Not all language tourists take language courses – the determinants of formal and informal language tourism

Language tourism is characterized by language learning being a primary or secondary motivation for the trip. Although language tourists typically take language courses in the destination, many also choose to develop their language skills autonomously through immersion. However, the mechanisms underlying this choice are ignored, particularly in a context where informal language tourists are still largely neglected in the literature. This study seeks to identify the main factors that predict language tourists’ decision to take language lessons in the destination, using a binary logistic regression model. A sample of 964 language tourists is used, which comprises both formal (N = 409) and informal (N = 555) language tourists. It is concluded that the decision to take language lessons in the destination is positively influenced by trip length, greater formality of pre-trip learning strategies, having a scholarship, traveling without relatives, being motivated to learn a language due to instrumental reasons, and purposeful choice of language travel destination for language-related reasons, among other variables. Informal language tourism is positively influenced by having acquaintances in the destination, traveling with relatives, investing more in self-directed language learning strategies, and having shorter stays, among other variables. This study sheds light on a group of travellers that has been neglected by both academia and the tourism industry.