komppula et. al., 2017). Silvennoinen and Veijola (2012) highlight the benefits that silence

bring for the human by stating that balance and harmony related to silence are clearly seen in

the relationship between human and nature (p. 37).

2.1.2 Silence as a multisensory phenomenon

On the other hand, silence is often defined as a multisensory phenomenon including also the

other senses, not just sense of sight (e.g Haanpää, Hänninen & Veijola 2006, Silvennoinen &

Veijola 2012). Haanpää et. al. (2006) talk about sensory landscape, by which they mean one’s

experience of surroundings based on the senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste, but

also one’s previous experiences and cultural background (p. 10). Also, one’s feelings and im-

ages create the sensory landscape (Raivo, and Tani in Angeria et. al., 2006). Silence is defined

as a multisensual experience in Silvennoinen’s & Veijola’s (2012) study, where were found

five semiotic signs of silence: the acoustic, physical, temporal and social dimensions in addition

to the dimension of place function. It has stated being especially important to pay attention to

sensory stimulus’ which cause reactions, which, in turn, form the experience of silence in si-

lence tourism. For example, blinking lamp in the sauna could destroy the perfect experience of

silence even though it would not make any noise. (Tormilainen in Angeria et. al. 2006, p. 39.)

Aesthetics is closely related to the silence since unpleasant view can break the silence. (Silven-

noinen & Veijola 2012, p. 37).

2.1.3 Different forms of silence

Silence can be divided into outer and inner silence. Outer silence refers to sounds or soundless-

ness of the environment, whereas inner silence is the state of one’s mind, and it can include for

example peacefulness and calmness of the mind. (Jokela in Moilanen, Seppinen & Tukiainen,

2006, p. 48). Inner silence is possible to achieve when external environment is silent (Silven-

noinen & Veijola, 2012), again referring to rather silence of nature than total soundlessness

(Moilanen et. al. 2006). Inner silence is rather openness toward the sounds that come from

nature instead of distinguishing oneself from the sounds that come from surrounding environ-

ment (Silvennoinen & Veijola, 2012).

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Venäläinen has separated silence into three part, named as silence of mind, silence of nature,

and silence of listening. Silence of mind is similar to just presented inner silence, as it is related

to balancing life, focusing, and escaping rush and everyday worries. Yoga and meditation

camps as well as spiritual retreats are good examples of places for people pursuing the silence

of mind. Silence of nature, in turn, highlights authentic and pristine sound environments, in

which human does not affect a lot. As the nature is not always silent, silence here does not refer

to soundlessness, but the loudness of nature makes experiencing the silence of nature real and

natural. (Venäläinen, 2016, pp. 36-37.) Similarly, respondents of Ampuja’s (2014) study stated

that loud noises of nature are part of silence but noise such music and traffic disturb experienc-

ing the silence (p. 265). Silence of nature is similar to previously presented outer silence by

Jokela. Third form of silence, the silence of listening, enables listening experiences that are

hoped. The idea behind this is that some sounds are to be heard only in the environments where

is no or not much background noise. Therefore, surrounding sounds are closely linked with

experiencing the silence of listening. (Venäläinen, 2016, p. 38.) Silent environment is needed

to make experiencing the silence of listening possible.

Silvennoinen and Veijola (2012) divide silence to traditional silence and functional silence.

Traditional silence is stopping, and it can be reached by doing nothing and just being, whereas

functional silence is about doing voluntarily something relaxing (Silvennoinen & Veijola, 2012,

p. 37). In the survey used in this study, it is opened up that silence does not necessarily refer to

a lack of sounds, rather, spending time in the silent surroundings is an opportunity to relax, to

listen and hear more clearly in a quiet slow-paced environment. There are no man-made sounds,

only nature sounds such as wind in the leaves of plants, raindrops, waves on a lake hitting the

shore and birds chirping and other animal sounds.

2.1.4 Tranquility

As noted earlier, silence may not be the best concept for describing a content of silence tourism

products due to a high risk of misunderstanding the concept of silence, especially without ex-

plaining it through. However, it is the one most often used by Finnish researchers, both in Finn-

ish (“hiljaisuus”) and in English (“silence”) in scientific literature. As mentioned in the intro-

duction part of this study, a word tranquility is more used in international scientific texts instead

14

of silence, when used in tourism context. Vocabulary.com dictionary gives different explana-

tions for the word depending on its spelling, whether it is tranquility (American English) or

tranquillity (British English). However, as can be noted below, the definitions mean more or

less the same.

“The noun tranquility means "a state of peace and quiet," like the tranquility you feel at the

shore of a quiet lake or inside a beautiful cathedral. Tranquility can also describe a person's

disposition. How do you reach tranquility? Make peace with yourself, your life, and the

people who drive you crazy. Tranquility can also come from spending time alone, like read-

ing in front of the fireplace on a snowy afternoon. Meditation and yoga can help bring tran-

quility, by clearing your mind of constant worries.” (Vocabulary.com, 2020a.)

“Tranquillity is a sense of peace and quiet. It is the feeling you have while sitting under a

starry sky, listening to the crickets. The aura of tranquility comes from the calm in the world,

which makes you feel you are without a care in the world.” (Vocabulary.com, 2020b.)

Both spellings, tranquility and tranquillity, refer to a moment in which silence is experienced

in a positive way, making one feel worry-free and peaceful, including both inner and outer

silence. Therefore, it can be argued that both words mean the same, and hence after this chapter,

a word tranquility, with one l, is used in this study to mean this meaning. It is noteworthy that

both term tranquility and tranquillity have something common with earlier presented different

definitions of silence, hence supporting the notion that regardless of being different concepts,

both silence and tranquility have been used in the literature in the same purpose – to describe

specific type of tourism often called silence tourism or silence travel. For example, the first

explanation of tranquility clearly refers to inner silence and silence of mind, both presented in

the chapter 2.1.3. A second explanation (tranquillity with two l’s) highlights an outer/external

silence when mentioning “listening to the crickets”, and it includes an earlier mentioned idea

of reaching inner silence when the surrounding environment is quiet enough. Figure 1 below

combines earlier mentioned three different aspects of silence by Jokela (in Moilanen et. al.

2006), Venäläinen (2016) and Silvennoinen and Veijola (2012) and presents their relations to

tranquility. Soundlessness is in the core of the figure, and the easiest spot to start reading the

figure. As can be seen, tranquility is more than just silence or soundlessness – it includes both.

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Figure 1. Aspects of silence and their relations to tranquility.

2.1.5 Silence tourism related health benefits

Silence tourism related health benefits are mainly related to silence and nature. Scientific lite-

rature lacks the studies about health benefits of silence. However, it is generally known silence

is good for brain and mind. Instead, more studies are found about noise affecting to health

negatively, for example causing stress, hearing harm, and difficulty to fall asleep or rest (Vuo-

rinen & Heinonen-Guzejev, 2014). Humans tend to stress in unpleasant soundscape which may

be harmful both physically and mentally (Nurmi in Angeria et.al., 2006). Lately, benefits of

natural environments have been more highlighted against stress (Ochiai et. al., 2015).

”Spending time regularly in the forest is proven to lower blood pressure, detox your body, and

improve your overall mood” (Visit Finland, 2020). Forests and forest environment have proved

to have calming effect and giving positive experiences for silence tourism customers. Feeling

the silence in the nature may be a refreshing experience for those who are not get used to silence

16

in their daily life. (Komppula et. al., 2017.) One of the silence tourism related activities, forest

therapy, is known as ”a relaxation and stress management activity” with demonstrated clinical

efficacy.” (Ochiai et. al., 2015, 15222.) Physiological and psychological effects of a forest

therapy program were studied on middle-aged Japanese females. They measured salivary cor-

tisol level, pulse rate, and psychological indices during the forest therapy day and day before,

and found significant physiological and psychological benefits of forest therapy. Participants

had significant decrease in salivary cortisol levels, pulse rate and in negative feelings in addition

to increase in positive feelings. (Ochiai et. al., 2015.) Results of another forest therapy study

proves relaxation effects being physiological and psychological and lasting up to five days after

forest therapy (Ohe, Ikei, Song & Miyazaki, 2017).

2.2 Silence tourism and related concepts

2.2.1 Silence tourism

Silence tourism is defined as a tourism concept, in which silent soundscapes, and experiences

that encourage for listening, are made out tourism products and services (Alhojärvi, 2016, p.

99. Own translation.) In the survey used in this study, silence tourism was clarified to the re-

spondents as follow: Silence tourism services could include, for example, a guided tour around

a national park with a focus on listening to the sounds of the nature or a camping trip to a remote

location in the middle of forest. It could also be a floating experience on a lake with a warm

floating suit, a sauna or a moonlight kayaking trip. Silence tourism is suggested being not only

escaping or resting but something that test the travelers, including the idea travelers should not

get off too easily. This means that tourism entrepreneurs should not offer prepared activities

but let their customers seek what they want and need both physically and mentally and figure

out what is their way to be and experience. Silence tourism entrepreneurs’ task, therefore, is

suggested to create that kind of space where these experiences are possible. (Alhojärvi,

2016.) Silence tourism is seen as a solution to develop and extend tourism in-between seasons

in Finnish Lapland (Grenier, 2007).

Challenges related to the concept

In general, concept of silence tourism is neither much used in the scientific literature, nor it is

an established concept. The concept of tranquility is used more, especially outside of Finland.

The concept of silence is challenging due to its various interpretations in different cultures,

17

hence people from different backgrounds understand the concept differently. The same is true

with term silence tourism, and there are not many definitions for silence tourism to be found.

As stated earlier, tranquility is what marketers usually mean by silence in the context of silence

tourism. Even without definitions for this type of tourism, the phenomenon exists: there are

people who travel for tranquility (Han, 2019). It has been argued that tranquility has been a

ubiquitous phenomenon even though it has not been recognized (Han, 2019). A good example

of this is Finland, where tranquility is a central part of wellbeing – it relates to almost everything

but at the same time, it is not easy to recognize, especially for Finns as they have got so used to

it. Visit Finland used to have silence as one of their three marketing themes but currently it is

only mentioned as a part of wellbeing tourism on their website. (Visit Finland, 2020.) A reason

for not having silence as a separate marketing theme anymore is not known, but it can be said

that marketing the silence may be difficult (Grenier, 2007). It is challenging to market silence

in that way the potential customers get the message right, regardless of their cultural back-

ground.

