In this article the whole picture of tourism is viewed through the lens of individuals’ choices and motives. Inglehart’s (1977; 1997) idea of postmaterialism is used as a background as differences are sought between individuals who have considered environment as a major criterion for choosing a holiday destination and individuals who have not.

The most remarkable result was that the political identity is related to a person’s choice of destination. Those who identify themselves with the left seem to consider environment to be an important criterion more often than those on the right. This strengthens the theory of postmaterialists: Those on the left tend to be more environmentally friendly than those on the right.

The great deal of other differences found, for example between countries, could be due to differences between other variables such as political attitudes or latent cultural and social features which are difficult to measure using statistics. More detailed examination of the postmaterial issues and tourism would require more detailed data.