The Impact of Developmental Crises, the Sense of Meaning in Life and Identity Expansion on Cultural Tourist Behaviour

In the era of artificial intelligence, smart applications and robotization, that aim to recognise the user’s profile, understand his needs and from the vast amount of data, create a personalised product/service, there is a need for a deeper understanding of the psychological factors of the users. Therefore, in this paper, the relations and impact of developmental crises, the sense of meaning in life and identity expansion, on cultural tourist behaviour, are discussed. Cultural tourism is a key contributor to the economy (81%), social (51%), cultural (46%) and environment (16%) and is considered to be the oldest type of tourism. In order to develop attractive cultural assets, cultural activities, cultural content or customised cultural tourism products/service, the understanding of cultural tourist types, motives and other factors are of key importance. One of the psychological aspects of cultural tourist behaviour, that was not considered enough in previous literature, is the midlife crisis. Taking into account how they cope with the midlife crisis, tourists can be divided into four groups: Denial of Escape, Denial by Overcompensation, Decompensation and Creative confrontation. During establishing a new balance in themselves, finding new sense of meaning in life and extending the boundaries of self and own identity, tourists strive to see authenticity in cultural experiences, search for real experiences, learn new things, become more conscious about preserving the nature, enjoy life and contribute to the others’ life enjoyment. Besides these conclusions, this paper primarily aims at comprehending the influence of tourist’s developmental crisis on his/her behaviour and motives to consume cultural tourism products/services.