Silence tourism in Finland

Silence and tranquility are strongly connected with Finnish wellbeing, which, in turn, is a broad

concept. A program called FinRelax was established by Ministry of Economic Affairs and Em-

ployment of Finland and it operated in years 2015-2017, aiming to make Finland a leading

country of wellbeing tourism in the Nordic countries. Even though the program is not operating

anymore, a mark of ”Authentic Finrelax Experience” is still in use of Visit Finland’s marketing

indicating a high-quality wellbeing product. (Business Finland, 2020.) In more detailed: ”Re-

laxing like a Finn, or ‘Finrelaxing’, means engaging in plenty of peace, quiet and time. Finre-

laxing the local way means hiking in the summer, cross-country skiing in winter, simply enjo-

ying the wild woods – and sauna, of course” (Visit Finland, 2020). As can be noted from the

definition, quietness is a central part of FinRelax-experience. Silence have been named into one

of Visit Finland’s products or categories included to the FinRelax-program, in addition to sauna

experience, pampering treatments, spending time in the nature, wellbeing cottage and water as

a wellbeing element. In product recommendations regarding the silence product, it is suggested

that customer have a chance and suitable environment for listening and calming down, alone or

in a group. Silence refers rather to the absence of human made sounds than absolute silence,

and it is supposed to be as a part of the primary service, for example silent moment in skiing

trip or in the forest or making sauna experience tranquil. Also digital detox is part of the recom-

mendations of Visit Finland guidelines for silence products. (Business Finland, 2020.) In

18

addition to FinRelax products, forest and healthy food are marketed as central factors for Fin-

nish wellbeing. Finnish wellbeing is hence seen consisting of sauna, water, nature and espe-

cially forest, pampering treatments, wellbeing cottage holiday, silence, space and light, food,

peace, quiet and time. What ties these elements together is slow travel, also mentioned in Visit

Finland’s website (Visit Finland, 2020). Slow tourism is opened up more in the next chapter,

shortly meaning taking time to do things with emphasis on wellbeing and sustainability issues.

Even though silence is mentioned separately within the wellbeing theme, it actually belongs to

almost every element, from Finnish sauna experience and cottage holiday to forests and waters,

not forgetting the pampering treatments, which all offer peace and tranquility.

Silence tourism in North Karelia, Finland

In Finland, there are silence tourism products available especially in North Karelia region. The

region is rural, silence being one of its strengths. Visit Karelia is a destination marketing organ-

ization for the North Karelia region. Hence, it is not a surprise Visit Karelia have been working

on with silence theme in tourism field in the area. Visit Karelia use word silence travel instead

of silence tourism and describes it as follows in their webpage.

” A silent environment offers a respite from our increasingly noisy and intense everyday

surroundings. Silence travel provides the opportunity to linger, be silent and calm down –

to listen to and concentrate on the rich nuances of silence, and to hear one’s own mind.

Anyone can be quiet. In silence, we can learn to be present and listen to ourselves, our feel-

ings and our needs. Silence is a source of health, vitality and well-being. Living in constant

noise has been proven harmful to the health. Outer silence helps us to discover our inner

peace. Silence is a state that can permanently change our attitude to life.” (Visit Karelia,

2020.)

What can be inferred from the description, is that Visit Karelia understand silence tourism sim-

ilarly with prior studies, emphasizing nuances of silence and benefits of silence, relating it to

health and wellbeing. In addition, inner silence and outer silence are discussed. Outer silence is

seen as an enabler for the inner silence, which in turn, enables bigger things such as finding

oneself or making even permanent changes to one’s attitude.

19

Visit Karelia have even guidelines for silence tourism products. “The entrepreneurs of the Si-

lence Travel are committed to:

1. Offering and sharing experiences of silence while respecting individual and cultural differ-

ences

2. Maintaining a balance in the soundscape: producing human and machine-induced noise that

disturb as little as possible

3. Taking account of and planning the atmosphere of the landscape, the architecture and the

overall feel

4. Helping people to feel able to relax without the need to hurry

5. Guiding their visitors to create silence on their own

6. Abiding by the principles of sustainable tourism.” (Visit Karelia, 2020.)

Based on Visit Karelia’s guidelines, it can be concluded that recognizing customers’ differences

in their backgrounds is seen as important, similarly to prior studies. Silence tourism experience

is seen as a multisensory experience, admitting that different factors affect to the experience,

which is again in a line with prior studies of silence. Moreover, silence tourism products are

associated with relaxation and slow pace, as well as with sustainable tourism. According to

Visit Karelia, customers’ have a possibility to learn to create silence by themselves.

2.2.2 Concepts related to silence tourism

Many concepts closely related to silence tourism are used in the literature. According to Han

(2019), tranquility can be seen as a part of nature-based tourism, slow tourism, health and med-

ical tourism, spiritual tourism and religious tourism (p. 299). Also, rural tourism and well-being

tourism are often related to silence tourism. Digital-free tourism and even adventure tourism

have a connection to silence tourism. Next, mentioned types of tourism are shortly presented.

Figure 2 below describes the position of silence tourism in the context of different kind of

tourism types. Concepts closely related to silence tourism are framed and the lines between the

concepts show relations between the concepts. By relations here is meant sub concepts, inter-

changeable use of the concepts in the literature, or that the concepts often have some kind of

connection to each other in practice.

20

Figure 2. Concepts closely related to silence tourism (framed) and their relations

Nature tourism, also called nature-based tourism, is a broad concept and hence difficult to

define exactly (Tangeland & Aas, 2011). Nature tourism is usually defined as travelling to “nat-

ural areas with the main motivation being to enjoy the scenery and appreciate nature”

(Sæþórsdóttir, 2010, p. 28). However, in many studies, nature-based tourism is used synony-

mously with terms rural tourism, adventure tourism (Tangeland & Aas, 2011; Sahebalzamani

& Bertella, 2018), sustainable tourism, responsible tourism, green tourism, and alternative tour-

ism (Tangeland & Aas, 2011, 823). In addition, wildlife tourism can be understood belonging

to a nature tourism concept (Sahebalzamani & Bertella, 2018). Nature-based tourism is con-

nected with activities such as hiking (Huhta & Sulkava, 2014; Tangeland & Aas, 2011), horse

riding, canoeing, cycling, wildlife viewing (Huhta & Sulkava, 2014), wildlife safaris, camping

in natural areas, climbing, rafting, and nature photography (Tangeland & Aas, 2011).

Rural tourism means usually tourism in sparsely populated areas and can be understood as

synonym for nature tourism, and in some countries even as synonym for farm tourism. Rural

tourism is connected with quietness and peace, and rural holiday includes also landscape, re-

laxed atmosphere, and nature as well as activities related to it. (Pesonen & Komppula, 2010.)

Many studies see rural tourism and rurality as opposite to urban life, representing “peacefulness,

simplicity and authenticity, relaxation, tranquility, greenery, and pure air” (Dong, Wang, Mo-

rais & Brooks, 2013, 182). There is a lot in common with rural tourism and wellbeing tourism

21

regarding tourist motivation (Pesonen & Komppula, 2010). Sharpley and Jepson (2011) connect

rural tourism with spirituality by arguing that tourists have a potential to contact with natural

or rural places also in a deeper level as there is a correlation in many studies between “the

natural environment and a deep sense of belonging, a sense of place, a profound connection

with the world and harmonious feelings” (Sharpley & Jepson, 2011, 58).

Slow tourism, according to its name, is mainly based on tourists “seeking slowness whilst on

vacation” (Weiermair & Mathies in Özdemir & Celebi, 2018, p. 1). Originally, slow tourism

was often connected with speed and mobility, mostly focusing on tourists’ concern about envi-

ronmental pollution when moving to and from the destination. The original idea of slow tourism

hence referred a lot to a sustainable tourism (Oh, Assaf & Baloglu, 2016), sustainability being

still strongly emphasized in this recent tourism trend (Özdemir & Celebi, 2018). However, per-

sonal wellbeing of slow tourists has been emphasized lately as well (Oh et. al., 2016). Weier-

mair & Mathies describe slow tourists: “In an environmentally manner, such tourists seek to

relax and enjoy the actual tourism experience itself, often enjoying interaction with local pop-

ulations” (in Özdemir & Celebi, 2018, p. 1). Regarding tourism product and tourism experience,

the concept is more about quality than quantity (Weiermair & Mathies in Özdemir & Celebi,

2018; Caffyn, 2012). Concepts of slow food and slow city are part of slow tourism. Finding a

connection to silence tourism, Cosar and Kozak (2014) noticed that many of the slow destina-

tions are connected with calm and silence. Similarly, slow tourists are suggested to seek peace

and tranquility during their travels (Caffyn, 2012). In general, being in the destination is relaxed

and favor locality, as Caffyn (2012) explain: “Slow visitors will find out more about the natural

and built heritage, local cuisine, traditions, and some of the special qualities of their destination,

in contrast to those who rush through and move on quickly. They are likely to have a more

authentic experience, taking time to browse the local market, absorb the atmosphere, people

watch, buy something from a craftsperson, chat to local people, linger over a meal at a typical

restaurant, take a guided tour of an archaeological site with a local expert, walk or cycle into

the surrounding countryside, watch wildlife, or whatever takes their fancy.” (Caffyn, 2012, 77.)

Health tourism is understood as services offered to tourists to maintain, improve or regain their

physical or mental health state (Baltaretu & Mihaescu, 2016). Wellness tourism and medical

tourism are often seen as subsegments to a health tourism (Smith and Puzckó, 2009; Voigt,

Brown & Howat, 2011; Baltaretu & Mihaescu, 2016). Baltaretu and Mihaescu talk on behalf

22

of wellness as a part of health tourism, stating that ”it also refers to services or natural elements

that can provide the tourist wellness, relaxation or revitalization” (Baltaretu & Mihaescu, 2016,

p. 130), therefore having also something shared with silence tourism. Medical tourism, in turn,

is travelling for medical treatments outside of one’s home city (Baltaretu & Mihaescu, 2016).

It is widely accepted that natural healing resources such as climate-, fossil- or sea-resources,

are strongly connected with therapeutic tourism destinations, which, in turn, can also be seen

as subsegment to a health tourism (Dryglas & Salamaga, 2018, p. 235). Similarly, Smith and

Puzckó (2009) see healing treatments as part of health tourism, in addition to for example spi-

ritual tourism, yoga and meditation tourism, occupational wellness tourism (includes e.g. stress

management and work-life balance), spa tourism, sport and fitness tourism, as well as nutriti-

onal and detox programmes.

