Space Tourism: A New Frontier for Future Generations

Commercial space tourism is being developed and this trend is expected to continue and accelerate. Although opportunities and threats of space tourism attracted the interest of academia, literature on potential demand, attitudes and people's motivations for space tourism is scarce. In this context, this paper investigates young generations’ interest and motivations towards different forms of space tourism. The cluster analysis on 2,207 respondents highlighted an interest in space tourism although motivated by different reasons, levels of budget and sustainability aspects. Interest in space tourism varies according to how far it is perceived as potential, possible or sustainable, or to people's personal feelings. The paper adds to contributions in the tourism field by investigating the opportunities space can offer this industry.