Motivations to visit Events/Festivals: An Exploratory Investigation

Tekle Shanka*. Curtin University.

[e-mail]

Gladys Alamiyo. Curtin University.

[e-mail]

Key words; events, festivals, motivations, students, higher education, Western Australia

Abstract

Events and Festivals have been recognized by various studies as an important motivator of
tourism. Past research show that events/festivals can bring positive benefits such as
economic, social and community togetherness to their host community. In addition,
events/festivals have the ability to create memorable experience for visitors, dampen negative
images regarding host community, and create activities to motivate travellers. The current
study assesses motivators to attend an event or a festival in a Western Australian (WA)
setting. A convenience sample of 325 students from a large WA university completed a
structured questionnaire about their motivations to attend an event/festival in the past 12
months. Findings indicate that the 15 motivational factors significantly discriminate between
five clusters of participants.

Introduction

Events and festivals are considered as public themed celebrations which include

dance, film, music, the arts, crafts, indigenous cultural heritage, sporting events, seasonal
rites and agricultural products. In recent years, the growth of festivals and special events has
been enormous (Crompton and McKay, 1997; Getz, 2008, 1997, 1993, 1991; Thrane, 2002).
Numerous communities develop or festivals and events as leisure and cultural pursuits for
residents, as well as for their economic and community development benefits (Getz, 1993;
Getz and Frisby, 1990). Furthermore, special events and festivals offer a specific time and
place for visitors where they can show their commitment by spending time with family
members or enjoying family members’ company. By participating in a festival or a special
event, a visitor can socialize, escape from everyday routine, enjoy local food and customs,
enjoyment of nature and spend quality time with family members or friends.

By their nature, events and festivals are of short duration usually in a particular month

or season and are based around a theme, large number of people around the world every year
dedicate huge amounts of time and money to attend festivals. In Western Australia, events
such as Perth International Arts Festival, Margaret River Wine Region Festival, Perth Royal
Show, Taste of the Valley, the Hyundai Hopman Cup, etc. attract large numbers of visitors
and involve huge organization. Most events and festivals are planned for public occasions
and for the enjoyment and relaxation of local communities. They are unique type of tourism
and travel attractions and involve huge amount of resources and time in organizing in order to
be successful. It is noted that these events and festivals are becoming big business in local
communities and involve tremendous amounts of marketing and organization. Many retail
businesses depend on them for their success, because when tourists attend events, they shop,
eat and drink, which indirectly boost these retail businesses.

Literature Review

Motivation to attend events could be based on factors such as accessibility,

entertainment, performance, attractiveness, emotion and individual preferences (Hall et al.,
2010). A number of studies have examined visitor motivation to attend festivals with some
motivation dimensions being specific to a particular event (Schofield and Thompson, 2007).
Perdue et al. (1990) argue that cultural festivals enhance local pride and provide multiple
recreational opportunities. According to Getz (1991, 1997) festivals and public celebrations
are seen as unique tourist attractions and destination image makers.

Events and festivals have substantially increased in numbers, size, and frequency of

staging in both rural and urban areas over the past decades. In cities and urban settings,
festivals and events are an essential part of cultural production and consumption. Such events
are usually considered as part of the cultural portfolio of their host destinations. Furthermore,
events and festivals present the cultural wealth of the places where these ceremonies are
organized and shared with local and outside visitors. Events and festivals which attract
tourists can be particularly beneficial both economically and culturally. Another important
contribution of these events and festivals is that they create an appropriate atmosphere for
people to come together and have fun, thus improving the quality of life of residents and also
visitors who attend them. However, these events must be promoted, organized, and managed
to add value to patrons in the experience.

Events and festivals are mostly used to attract visitors or tourist to a destination to

offer experiences that are unique to those that occur in everyday activities. Events and
festivals bring positive benefits to their host community and increasingly becoming one of
the fastest growing types of tourism attractions (Gursoy et al., 2004; Taylor and Shanka,
2002; Thrane, 2002; Crompton and McKay, 1997; Getz, 1997; Hall, 1992). Events and
festivals also play a significant role in the lives of communities; enhance the local image of
their host community (Getz, 1993). According to Robertson et al. (2007) uniqueness of
events that engage memory stimulation and provide entertainment could contribute to
successful outcomes.