Spiritual tourism relates closely to religional tourism but is still not necessarily related to it,

meaning that tourists seeking and experiencing spirituality while traveling may not be religious

at all (Norman & Pokorny, 2017; Singleton, 2017). A crucial part of spiritual tourism is trav-

eler’s wellbeing and is hence linked with wellbeing tourism. Spiritual tourists have often some

issue in their daily life for which they want to give a space and attention by travelling, and in

that way to get time to think, seek answers, fix the problem or find a purpose or meaning in life.

(Norman & Pokorny, 2017.) It is stated that spiritual tourists travel for achieving spiritual

growth (Singleton, 2017, 49). Spirituality can be understood as ”a connection between the self

and the ‘this world’, implying that a spiritual or emotional relationship exists or is sought bet-

ween people, ‘this world’ and specific places” (Sharpley & Jepson, 2011, 55). Spiritual seeking

in tourism has been said to increased when religions seem not to be so popular anymore in these

days (Singleton, 2017).

Religious tourism is one of the oldest tourism types (Rinschede, 1992) and belongs to the

concept of spiritual tourism, which involve both religious and nonreligious tourists. Religious

tourism can be roughly divided into dark tourism, which motivations can be religious or nonre-

ligious, and on the other hand, ”uplifting and bright retreats connected more with wellness tou-

rism” (Rashid, 2018, 153). In general, tourists belonging to religional tourism type have

strongly or only religious or recreational reasons or needs for travelling (Rinschede, 1992).

However, tourists travelling to religious sites or events do not always have religional reasons

23

or motivations, even though they would be religious people. Due to the same reason, a term

pilgrim cannot be used anymore only in the meaning of religious tourist as some of them may

be travelling for spiritual or other reasons. (Rashid, 2018.) Rinschede (1992) made a division

into short-term and long-term religious tourism. Short-term religious tourism refers for example

to day trips to nearby religious sites while long-term religious tourism consists of longer, even

several weeks of visits to some religious place or for example pilgrimage. (Rinschede, 1992.)

Religious tourism may give an opportunity to become closer to God or the Saint which a tourist

venerates (Aktas & Ekin, 2007, p. 171). Religious tourism is a combination of tangibles (e.g. a

church) and intangibles (e.g. religion). Religions are generally seen as part of culture leading to

an idea religious tourism being a subset of cultural tourism. Religious tourism is also related to

heritage tourism. (Rashid, 2018.)

Wellbeing tourism is often understood as a part of health tourism, and, similar to health tour-

ism, has the purpose to “prevent illness” (Konu, 2015, 5) or “maintain one's health and wellbe-

ing” (Konu, 2015, 5; Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015) and is usually understood as a holistic

wellbeing including social, mental and physical aspects (Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015). The

concept of wellbeing is sometimes used interchangeably with the concept of wellness (Konu,

2010) as are the concepts of wellbeing tourism, wellness tourism, medical tourism, health tour-

ism, health‐care tourism, holistic tourism and spa tourism mixed with each other (Voigt, Brown

& Howat, 2011). Wellbeing tourism is sometimes understood as part of wellness tourism (Shel-

don & Bushell in Pesonen & Komppula, 2010, p. 150), which, in turn, is part of health tourism

(Smith and Puzckó, 2009; Voigt et. al. 2011; Baltaretu & Mihaescu, 2016). However, more

often it is understood other way around – wellness tourism being a subset to wellbeing tourism

(Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015), as it is presented for example in Finland by Finnish Tourist

Board. High-quality and luxury products can be part of wellbeing tourism but are usually con-

nected with wellness tourism hence making wellbeing tourism for a wider concept than well-

ness tourism (Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015; Pesonen & Komppula, 2010). Similarly, Konu

(2015) argues on behalf of wellbeing tourists’ desire for both wellbeing and wellness services:

”Wellbeing tourists travel to destinations that provide wide selections of wellbeing and wellness

facilities and services, which can range from physical activities to services enhancing mental

wellbeing, such as pampering, refreshment of the body and mind, spiritual awareness, exercise

and experiences of luxury” (Konu, 2015, p.5). Sheldon and Bushell continue the list by sug-

gesting that “wellbeing refers to a connection with community or nature, inner and outer beauty

24

therapy, massage, spas, sauna, relaxation, energy balancing, art, music and diverse treatments”

(in Pesonen & Komppula, 2010, p. 150) while Grénman & Räikkönen (2015) state wellbeing

tourism focusing on “activities that offer pleasure, enjoyment, and pampering” (p. 13) and being

associated with active enjoyment, for example professional training and physical activity. Well-

being tourism is linked on the one hand with economic and material factors, for example edu-

cation and the standard of living, and on the other hand with more subjective factors, for exam-

ple life satisfaction, happiness and quality of life. (Grénman & Räikkönen, 2015.) In many

countries, wellbeing tourism destinations are found in rural areas (Pesonen & Komppula, 2010).

”Digital-free tourism (DFT) describes tourism spaces where internet and mobile signals are

either absent or digital technology usage is controlled” (Li, Pearce & Low 2018, 317). Li et. al.

studied over 450 media texts and managed to get the conceptual understanding of digital-free

tourism. Virtual world may influence harmfully to interpersonal relationships, cause mental

stress and be a barrier to present tasks and activities as well as interfere being present. Growing

interest on limiting technology usage during holidays has been noted and different kind of tou-

rism products have been created based on the demand. Digital-free tourism providers are usu-

ally hotels, resorts, retreat centres or coastal destinations and they market for example digital

downtime, black hole resorts, digital detoxing, or lifestyle-oriented retreat programs. Digital-

free destinations are often nature-based in remote or rural areas, close to wild animals. Digital-

free travellers appreciate wonderful sceneries, exotic places and engaging culture. Privacy and

tranquility are central parts of the experience. There are numerous activities for substituting

digital use, for example safaris, hiking, bike riding, wild camping, fishing, kayaking, star-ga-

zing, wildlife watching, reindeer sledding, tree planting, art classes, cooking, yoga, fitness clas-

ses, meditation, Tai-Chi, Finnish sauna, board games, conversation, city tours, visiting mu-

seums and heritage sites, shopping and organic fresh farm meals, just to mention a few. DFT

has developed in about ten years from kind of luxury tourism to current nature-based form,

which emphasizes the essence of life and reconnecting with friends and families. Digital-free

tourism these days is usually consciously designed and includes a lot mindfulness, retreat and

wellness related content. (Li et. al., 2018.) DFT offers many experiental benefits such as com-

municating with unfamiliar others and exploring unfamiliar environments in addition to lear-

ning about settings first-hand and maintaining self-discipline (Li et. al. 2018, 327).

25

2.2.3 Activities related to silence tourism

As silence tourism relates to several other tourism types just presented, it can be inferred there

are numerous activities related to silence tourism, at least when their potential is found. Many

tourism products could be transformed into silence tourism activities by adding there a silent

moment to the activity with advice to help for achieving inner silence. Certain activities are

closely linked with silence tourism, such as digital detox holidays and many kinds of sauna

experiences and sauna yoga, which are also a part of earlier mentioned FinRelax program. Two

best known silence tourism activities worldwide are probably different kinds of retreats and

forest-based activities, which are clarified now.

Retreat is ”a peaceful and private place where you can go in order to rest” (Macmillandicti-

onary.com, 2020). Retreat may include for instance full board of healthy food, and different

optional activities such as spa treatments, massage, counceling sessions, nature walks, pilates,

yoga, meditation, gym, and selection of high-energy physical activities. Hence attending to ret-

reats give often great possibilities for eating healthy and regularly, for example organic food

without alcohol, caffeine, red meat and added salt or sugar. During retreat, sleep patterns may

be changed for better and participants have an opportunity for recovery, relaxation and reflec-

tion in addition to enhancing a connection with nature. People attending to retreats are usually

like-minded which enables enhancing social connections. Travelers’ connection with nature

may get better as well. Retreat may be related to digital-free tourism as the use of digital tech-

nology is often limited or even avoided as a part of retreat. (Cohen, Elliott, Oates, Schembri &

Mantri, 2017.)

Several terms related to forest-based activities are used in the literature. Forest bathing was

established in Japan in the 1980s and it means “taking in the forest atmosphere”. Forest bathing

is advised to do as follow: ”Walk into a forest, find a cozy looking place to rest on, lay yourself

down, and rest your head on some soft moss. Take it all in and breathe. You will feel lighter

and lighter by the minute.” (Visit Finland, 2020.) In Japanese, forest bathing is called ”Shinrin-

yoku” and it has been proved decreasing blood glucose levels (Ohtsuka, Yabunaka, & Ta-

kayama, 1998). In addition, forest yoga is mentioned in some of the silence tourism related

holidays. Both forest bathing and forest yoga have been mentioned as FinRelax experiences

26

(Visit Finland, 2020). Forest therapy is often used interchangeably with forest bathing even

though they are not considered being exactly the same activities. Forest therapy tourism is de-

fined being ”a type of rural health tourism in forest areas to achieve mental and physical re-

laxation based on evidence of its effects psychologically and physiologically”. (Ohe, Ikei, Song

& Miyazaki, 2017, p. 323.)

27

3. MOTIVATIONS

3.1 Travel motivation

“Motivation is the need that drives an individual to act in a certain way to achieve the desired

satisfaction” (Beerli & Martı´n in Correia et. al., 2007, p. 46). Motivation should not be used as

synonym for intention or reason (Dann, 1981.) One of the best-known definitions for tourist

motivation is defined by Dann (1981): “A meaningful state of mind which adequately disposes

an actor or group of actors to travel, and which is subsequently interpretable by others as a valid

explanation for such a decision” (p. 205). In general, people have several different reasons and

motives to travel (Correia et. al., 2007, p. 46). To study tourist motivation, it is needed to iden-

tify different kind of needs and pressures that tourists have as reasons for going on a vacation,

and secondly, analyze how the destination area response to these needs and pressures (Dann

1981, p. 189). So, destination attractiveness and therefore destination attractions are closely

related to the travel motivations of tourists.

