Motivation and Demotivation of Graduation Travel: A Study in Vietnam with Google Gemini’s Support

Research on education and students is abundant. Many researchers have examined students’ enrollment, retention, dropout, and other study-, research-, and extra-curriculum-related topics. However, they have essentially neglected students’ graduation, especially graduation celebrations. Regarding graduation travel, previous studies have revealed the interactions between the (de)motivators and the actual behaviours; yet, the structure of the (de)motivation and the relative importance of each (de)motivator with student intention was not. Therefore, this study explored the motivation and demotivation of university students regarding graduation travels and the correlations between (de)motivation and student intentions. The study adopted Google Gemini’s recommendation of the (de)motivation items and factors (the structure models). It implemented a single case study with Vietnamese students (n=405) to confirm these structure models. The results approved the originally five-factor, fourteen-item model of motivation and the adjusted three-factor, eight-item model of demotivation. Further exploration of the correlations between the (de)motivation factors and student intentions (the correlation models) revealed the essentiality of two motivation factors: celebration and sharing. These outcomes provided methodological implications for using artificial intelligence (AI) in research and practical implications for managing the niche market of graduation travels.