Even though events and festivals are often created for community economic

development purposes, it can only be achieved through satisfied and repeat festival visitors.
Chancellor and Cole (2008) reiterate that satisfied festival goers may become repeat visitors,
and also spread positive word of-mouth, advertising to family and friends, which ideally will
translate into new visitors and an overall increase in tourism revenue to the community,
further contributing to increased employment and modern infrastructure (Darnell and
Johnson, 2001). However, even though the nature of an event is an experience enjoyed by
most event visitors, their motivation to attend such events or festivals differs from one
individual to the other, therefore the understanding of visitor motivation to attend an event,
their satisfaction, and behavioural intention to revisit and give positive recommendation are
critical factors in achieving a successful festival (Backman et al., 1995; Cole and Scott,
2004).

Motivation for event/festival attendance

The motivation of visitors to attend events/festivals has been one of the aspects that

have attracted increasing attention (Taylor and Shanka, 2008; Formica and Uysal, 1998,
1996; Crompton and McKay 1997; Uysal and Gitelson, 1994; Mohr et al., 1993; Riley et al.,
1993; Uysal and Wicks, 1993). In terms of event/festival attendees’ motivation, it is noted
that different visitors have various needs and wants. According to Lee et al. (2004) events
and festivals having strong cultural components are likely to increase in the participation
numbers. Identification of festival or event visitors’ needs is a prerequisite for effectively

developing elements of festivals. Furthermore, effective marketing is unfeasible without
identifying and understanding what motivates people to travel or attend an event, (Taylor and
Shanka, 2008; Fodness, 1994). According to the authors, understanding tourists’ motivation
allows researchers and marketers to better define the value of tourism behaviour and future
travel patterns. Extant literature suggests that many factors contribute to visitors’ motivation
to attend an event/festival. Our study seeks to understand what motivations young people
(university students) to attend annual events or festivals organised in Perth, Western
Australia.

Research Methods

A review of the literature identified a list of statements about festival attendance

motivation from which statements that were relevant to the current context were selected. The
survey instruments were thus adapted from Baker and Crompton (2000), Crompton and
McKay (1997), Mohr et al. (1993), and Uysal et al. (1991). The survey questionnaire was
divided into four sections: Section A sought information about the events/festivals that
respondents attended over the past 12 months. Section B included 15 motivational statements
anchored on 1being ‘not important’ to 7being ‘very important’. Section C sought information
about experience and behavioural intentions. Section D sought information about
demographic characteristics such as gender, age, level of study, and usual country of
residence. A convenience sample of students on the campus participated in the survey with
325 completed questionnaires being returned. Profiles of respondents were mainly males
(55%), 21-24 year olds (32% - with mean age of 21.5. years), and mainly about the same
number of undergraduates as were postgraduates (50.3% and 49.7% respectively).According
to responses, the top five events/festivals attended over the past 12 months were Perth Royal
Show, Perth International Arts Festival, Margaret River Wine Regions Festival, Hopman
Cup, and Festival of Perth.

Results and discussion

The mean scores of the 15 motivational statements (Table 1) show that the

perceptions of respondents vary in regards to the importance of each of the statements. For
example, whilst ‘seeing the event/festival with friends’ topping the list followed by ‘enjoying
new experiences’, ‘observing other people attending the event/attendance’ would be the least
motivating factor for attending an event, followed by ‘helping family learn new things’ or
‘spending time with family’.

Table 1.
Descriptive Statistics (n=325)

Motivating factors for event/festival attendance

Mean* Std. Dev.

To see the event with friends

5.65

1.41

To enjoy new experience

5.61

1.34

To relieve stress

5.37

1.59

To see and do variety of things

5.21

1.40

To experience local customs and culture

5.06

1.74

To escape from everyday activities

5.05

1.68

To be with people who are enjoying themselves

5.00

1.57

To relieve boredom

4.97

1.57

To seek novelty

4.90

1.76

To meet people

4.58

1.94

To enjoy arts and crafts

4.48

1.79

To increase family togetherness

4.32

1.92

To spend time with family

4.22

1.97

To help my family learn new things

4.13

1.92

To observe other people attending the festival

3.96

1.90

*Scale: 1= Not important; 7=Very important; Scale reliability (α) = 0.753.

Hierarchical Cluster analysis

A hierarchical cluster analyses with Ward’s method was conducted to determine

homogeneous groups of respondents that differed in their perceptions about the motivational
factors to attend an event or a festival. The optimal number of clusters was determined when
the sudden change in agglomeration coefficients was noted. Further, following Hair et al.
(2010) recommendations that cells with less than 30 cases could cause biased estimates in
ANOVA tests, the clustering procedure was conducted until all clusters with more than 30
cases were identified. The hierarchical clustering procedure with Ward method resulted in a
reliable five-cluster solution based on 308 valid cases (Table 2). Cluster 2 with 93
respondents was the largest whilst Cluster 3 with 36 respondents being the smallest cluster.