Dann (1981) identified seven approaches for tourist motivation, one of them presenting push

and pull factors. Push is a motivational factor, for example prestige, escape from mundane

environment and relaxation, whereas pull factor refers to “the specific attractions of the desti-

nation” (Dann, 1981, p. 191). Özdemir and Celebi (2018) name push and pull approach being

the most common motivation theory, in which push refers to internal and pull external motives

(p. 2). For example, Yuan, Cai, Morrison & Lee (in Özdemir & Celebi, 2018, p. 1) talk about

internal motives, or more specifically, internal needs, when stating that it is an ”underlying

assumption” in the studies that “travellers choose destinations or types of vacation to most op-

timally satisfy their internal needs”. As Klenosky (in Özdemir & Celebi, 2018, p. 2) illuminates:

“push factors define whether a tourist goes a vacation or not, whereas pull factors define where

the tourist chooses to go”. So, at first a person has a reason, need, desire, purpose, pressure -

some kind of internal motivation i.e. push motivation to travel or not to travel. At the end, how

tourists perceive the destination is based on their own push and pull motives (Correia et. al.,

2007). So, push and pull factors are both treated as motives (Dann, 1981, p. 193), one regarding

personal motives and the other factors from destinations’ point of view. In this study, the inter-

est is on the push motives for silence tourism.

28

Regarding the needs, pressures and desires for travelling, it has been suggested that tourists’

home setting does not respond to cultural and human needs they may have, whereupon traveling

can fulfill the needs and desires. Therefore, the identified desires for something different can

be seen as motivations for travelling. Dann (1981) presents that motivation and purpose are

often used as synonyms when connected with a tourist (p. 192). Dann’s approach presents mo-

tivation as classified purpose, stating that purpose can be ”the purpose of leisure (recreation,

holiday, health, study, religion, sport) or business (family, mission, meeting)” referring to a

reason to visit a country, or general purpose (pleasure), specific purpose (novelty and change)

or rationalized purpose (health, education, and culture) regarding the purpose of tourist travel

(Cohen in Dann 1981, pp. 192-193).

Tourist motivation can be seen also as a fantasy, based on the idea that tourists can free them-

selves when traveling, as destination lacks the normative controls which may limit tourists at

home environment (Dann, 1981, pp. 191-192). For example, a person having societally a high

position and living in a small municipality or village, may feel a pressure to behave in a certain

and predetermined way even when not working, but because being a well-known person among

the other residents. So, for such a person, traveling can indeed be something that liberate and

makes one feel free and able to holiday without the feeling of limitations. Motivation can also

be seen as ideal types or typologies which ”provide a simple classificatory scheme within a

complex phenomenon”. Ideal types, for example tourist roles, are mental constructs and repre-

sent features of a phenomenon so that they are comparable with the other ideal types. (Dann,

1981, p. 194.) In a same way, when motivations are seen as mental constructs, they can be

compared to other tourists’ motivations, as it is done in this study.

Referring to tourist motivation, it is stated that ”tourists seek the meaningful and authentic”

(MacCannel in Dann, 1981, p. 195). Later on, Cohen in Dann (1981, p. 195) talks about moti-

vation and tourist experience, and he divides tourist experience into three modes: experiental,

experimental and existential modes, which are close to meaning and authenticy suggested by

MacCannel. Experiental mode is about passively observing and looking for alternative mean-

ings of others’ life, for example as a tourist in certain ceremony of aboriginal people. In exper-

imental mode, tourists try different lifestyles to find the one which match with their desires and

needs. Tourists under existential mode pursue their own, alternative culture, for example some-

one searching his roots belongs to this type of tourist experience. (Dann, 1981, p. 195.) Same

29

person may represent more than one mode of tourist experience in different times when having

seeking of the meaningful and authentic as a tourist motivation.

It has been argued that motivation relates to satisfaction (Iso-Ahola, 1982; Özdemir & Celebi,

2018). “Motives are aroused when individuals think of certain activities they could, should or

might do in the future, activities that are potentially satisfaction-producing” (Iso-Ahola, 1982,

p. 258.) Iso-Ahola (1982) presents his well-known escape-seek dichotomy in which it is ex-

pected that individuals have two motivational forces called approach (seeking) and avoidance

(escape) for any leisure activity. Seeking refers to seeking intrinsic rewards and by avoidance

is meant escaping the everyday environments, both of which being potential satisfaction-pro-

ducers. (Iso-Ahola, 1982.) Satisfaction being related to motivation highlights the importance of

understanding traveller’s decision-making processes. There is a strong consensus that future

travel patterns are easier to predict when travel motivations are recognized and understood. In

addition, “understanding the motivations of tourists is key to designing better products and ser-

vices”. (Özdemir & Celebi, 2018, p. 1.)

Leisure motivation scale is an instrument for assessing the sociological and psychological rea-

sons for participation in leisure activities. The instrument is formed of four subscales: Intellec-

tual, Social, Competence-Mastery, and Stimulus-Avoidance. Each of them have 12 items, sum-

ming to 48 items altogether. (Beard & Ragheb, 1983.)

As can be noted, there are several different perspectives for understanding the concept of travel

motivation. In this study, leisure motivation scale was utilized in answer options of the survey.

3.2 Silence tourism related motivations

As the literature lacks the studies related to silence tourism motivations (Özdemir & Celebi,

2018), the motivation factors were searched from selected articles closely related to silence

tourism. The selected articles were related to rural tourism (6 articles), nature tourism (3 arti-

cles), wellbeing tourism (2 articles), as well as slow tourism, eco-tourism, adventure tourism

and spiritual tourism (1 article from each).

30

Table 1. Silence tourism related motivations in previous studies

Push factor

Özdemir

& Celebi,

2018

Han,

2019

Pesonen &

Komppula,

2010

Rid et.

al.,

2014

Kim et.

al.,

2003

Chikuta

et. al.,

2017

Park &

Yoon,

2009

Carvache-

Franco et.

al., 2019

Pesonen

et. al.,

2011

Farma

ki,

2012

Kim et.

al.,

2015

Dong

et. al.,

2013

Fuchs

et. al.,

2016

Moscar

do,

2015

Choe

et. al.,

2012

Relaxation x x x x x x x x x x x xSelf-reflection & Discovery x x x x x xEscape (desire to get away) x x x x x x x x x x xNovelty-seeking / adventure x x x x xEnvironmental concern xMeet new people and/or

people with similar interestsx x x x x x

Spending time with

family/friendsx x x x x x x x

Nature seeking (a need of

natural quietness in rural

areas)

x

Rurality seeking (seeking

peaceful and harmony in

rural locality)

x x

Reclusiveness (searching for

mental peace)x x

Hassle-free vacation x xGetting refreshed x x xHaving a sense of comfort x xHeritage & nature x x xAuthentic rural experience xLearning x x x x x xSun & beach xEgo-enhancement x xHealing effect of nature xEnjoying the nature x x x x xReward (eg. have fun, create

good memories)x x x

Doing sth I really l ike to do x xPursuing new type of travel xPursuing a healthy life x xSilence and serenity xFulfi l l ing a dream x

Writer(s) of the article

31

As can be noted from Table 1, relaxation and escape are the most common motivations in these

previous studies, relaxation occurring in 12 and escape in 11 articles out of 15. Spending time

with friends or family is third most common motivation in eight articles, while self-reflection

& discovery, meeting new people and/or people with similar interest, and learning were all

found in six articles. Novelty-seeking and enjoying nature were both as travel motivations in

five studies. Rest of the motivations occurred maximum in three articles.

Among the articles were some especially interesting findings. For example, it was found that

visitors’ psychological needs, for example escape or the need to seek relaxing, serene and tran-

quil environments may be more important motivation for visiting Buddhist temples than the

temple itself. Therefore, it was suggested that when marketing sites such religional temples,

tranquility and learning about new things should be emphasized. (Choe, Blazey & Mitas, 2015.)

In the article related to adventure tourism, it was found that search for tranquility (silence and

serenity in Table 1) was one of the major motives for scuba divers instead of searching for thrill

of risk, as often expected (Fucs et. al., 2016). A motivation study revelead people with disabi-

lities having some unique motivations for nature-based tourism, for example healing effect of

nature, in addition to the same motives that able-bodied have (Chikuta, 2017).

32

4. METHODOLOGY

4.1 Research approach

This study was chosen to be a quantitative study as it aims to study relations between tourists’

motivations of travelling or buying silence tourism products, and general interest toward silence

tourism. Even though a quantitative study is usually used for generalizing the results, it is not

the case in this study. More precisely, the aim of this study is to figure out, with the help of

formal concept analysis, what is the meaning of silence tourism. Secondly, this study aims to

understand, through segmenting the respondents by hierarchical cluster analysis, how silence

tourists differ from the other tourists especially in terms of travel motivations but also socio-

demographic characteristics, interest toward silence tourism and travel behavior.

4.2 Data collection and method

The responses for the survey were collected online in social media using convenience sampling

methodology. Convenience sampling is a nonprobability sampling method. It is useful when

the researcher has limited resources, time and workforce as was the case with this study. Non-

probability sampling can be utilized especially when the aim of the research is not to generate

generalizable results for an entire population. Convenience sampling can provide insights for

exploratory research (Landers & Behrend, 2015). Convenience sampling has often been used

in tourism studies for example to predict tourist behavior (Kumar, 2016), study satisfaction

(Araslı & Baradarani, 2014), and to understand tourists’ motivations and leisure activity prefe-

rences (Hsieh & Chang, 2006).

The data were collected from 28.3.2018 to 19.4.2018. During this period altogether 517 answers

were collected using an online survey link. Asked questions were based on theories of tourism

motivations and travel behavior. The survey was distributed to various social media communi-

ties and accounts related to travel and tourism. The data was validated using two approaches.

First, respondents who had answered to all Likert-scale motivations statements with the same

number were deleted. It can be assumed that respondents who state similar importance for all

travel motivations are not useful for the results of the study and have not probably paid enough

attention to the questions. Second, among the travel activity statements, ‘Mingle with local

33

people’, was asked twice but with opposite meaning. Respondents who answered both versions

of the question positively or negatively were removed from the analysis. This resulted in alto-

gether 471 usable responses for further analysis.

4.3 Data analysis

4.3.1 Descriptive statistics and K-Means Cluster Analysis

Collected data was analyzed by using IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) Sta-

tistics 25 -program. At first, all the responses were analyzed by descriptive statistics for getting

an overall image of the respondents. However, as the second research question reveals, seg-

mentation of the respondents was one of the points of interest in this study to get a clue who

those tourists are interested in silence tourism, in other words, what distinguishes them from

the other tourists. Hence, the data was analyzed, and segmentation made by K-means clustering.

“Market segmentation in tourism research has been defined as a process of dividing a market

into market segments, which are defined as groups of consumers who are expected to exhibit

similar purchasing responses” (Smith in Rid, Ezeuduji & Pröbstl-Haider, 2014, 104). Obvi-

ously, the interest in this study is on the tourists who would like to buy similar purchase, in this

case, a silence tourism product. Segmentation used in this study is called activity-based seg-

mentation.

Cluster analysis aims to group similar observations or variables to the same groups and is used

especially in the situations where these can be grouped without knowing a classification crite-

rion. Cluster analysis is hence an explorative way to make an analysis. (Metsämuuronen 2005,

812.) This was the case with the data used in this study, as the number of segments were possible

and reasonable to determine to be three without knowing the reason why certain respondents

will belong to the certain group, for example to the “Silence tourists”. The idea behind three

segments was to divide tourists roughly enough to the groups which were seen as reasonable;

to the ones who are very interested in silence tourism, to the others who are somewhat interested

and to a third segment which members are not interested in silence tourism, which relates to

Beane’s & Ennis’ idea about using market segmentation for evaluating new opportunities to

tourism products (in Rid et. al. 2014, 104). With the help of these three segments it can be

evaluated if there are opportunities for silence tourism products. Due to the relatively big data

34

set (N=471), K-means Cluster Analysis was chosen instead of Hierarchical Cluster Analysis.

So, following two questions from the survey of this study were used for K-means clustering:

1. How interested would you be at this moment to travel to a tourism destination providing the

described silent tourism services?

2. If you had a chance, how likely would you purchase a holiday in a destination where you

could participate in silence tourism experiences?

Table 2. Forming of clusters using two selected questions.

Using K-means clustering, mentioned three segments were formed. However, SPSS presents

the clusters as numbers, so it was needed to rename them. Therefore, clusters 1, 2 and 3 were

renamed accordingly: 1 = Silence tourists, representing the ones who are very interested in

silence tourism, 2 = Potential silence tourists, representing those who are somewhat interested

in silence tourism, and 3 = Not interested in silence tourism (Table 3). Later on, profiles of

mentioned segments are compared by crosstabulation and mean value.

4.3.2 Crosstabulation

After forming three clusters by K-means cluster analysis, the responses of each cluster were

analyzed by using different analysis methods. At first, responses to the questions regarding

clusters’ sociodemographic variables, background information and travel behaviour were com-

pared by crosstabulation. In addition, responses regarding question three about silence tourism

expectations, question four regarding interest in buying nature tourism services based on silence

35

experiences, and question seven regarding type of destination a respondent is interested in tra-

velling at the moment were analyzed by crosstabulation as well. With the help of

crosstabulation, a dependence between two or more variables can be illustrated

(Metsämuuronen, 2005, p. 531).

4.3.3 Comparison of means

Responses to question six about holiday travel behaviour were analyzed by comparing means

among the clusters. Comparison of means analyses in SPSS program can produce even 12 sta-

tistics of which simple means compare is only one (Griffith, 2010, p. 229), and the one chosen

to be used in this study. Chosen comparison of means analysis includes mean and standard

deviation.

4.3.4 Multinomial logistic regression analysis

Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to analyze responses to question five about

travel motivations, in more detailed, how motivations affect to an interest toward silence tour-

ism. Regression analysis, in general, is about predicting the unknown future based on collected

data from the past (Griffith 2010, 240), which describes this study, as the data has been collected

from respondents’ previous travel behavior. In logistic regression analysis, Dependent may be

Binary Logistic which gets two values, or Multinomial Logistic, which gets more than two val-

ues (Metsämuuronen, 2005, p. 701). Multinomial logistic regression analysis is used, according

to its name, for predicting a membership of several categories (Field 2014). As there are several

motivation factors in the survey of this study, a multinomial logistic regression analysis was

chosen to analyze how the motivations affect to an interest toward silence tourism. In other

words, how the motivations explain to which cluster (“Silence tourists”, “Potential silence tour-

ists, or “Not interested in silence tourism”) is the one a respondent represents. Logistic regres-

sion analysis aims to find best variables among several variables, in this case, motivations, that

explain the phenomenon best. With the help of logistic regression analysis, it can be tested if

some of the variables explain the results better than the others. Logistic regression analysis can

be used when variables chosen to the analysis are relevant. Choosing irrelevant variables makes

the results unreliable. (Metsämuuronen, 2005, p. 687-688.) In this study, motivation factors

were chosen based on previous literature for ensuring they are relevant. However, as logistic

36

regression analysis tells just the association between variables, it must be kept in a mind that

any of the motivation factors is not necessarily a reason for a respondent belonging to a certain

cluster (Metsämuuronen, 2005, p. 688-689). In other word, there might be an association be-

tween a single motivation factor and some of the clusters, but it does not say that the motivation

factor is a reason why a respondent with the certain motivation belongs to the certain cluster.

When using logistic regression analysis, amount of responses must be sufficient to make sure

there are differences between the clusters, and that there are enough responses compared to the

variables, in this case, to motivation factors. Otherwise there is a danger of getting Independent

variable for each of the responses, which is not a purpose. (Metsämuuronen, 2005, p. 688-689.)

Mentioned problem did not occur in this study.

37

5. RESULTS

5.1. Respondents’ background information – Descriptive statistics

Table 3 presents division of respondents’ country of residence, which are later detailed in Table

4. Tables 4 and 5 presents respondents sociodemographic factors, background information and

travel behaviour. These results were got from descriptive statistics in SPSS and are presented

as numbers (n) and percentages (%). As some of the responds were removed after the data

analysis due to respondents getting caught for not answering the questions logically, total num-

ber of respondents (N) varies from 460 to 471.

Table 3. Division of respondents’ country of residence.

In total, 360 female (76,4%) and 102 male (21,7%) respondents answered to the survey in ad-

dition to eight (1,7%) who preferred not to tell their gender, summing to 471 respondents. As

can be noted, women and men are not equally represented. However, as the segmentation in

this study is made based on interest toward silence tourism, and not for example on sociodemo-

graphic characteristics, unequal stresses among the responses do not matter but instead, every

respond give an important information of interest toward this specific field of tourism.

Age of respondents vary from young to elderly people. Over 40% (n=189, N=464) of respon-

dents were born in years between 1983 and 1992 (mode: 1990, n=29). Respondents come from

46 countries. Great majority (n=298; 63,3%) of the respondents live in Finland. Next biggest

group of respondents (n =16; 3,4%) live in United States. Both Italy and United Kingdom have

11 respondents (2,3%). Thirteen respondents represent their country alone. In addition to the

respondents country of residence, size of their town of residence was also as point of interest.

Majority of respondents live in a city. Most of them (n=126; 26,8%) live in a medium city

38

Table 4. Overview of respondents' sociodemographic factors.

39

Table 5. Overview of respondents' background information and travel behaviour.

where is less than 100 000 inhabitants. In a very large city, comprising of more than 500 000

inhabitants, live 109 respondents (23,1%) and 80 respondents (17%) live in a large city, defined

here as a city with less than 500 000 inhabitants. Small minority (n=11; 2,3%) live in a farm

40

referring to a location remote from any town or village. Respondents represent variety of diffe-

rent levels of education. Most of respondents (n=194) present a bachelor’s degree as their

highest level of education making it biggest group, representing 41,2% of all responds. Two

respondents (0,4%) have no degree, 21 respondents (4,5%) have achieved a high school as their

highest education and 65 respondents (13,8%) a vocational or technical school. Second biggest

group is formed of those 160 respondents (34%) who have achieved a master’s degree. There

are also 29 respondents (6,2%) who have got a doctoral degree. There is also variation regarding

how the respondents live. A fourth of respondents (n=122; 25,9%) live alone but more respon-

dents (n=176; 37,4%) have two persons in their household. Great majority of respondents

(73,2%) do not have children under 16 years in their household. Some of the respondents

(13,6%) have one child in their household. A number of over 64 years adults in the household

was also asked to find out if there are pensioners among respondents or in their families. Most

of respondents (88,7%) do not have over 64 years adults in their household while the rest have

one (4,7%) or two (4,2%) which can be seen also from the responds regarding the birth year.

Table 5 give an overview of respondents’ background information and travel behaviour.

Households annual net income varies a lot. However, most of the respondents (18,3%) preferred

not to say it, which after 20 000 - 29 999€ was the biggest group with 74 responds (15,7%,

N=469). An approximate amount of money spent on leisure tourism in a year was also asked.

Majority (21,4%) of respondents reported their household spending 1001-2000 euros on leisure

tourism, including transportation, accommodation, food, activities, tickets, and everything else.

Nearly as many (19,5%) spend 2001-3000 euros and 17,2% (n=81) spend 3001-5000 € on lei-

sure tourism in a year (N=468). Most of the respondents (n=122; 25,9%, N=460) do two do-

mestic leisure trip in a year and one (n=137; 29,1%) to two (n=134; 28,5%) international leisure

trips in a year (N=467). Roughly half (54,1%) of the respondents have been on a nature tourism

holiday while only 18% have been on nature tourism holiday that included silence tourism ex-

periences (N = 470). Over half of the respondents travel typically with their friends (55,6%) or

family (52,8%), while one third (34,2%) travel typically alone and almost as many (31,2%)

with their spouse.

41

5.2. Formed clusters – K-Means Cluster Analysis

After getting an overall impression about respondents’, the more detailed information of each

of the three cluster was gained. At first, number of cases in each cluster was solved by K-means

Cluster Analysis as can be seen from Table 6. ”Silence tourists” proved being the biggest seg-

ment with 252 respondents (53,5%). In addition, there are 143 ”Potential silence tourists”

(30,4%) and 76 respondents (16,1%) who are ”Not interested in silence tourism”.

Table 6. Number of cases in each cluster.

5.3 Comparison of clusters’ background information – Crosstabulation

Crosstabulation after formed clusters enables a comparison between clusters’. Most of the va-

riables related to respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, background information, or

travel behaviour does not differ statistically significantly between the groups as can be noted

from Tables 7, 8, and 9. Value column in the tables shows the value of Goodman and Kruskal

tau, in which zero (0) refers to no association and one (1) to complete or perfect association.

Sig. column in the tables shows the p-value, which is statistically significant when <0,05.

In Table 7, the only statistically significant variable is household size (p=0,012). Most of the

”Silence tourists” (38,3%) live in a two persons’ household, which is more compared to ”Po-

tential silence tourists” (32,2%) but less than ”Not interested in silence tourism” (47,4%). There

are least one person households among ”Silence tourists” (22%) compared to ”Potential silence

42

Table 7. Comparison of clusters’ sociodemographic variables. *p<0,05

43

Table 8. Comparison of clusters’ background information and travel behaviour 1.

44

tourists” of which 32,9% live alone or to ”Not interested in silence tourism” (26,3%). Otherwise

the results are alike among the clusters. Most of the respondents’ in all clusters are female, they

were born in between 1983 and 1992, and have bachelor’s degree as their highest education. In

great majority of respondents households do not live children under 16 years nor adults over 64

years.

Regarding the variables presented in Table 8, the clusters do not differ statistically significantly

from each others. Nearly a fifth of ”Silence tourists” and similarly, 21,1% of ”Not interested in

silence tourism” prefer not to tell their household’s annual net income forming the biggest group

of respondents in their clusters. Most of ”Potential silence tourists” (20,3%) reported 20 000 -

29 999€ as their annual net income. Households’ money spend on leisure tourism is prevalent

among the different amount of money in each cluster. Roughly one third of ”Silence tourist”

and ”Potential silence tourists” make one international leisure trip in a year while 30,7% of

”Not interested in silence tourism” make two international leisure trips in a year. Most of the

respondents’ in every cluster make two domestic leisure trips in a year.

As can be seen in Table 9, there is a statistical significance between the clusters’ regarding

experiences of a nature tourism holiday (p=0,002) and experiences of a nature tourism holiday

with silence tourism experiences (p=0,002). ”Silence tourists” and ”Potential silence tourists”

have notably more experience of nature tourism holidays (59,8% and 53,8%) compared to ”Not

interested in silence tourism” (36,8%). Similarly, ” Silence tourists” and ”Potential silence tou-

rists” have notably more experience of nature tourism holidays with silence tourism experiences

(20,3% and 21,7%) compared to ”Not interested in silence tourism” (3,9%).

Other variables presented in Table 9 do not differ statistically significantly between the clusters.

It is noteworthy that regarding Typical travel party, respondents were able to choose several

answer options which sums to total frequencies over maximum cases in each cluster and per-

centages over 100%. Over half of the respondents in each cluster travel typically with their

friends and family. About one third in all clusters travel typically alone. Size of the town of

residence was also asked. In medium cities live most of ”Silence tourists” (25,8%) and

45

”Potential silence tourists” (31,5%). Majority (26,3%) of those who are ”Not interested in si-

lence tourism” live in very large cities.

Table 9. Comparison of clusters’ background information and travel behaviour 2. *p<0,05

As presented in Table 10, the clusters represent a great variety of respondent’s countries of

residence. ”Silence tourists” come from 43 different countries, ”Potential silence tourists” rep-

resent 22 countries of residence and ”Not interested in silence tourism” 15 countries of resi-

dence. Comparison between the clusters’ country of residence is statistically significnt

(p<0,05). However, over half of the respondents in each cluster come from Finland, which has

caused this result. It is noteworthy, that the interest of this study is not in clusters’

Sociodemographic variable Value Sig.

Typical travel party n (N=252) % n (N=143) % n (N=76) %

Alone 84 33,3 50 35 27 35,5 0 0,914

Husband/wife/spouse 84 33,3 43 30,1 20 26,3 0,003 0,482

Boyfriend/girlfriend 55 21,8 39 27,3 27 35,5 0,013 0,05

Friends 130 51,6 89 62,2 43 56,6 0,009 0,121

Family 131 52 76 53,1 42 55,3 0,001 0,879

People who are not close 8 3,2 1 0,7 3 3,9 0,006 0,228

Strangers (e.g., organized

tour)13 5,2 4 2,8 1 1,3 0,006 0,232

Experiences of a nature

tourism holiday n (N=251) % n (N=143) % n (N=76) %

Yes 150 59,8 77 53,8 28 36,8

No 101 40,2 66 46,2 48 63,2

Experiences of a nature

tourism holiday with silence

tourism experiences n (N=251) % n (N=143) % n (N=76) %

Yes 51 20,3 31 21,7 3 3,9

No 200 60 112 78,3 73 96,1

Size of the town of residence n (N= 252) % n (N=143) % n (N=76) %

Farm 6 2,4 3 2,1 2 2,6

Village or a town 25 9,9 16 11,2 9 11,8

Suburban 23 9,1 11 7,7 2 2,6

Small City 29 11,5 18 12,6 12 15,8

Medium City 65 25,8 45 31,5 16 21,1

Large City 43 17,1 22 15,4 15 19,7

Very Large City 61 24,2 28 19,6 20 26,3

0,004 0,619

0,026 0,002*

0,026 0,002*

Comparison of clusters' background information and travel behaviour 2

Silence tourists Potential silence

tourists

Not interested in

silence tourism

46

sociodemographic factors, but in their motivations. The comparison is interesting in this study

even though the results are not generalisable.

Table 10. Comparison of clusters’ country of residence. p<0,05

Sociodemographic variable Value Sig.

Residence n (N=249) % n (N=143) % n (N=76) %

Antigua & Deps - - 1 0,7 - -

Australia 3 1,2 - - - -

Austria 1 0,4 2 1,4 1 1,3

Belgium 1 0,4 - - 1 1,3

Brazil - - 2 1,4 - -

Canada 4 1,6 2 1,4 1 1,3

China 1 0,4 4 2,8 - -

Denmark 1 0,4 1 0,7 - -

Estonia 1 0,4 - - 1 1,3

Finland 136 54,6 103 72,0 59 77,6

France 4 1,6 1 0,7 1 1,3

Germany 7 2,8 1 0,7 1 1,3

Greece 2 0,8 - - - -

Hungary 6 2,4 1 0,7 1 1,3

India 4 1,6 - - - -

Indonesia 1 0,4 - - 1 1,3

Iran 1 0,4 - - - -

Ireland {Republic} 1 0,4 1 0,7 - -

Israel 1 0,4 - - - -

Italy 9 3,6 2 1,4 - -

Korea South 3 1,2 2 1,4 - -

Latvia 1 0,4 - - - -

Lithuania 1 0,4 - - - -

Malta 1 0,4 - - 1 1,3

Mexico 1 0,4 1 0,7 - -

Myanmar, {Burma} - - 1 0,7 - -

Netherlands 4 1,6 - - 1 1,3

Nigeria 3 1,2 - - - -

Norway 1 0,4 2 1,4 - -

Philippines 1 0,4 - - - -

Portugal 4 1,6 - - - -

Romania 1 0,4 - - - -

Russian Federation 3 1,2 - - - -

Slovenia 2 0,8 - - - -

South Africa 4 1,6 1 0,7 - -

Spain 4 1,6 1 0,7 - -

Sweden 4 1,6 1 0,7 2 2,6

Switzerland 2 0,8 4 2,8 1 1,3

Thailand 1 0,4 - - - -

Trinidad & Tobago 1 0,4 - - - -

Turkey 6 2,4 - - - -

United Arab Emirates 1 0,4 - - - -

United Kingdom 8 3,2 2 1,4 1 1,3

United States 6 2,4 7 4,9 3 3,9

Uruguay 1 0,4 - - - -

Vietnam 1 0,4 - - - -

Comparison of clusters' country of residence

Silence touristsPotential silence

tourists

Not interested in

silence tourism

0,019 0,000*

47

In Table 11, division of clusters’ country of residence is presented. Countries are divided into

three categories: Finland, Other European countries and Non-European countries. Russia is

considered being a European country. Over half of the respondents in each cluster come from

Finland. Most of the respondents’ who are from other European countries or Non-European

countries, belong to the cluster of Silence tourists. Hence, it can be inferred that in this study,

tourists outside of Finland are interested in silence tourism.

Table 11. Comparison of division of clusters’ country of residence.

5.3 Interest toward silence tourism – Crosstabulation

In addition to crosstabulation done for earlier presented respondents’ sociodemographic cha-

racteristics, background information, and travel behaviour, it was done for the questions three,

four and seven. Table 12 reveals clusters’ interest toward silence tourism in form of expectati-

ons, their interest in buying nature tourism services that are based on silence experiences as

well as the type of destination they are interested in travelling at the moment. Value column in

the tables shows the value of Goodman and Kruskal tau, in which zero (0) refers to no asso-

ciation and one (1) to complete or perfect association. Sig. column in the tables shows the p-

value, which is statistically significant when <0,05.

It is noteworthy that all of the six expectations about silence tourism differ statistically signifi-

cantly (p<0,05) among the clusters in Table 12. Most of the variables’ p-values are even less

than 0,001 making the result more reliable. ”Silence tourists” expect silence tourism holiday

being enjoyable, exciting, favourable and fun remarkably more than the other groups, and only

2,8% of them expect it to be boring, which can be compared to 18,9% (”Potential silence tou-

rists”) or to 51,3% (”Not interested in silence tourism”). Almost every respondent in each clus-

ter expect silence tourism to be relaxing.

48

Table 12. Comparison of clusters’ interest toward silence tourism. * p<0,05

Similarly, there is a statistical signifigance (p<0,05) in interest in buying nature tourism servi-

ces based on silence experiences among the clusters. 88,1% of ”Silence tourists”, 73,4% of

”Potential silence tourists” and 28,9% of ”Not interested in silence tourism” are interested in

buying nature tourism services based on silence experience. ”Silence tourists” are hence most

interested in buying nature tourism services that are based on silence ecxperiences.

It is noteworthy that regarding Type of destination interested in travelling at the moment, res-

pondents were able to choose several answer options which sums to total frequencies over ma-

ximum cases in each cluster and percentages over 100%. There are statistically significant

(p<0,05) results regarding the variables Urban/city (p=0,011) and Rural/nature (p=0,000). ”Si-

lence tourists” are less interested in travelling to urban or city destinations at the moment

(60,7%) compared to ”Potential silence tourists” (67,8%) or to ”Not interested in silence tou-

rism” (78,9%). Rural or nature destinations, in turn, attract more ”Silence tourists”, since 94,4%

of them are interested in travelling to those type of destinations at the moment, which is remar-

kably more compared to ”Potential silence tourists’” interest (87,4%) or to those who are ”Not

interested in silence tourism” (61,8%).

49

5.4 Travel behaviour – Comparison of means

Travel behaviour do not vary a lot between the clusters, which can be seen from Table 13. On

the left side, there are the preferences or attributes related to travel behaviour, which after a

comparison between the clusters regarding mean and standard deviation can be seen. Likert

Scale was used in answer options. Mean values vary between one and six as follows:

1= Strongly disagree, 2= Disagree, 3= Slightly disagree, 4= Slightly agree, 5= Agree, and

6= Strongly agree. Standard deviation tells how widely the value of variable has been divided.

Values of Eta, F and Sig. are presented on the right side in the table. Sig. is the most important

and it shows the p-value, which is statistically significant when <0,05. Preferences related to

travel behavior are shortened for the table. Original statements are seen in appendices from

question six.

There is a statistical significance (p=0,045) between the clusters regarding a statement ”I always

like to mix with the local people and experience the local customs”, which is shortened as ”local

people and local customs” in the table. Silence tourists’ disagree most with the statement mea-

ning that they are statistically significantly less interested in spending time with the local people

and getting familiar with the local customs compared to the other clusters.

50

Table 13. Comparison of clusters' travel behaviour.

*from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 6 (Strongly agree) ** p<0,05

Preference /

attribute related to

travel behaviour

Eta F Sig.

Mean* Std Dev. Mean* Std Dev. Mean* Std Dev.

Guided tours 2,6905 1,40553 2,6503 1,30685 2,2763 1,21763 0,11 2,844 0,059

Vacations where to

just relax and do

nothing

3,4841 1,42115 3,4615 1,38284 3,1974 1,3468 0,074 1,278 0,28

Looking for

adventure and an

opportunity to

escape from the

ordinary

4,9643 1,04611 4,9441 0,90985 4,9079 0,81939 0,021 0,101 0,904

A lot of night l ife 2,3294 1,27129 2,5035 1,32619 2,7105 1,44974 0,106 2,653 0,072

Staying at the best

places3,3611 1,40025 3,2937 1,34705 3,3421 1,29154 0,022 0,111 0,895

Visiting countries

that have old

monuments and

other historical

buildings

4,2619 1,27294 4,3357 1,26125 4,1711 1,21533 0,043 0,433 0,649

Local people and

local customs4,869 1,04229 4,6573 1,13277 4,5658 1,13532 0,115 3,123 0,045**

Visiting places that

my friends have

visited before me

2,5238 1,16533 2,7343 1,1983 2,4868 1,13717 0,087 1,771 0,171

New cultures and

new ways of l iving5,2778 0,92885 5,049 0,95186 5,1053 1,00105 0,111 2,944 0,054

Arrangeing my own

sightseeing schedule

and accommodation

5,1587 0,94816 5,0979 0,96644 5,2105 0,97044 0,04 0,374 0,688

Most of my friends

come to me for

advice on what

foreign countries to

visit

3,6706 1,48788 3,6993 1,42925 3,6842 1,30854 0,009 0,018 0,982

Visiting places

where possible to

learn things that

help me in education

and/or business

3,8214 1,43791 3,6154 1,3734 3,5132 1,2701 0,09 1,895 0,151

Trying to do too

many things when on

vacation

3,9008 1,36332 3,8322 1,32679 4,0921 1,33843 0,063 0,937 0,392

Visiting places

where people speak

the same language

2,2619 1,25084 2,3147 1,35532 2,3026 1,28602 0,019 0,085 0,918

Destination has

plenty to entertain

the children

2,2897 1,55875 2,1049 1,41776 2,0263 1,4327 0,073 1,243 0,289

Visiting places with

a large variety of

activities and sights

4,1786 1,31034 4,1818 1,19645 4,2763 1,11473 0,029 0,192 0,826

Comparison of clusters' travel behaviour

Silence tourists

(N=252)

Potential silence

tourists (N=143)

Not interested in

silence tourism (N=76)

51

5.4 Motivations for silence tourism - Multinomial logistic regression analysis

From Table 14 can be seen ”Silence tourists’” and ”Potential silence tourists’” motivations for

silence tourism compared to the reference group: ”Not interested in silence tourism”. B column

in the table tells if the coefficient is negative, whereupon the motivation is lower, or positive,

whereupon the motivation is higher. Standard error is calculated from regression coefficient B

(Metsämuuronen, 2005). Wald is calculated by dividing parameter B by its standard error and

squaring it. Wald tells how well the variable explains the results statistically. (Metsämuuronen,

2005, p. 691.) Sig. shows the p-value, which is statistically significant when <0,05. Nagel-

kerke’s R-Square value tells directly how much the model explains the change in variabe (Met-

sämuuronen 2005, 696), in this case 21,8%.

Table 14. Motivations for silence tourism. * p<0,05. Note: Nagelkerke 0,218.

Results of multinomial logistic regression analysis show that both ”Silence tourists” and ”Po-

tential silence tourists” differ statistically significantly (p<0,05) from the reference category,

”not interested in silence tourism” in terms of their motivation to spend time in nature, get

away, and increase knowledge. It is remarkable that silence tourists’ p-values for the mentioned

52

motivations are below 0,01, which make the result even more statistically significant. In addi-

tion, ”potential silence tourists” motivation to discover new things is statistically significant

(p<0,05). So, in more detail, both ”Silence tourists” and ”Potential silence tourists” are very

motivated to spend time in nature and increase knowledge whereas their motivation to get away

is statistically significantly lower compared to the reference group. In addition, ”Potential si-

lence tourists” are not motivated for discovering new things.

53

6. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

6.1 Theoretical contribution, managerial implications and future study suggestions

6.1.1 Meaning of silence tourism

Purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about silence tourism regarding meaning of

the concept of silence tourism and how silence tourists differ from the other tourists in terms of

sociodemographic characteristics, interest toward silence tourism, travel behaviour and espe-

cially, motivations for silence tourism. Interest toward silence tourism included expectations

for silence tourism, interest in buying nature tourism services based on silence experiences, and

type of destination respondents were interested in travelling at that moment.

Meaning of the silence tourism concept is wide, as it relates at least to nature tourism, rural

tourism, slow tourism, health tourism, spiritual tourism, religional tourism, wellbeing tourism

and digital-free tourism as discussed earlier in the theory part through formal concept analysis

and as mentioned once in the context of adventure tourism (Fuchs et. al., 2016). As the general

purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about silence tourism, next, meaning of silence

tourism in Finland as well as marketing silence and tranquility in Finland are discussed based

on how Visit Finland presents topic in their marketing. In addition, the discussion includes

managerial implementations about how to market silence in Finland.

Peace and tranquility were noted to be central parts of Finnish wellbeing, for example in expe-

riences related to sauna, pampering treatments, wellbeing cottage holidays, nature and espe-

cially forests. Finnish wellbeing, in turn, have much in common with slow tourism. Hence it is

interesting and noteworthy that Visit Finland have decided to market the mentioned elements

through wellbeing tourism and partly through slow tourism, but not for example from silence

tourism perspective. On the one hand, wellbeing related elements are obviously part of wellbe-

ing tourism, but on the other hand, isn’t it after all, just a decision to group certain elements in

a certain way? The same elements could be marketed through silence tourism if wanted.

54

Currently silence have separated being just one element within wellbeing tourism products

(Business Finland, 2020), even though it is admitted aiming to be a part of the primary experi-

ence (Visit Finland, 2020). Being a part of the primary experience, for instance a skiing trip,

relates to earlier mentioned idea about silence being ubiquitous (Han, 2019), meaning that it is

“everywhere” and therefore not being a separate product that travelers could buy, for example.

As a Finn who knows the Finnish culture and has an understanding of what Visit Finland call

Finnish wellbeing and products related to it, it is easy to recognize that tranquility really is a

central part of Finnish wellbeing and that tranquility really is “everywhere” when considering

a typical Finnish cottage holiday. According to FinRelax product recommendations, “a wellbe-

ing cottage” should be located in a peaceful environment and is hence related to rural tourism

as well. “A typical rural holiday includes accommodation in a cottage, local food, sauna and

some kind of nature activities: swimming, rowing and walking in the forest” (Pesonen & Komp-

pula, 2010, p. 150-151). However, tranquility being a very central part of typical Finnish holi-

days is not opened up too clearly in Visit Finland’s marketing, and as a foreigner it may be

impossible to figure out how big role tranquility have in many wellbeing, rural and slow tourism

experiences in Finland.

Tranquility can be noted from Visit Finland’s marketing, but as easily it may remain hidden for

a tourist who does not know to search for it. Not marketing products that clearly include tran-

quility as a central part of the experience as a silence tourism, raises a question whether a silence

tourism is a sub concept for wellbeing tourism or slow tourism, and hence not worth of men-

tioning separately in marketing. On the other hand, it may just tell about difficulty or challeng-

ing to sell the silence and tranquility, or the concept of silence tourism being unknown and

hence difficult to use in marketing.

As stated earlier, silence tourism may not be the best concept to describe peacefulness, quiet-

ness or tranquility experienced during holidays. The actual question is, how silence tourism

should be marketed, and if it should be marketed separately, distinguishing from the other tour-

ism types and emphasizing silence, tranquility and reaching inner silence through outer silence

as a main feature of the experience. This option would require clarifying more how does it feels

like to experience silence, to avoid scaring potential tourists who are not familiar with silence

55

and tranquil environments. Another option would be to market silence tourism as a part of some

other tourism type, for example as a part of nature, rural, wellbeing or slow tourism as it has

been done currently by Visit Finland. However, this option does not give much space to tran-

quility, and it may remain hidden treasure and does not show the full potential of what tranquil

environments and tourism products have to offer for tourists in all over the world. Hence, if the

possibilities of silence tourism are wished for raised, silence tourism should be marketed sepa-

rately focusing on clear communication about what it is, whether it is marketed as a silence

tourism, tranquility tourism or labelled as some other way.

6.1.2. Sociodemographic characteristics

Results of this study revealed that silence tourists’ sociodemographic characteristics differed

statistically significantly from the other tourists, in this study, from ”Potential silence tourists”

or those who are ”Not interested in silence tourism” regarding the country of residence and

household size, proving that great majority of ”Silence tourists’” come from Finland and live

in two persons households. However, as the responses for the survey were gathered by using

convenient sampling method, and the purpose of this study was not to segment respondents

according to their sociodemographic characteristics but their interest to travel silence tourism

destination and purchase silence tourism holiday, the results are not generalisable. It can be

assumed that most of the respondents live in two persons household and, as the survey was

developed in Finland, it is natural that majority of the respondents come from Finland hence

making the results not generalisable. However, the results give valuable information about si-

lence tourism as a phenomenon. The result about silence tourists sociodemographic characteris-

tics not differing from the other tourists is not in line with alike previous study, in which a

typical rural wellbeing tourist was defined being a female aged 45 to 54 years old and who has

lived her childhood in the countryside (Pesonen & Komppula, 2010).

6.1.3. Interest toward silence tourism

Silence tourism expectations

Regarding the findings related to silence tourism expectations, it is interesting that differences

among the clusters were so clear. The only factor what almost every respondent in the study

56

agreed, were expectation about silence tourism being relaxing. Those who are interested in

travelling to silence tourism destinations and buying silence tourism holidays, called in this

study ”Silence tourists”, expected silence tourism being also enjoyable, exciting, favourable

and fun. Hence, it would be a good idea for those who are marketing and organizing silence

tourism products to really make them relaxing, enjoyable, exciting, favourable and fun. On the

other hand, the findings may just tell about the opinions that certain tourists have about certain

activities, for example the ones mentioned in the beginning of the survey, and regardless of

making a silence tourism product meeting the expectations, there might still exist tourists who

would not be happy with the product and think for example, that the product is boring. That is

why it is important to plan silence tourism holidays and products to meet the expectations of

those tourists who are already interested in silence tourism. In future studies, it would be a point

of interest to study whether those who were not interested in silence tourism in the study, are

people who are just not interested in nature tourism or silence tourism at all, or are there certain

prejudices or misunderstanding behind their opinions.

Interest in buying nature tourism services based on silence experiences

It was found that ”Silence tourists” and ”Potential silence tourists” had notably more experience

of nature tourism holidays, and nature tourism holidays with silence tourism experiences com-

pared to those who are ”Not interested in silence tourism”. ”Silence tourists” were also most

interested in buying nature tourism services that are based on silence experiences. So, when

tourists have been on a nature tourism holiday and possibly experienced silence tourism related

activities, meaning being familiar with the concepts of nature tourism and some of them also

with silence tourism, they are more likely interested also in buying silence tourism products

later. The findings show the importance of spreading information of silence tourism and in

marketing, communicating clearly what does it means in practise, i.e. what should customers

expect for a silence tourism holiday or silence tourism product. When a tourist is aware of what

is meant by silence as a part of tourism experience, participating in the experience is not scary,

or at least it is less scary, as it would be without knowing what to expect. Hence, the attention

should be paid on guidance in silence tourism, in addition to clear communication in marketing.

Active role of guides as a part of silence tourism experience have proved being appreciated by

customers (Komppula et. al., 2017).

57

Type of destination attracting silence tourists

Findings of this study points out the clear association between silence tourism and nature tou-

rism, which is in a line with prior studies (e.g. Komppula, 2017). ”Silence tourists” were re-

markably more interested in travelling rural or nature destinations and on the other hand, less

interested in travelling to urban or city destinations compared to other clusters.

6.1.5 Travel behavior

It was found out that ”Silence tourists” disagree most with the statement ”I always like to mix

with the local people and experience the local customs”. The finding might refer to silence

tourists’ desire to spend time with friends and family, which was found as travel motivation in

eight studies out of 15 (see Table 1). However, a motivation to meet new people and/or people

with similar interests were found in six previous studies. Due to the small amount of selected

articles, any conclusions cannot drawn from the motivations found in those studies. The state-

ment seems contradictory to silence tourists’ earlier noted strong motivation to increase know-

ledge, in this related for instance, to the local customs. On the other hand, the statement makes

sense with potential silence tourists’ strong motivation for not to discover new things. As the

reasons for this kind of travel behavior still remain unknown, it would be inresting to study

silence tourists’ motivations for culture tourism and hence clarify in which degree they are

interested in getting familiar with local people and local customs, and why.

6.1.4. Silence tourism motivations

Motivation to spend time in nature and increase knowledge

Both ”Silence tourists” and ”Potential silence tourists” were very motivated to spend time in

nature, which get support also from several related motivations which were found from the

selected articles of previous literature as follows: enjoying nature as a motivation were found

in five out of 15 articles, heritage and nature in three articles, rurality seeking in two articles

as well as nature seeking and healing effect of nature, both found in one article. ”Silence tou-

rists” and ”Potential silence tourists” were also very motivated to increase knowledge. Similarly

in prior studies, learning was found as a motivation in six studies. Hence marketers of silence

tourism holidays should pay attention to building silence tourism products that enable

58

increasing knowledge i.e. learning something new. Silence tourists seem not to expect passive

holiday but actively learn something new.

Motivation not to get away

Findings revealed that ”Silence tourists” and ”Potential silence tourists” do not have strong get

away motivation when holidaying in silence tourism destinations. This is not in a line with

previous studies, as escape (desire to get away) was found in 11 out of 15 selected studies

related to silence tourism. However, the escape (desire to get away) is quite a wide motivation

factor in Table 1, as there were a great variety of related motivations, for example escape, es-

caping from routines, escaping busy daily life, get away, and get away from the demands at

work and home. As can be noted from earlier found motivations, there are several ways to label

the same thing. Therefore, it is impossible to know if all of the respondents have understood

”get away” in a same way when answering to the survey used in this study. Maybe some of the

respondents have thought more like escaping something in their daily life, whether it be dutys

at home or work or unwanted feelings or thoughts, while some other respondent may have

thought just a break from routines, for example, without a special need to escape something,

but just a break because it is fun. Hence, a better results would have got if it was better distin-

guished in Table 1 what kind of escape or desire to get away is meant by escape (desire to get

away) in the table, as this might be a relevant information for getting a deeper idea about the

finding. Anyway, the finding that silence tourists do not usually have get away as their motiva-

tion, brings something new to the previous literature.

The finding is interesting as it points out that silence tourists are in this sense, different than

many other travellers in silence tourism related holidays. The finding would mean, contrary to

previous studies about silence tourism related tourism types, that there are some tourists whose

voice is not heard, who are partly similar, for example nature tourists interested in spending

time in nature, but partly different as they do not have the need to get away. These slightly

different tourists are, in this light, silence tourists. It would be worth of effort to investigate

deeper what makes silence tourists different, for example what are their values compared to

some other tourism type representatives. Get away not being a motivation for travelling might

refer silence tourists’ ability to handle different thoughts and feelings in their own mind, so that

they do not need to escape anything in their life but they are willing to spend time in silent

59

environments for achieving a silence of mind or inner silence. Silence tourists might even feel

they need that space to listen their own thoughts in a peaceful and tranquil environment regu-

larly. Self-reflection & discovery motivation were found in six previous studies out of 15 in

Table 1. Willingness for self-reflection and discovery may explain why these tourists are not

scared of neither outer silence nor inner silence.

Opposite findings regarding get away motivation also makes clear that silence tourism related

tourism types presented in this study are just different tourism types, for example slow tourism

or rural tourism, which may be partly related to silence tourism, but which are not synonyms or

concepts that have a connection in every case. What is said, for instance, about rural tourism is

not completely true with silence tourism. Hence these silence tourism related tourism types can

never fully explain silence tourism alone, but more studies about silence tourism are needed.

Potential silence tourists’ motivation not to discover new things

In addition, it was noted that ”Potential silence tourists” were not so motivated to discover new

things. At first, it may seem contradictory to ”Silence tourists’” and ”Potential silence tourists’”

strong motivation for increasing knowledge. However, even if a tourist travels every time to

the same silence tourism destination, it is always possible to learn something new there. Disco-

vering new things, instead, refers rather traveling to a new destination and having an adventure

there, which is quite far from increasing knowledge. Therefore, it makes sense that silence tou-

rists like to travel to rural or nature destinations without a motivation to get away but learn new

things there with their friends, family or like-minded people, and in overall, spend relaxing,

enjoyable, favorable and fun holiday.

6.2 Conclusions

Silence tourism is a wide concept relating to many other forms of tourism still being different

from them. Findings of this study confirm the clear association between nature tourism and

silence tourism found also from previous studies. Contrary to prior studies closely related to

silence tourism, silence tourists do not have strong motivation to get away. The finding of this

study silence tourists being strongly motivated for increasing knowledge have got slight support

60

from previous studies. Hence, it can be argued silence tourists being a separate segment of

tourists especially in terms of expectations and motivations and hence, should be treated accor-

dingly.

What should be learned from this study, is to market silence and tranquility communicating

clearly what is meant by these words as people understand them differently depending on their

cultural background. Silence tourism products to be created and developed in the future are

suggested being relaxing, enjoyable, exciting, favourable and fun. Ideal environment for silence

tourism destination is rural and/or close to nature. Silence tourism activity can be almost anyt-

hing when there are silent environment and breaks included to the activity for giving a possibi-

lity to reach inner silence or silence of mind. Guidance for achieving inner silence, for example

simple advices to close eyes, breathe, look around or not to talk, are recommended as the expe-

rience may be unfamiliar for the customers. On the other hand, customers may wish long breaks

and plenty of time to just be in the nature. Silence tourism product should include information

of interesting things related for example to the destination or activity, as the customers are very

motivated to increase their knowledge. When trying to find right target group for silence tou-

rism products, it is recommended to start with those who have experience of nature tourism.

Findings of the study clarified the position of silence tourism among other tourism types and

contributed new insights both theoretically and managerially into silence tourism literature,

which is yet scarce. Results of this study may help silence tourism service providers to develop

their business and do marketing in a right way.

6.3 Reliability and validity

Reliability refers to repeating the study. If the indicator is reliable, results are similar when the

phenomenon is measured many times with the same indicator. Test-retest reliability is about

doing the survey again after a suitable time (e.g. two weeks) from the first survey. When mea-

suring test-retest reliability, the same respondents answer to the survey. (Metsämuuronen, 2005,

p. 65-67.) Hence, reliability of this study can be regarded as good because it can be expected

that the respondents would answer similarly to the questions if the survey was repeated. Relia-

bility of this study was considered already in early stage. One of the questions in the

61

questionnaire was made in a purpose to reveal respondents who do not read the questions pro-

perly and hence end up answering just something. During the data analysis it was noticed that

some of the responds had not answered to the questions logically, so these answers were remo-

ved for ensuring a reliability of this study,

Validity refers to measuring what was the intention to measure. (Metsämuuronen, 2005, p. 65.)

Validity of this study is good as the questions asked in the survey are in a line with research

questions. Content validity of this study is good as well as the concepts used in the study are in

a line with theory and the concepts cover well enough the phenomenon (Metsämuuronen,

2005). However, a validity of this study could have been enhanced by adding more answer

options to the survey. For example, regarding questions of silence tourism expectations and

motivations, there could have been an option ”something else, what?” for gaining wider pers-

pective from the phenomenon.

62

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APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Survey used in this study.

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