Table 2.
Hierarchical clustering with Ward method (n=308)

Clusters

Frequency Per cent

Valid

Per cent

Cumulative

Per cent

Cluster 1

65

20.0

21.1

21.1

Cluster 2

93

28.6

30.2

51.3

Cluster 3

36

11.1

11.7

63.0

Cluster 4

57

17.5

18.5

81.5

Cluster 5

57

17.5

18.5

100.0

One-way ANOVA

To determine whether the nine motivational factors successfully discriminate between

clusters one-way ANOVA tests with Tukey HSD was conducted. Bonferonni adjustment to
the alpha level was applied to determine significant levels whilst minimising Type I error
(Pallant, 2011). Statistically significant differences were reported for all motivating factors
between all clusters. The Multiple comparisons using Tukey HSD test highlighted significant
differences between clusters across the motivational factors (Table 3).

The 15 motivational factors significantly discriminate between clusters. Cluster 1

would mainly be motivated to attend events/festivals to relief stress, enjoy new experience,
experience local customs/culture, or seek novelty. Cluster 2 would mainly be motivated see
events with friends, or enjoy new experience. Experiencing new experience or seeing events
with friends would mainly be motivators to Cluster 3. Cluster 4 would more likely be
motivated to see the event with friends or see and do things variety of things. Main
motivators for Clusters 5 would include seeing the event with friends, enjoying new

experience, relieving stress, etc.

Table 3.
Descriptives

Motivating factors

Mean (SD)

Clusters

F-value*

1

2

3

4

5

To meet people

4.56 (1.93)

5.17

3.62

2.75

4.75

6.33

41.63

a

To see the event with friends

5.63 (1.42)

5.20

5.78

5.50

5.30

6.28

5.95

a

To increase family togetherness

4.31 (1.92)

2.57

5.58

1.69

4.91

5.25

108.55

a

To spend time with family

4.20 (1.97)

2.38

5.55

1.81

4.77

5.02

89.18

a

To observe people attending

3.94 (1.90)

3.45

3.40

2.14

4.68

5.77

40.11

a

To see and do variety of things

5.22 (1.38)

4.88

5.26

4.89

5.04

5.95

6.11

a

To be with people enjoying

5.02 (1.55)

5.29

4.62

4.42

4.82

5.91

9.24

a

To help family learn new things

4.15 (1.90)

3.66

4.17

1.86

4.79

5.47

31.56

a

To relieve boredom

5.03 (1.53)

5.03

5.00

4.75

4.58

5.68

4.34

b

To enjoy arts and crafts

4.51 (1.78)

4.88

3.03

3.19

5.54

4.51

29.24

a

To escape everyday activities

5.06 (1.67)

5.43

5.34

4.61

3.51

5.98

24.37

a

To escape novelty

4.87 (1.79)

5.80

5.10

3.14

3.47

5.91

40.50

a

To experience local customs

5.06 (1.75)

5.75

5.20

3.42

4.12

6.04

25.33

a

To enjoy new experiences

5.62 (1.33)

5.94

5.84

5.58

4.28

6.25

25.11

a

To relieve stress

5.35 (1.62)

5.98

5.30

4.69

4.16

6.30

21.01

a

a

Significant at the 0.001 level;

b

Significant at the 0.005 level.

Profiling clusters

Chi-square (χ

2

) tests were conducted to determine whether clusters were different in

demographic characteristics. Results indicate that three clusters had homogeneous
distributions on gender and residence; however, statistically significant differences were
reported on the level of studies on cluster 4 (χ

2

=8.532; p˂.05) and age group (χ

2

=13.18;

p˂.05) (Table 4). Cluster 1 is characterised mainly by males, aged 25-41, and postgraduate
students from overseas countries. Cluster 2 is characterised mainly by males, 18-24 year olds,
and undergraduate Australian students. Cluster 3 is characterised by males and females, 18-
24 year olds, undergraduate Australian or overseas students. Cluster 4 is characterised mainly
by males, both age groups, overseas postgraduate students. Cluster 5 is mainly characterised
by males, 18-24 year olds, and postgraduate overseas students (Table 4)

Table 4.
Cluster profiles (%)

Demographics

Clusters

1

2

3

4

5

Gender

Male

Female

13.0

8.1

15.6
14.3

5.9
5.9

11.4

7.2

10.4

8.1

Age

18-24

25-41

8.9

12.3

17.2
13.6

8.6
2.3

8.9
9.6

10.9

7.6

Level of studies

Undergraduate

Postgraduate

8.8

12.1

16.7
13.7

8.5
2.9

7.8

10.8

8.2

10.5

Usual residence

Australia

Overseas

9.1

12.0

16.6
13.6

6.8
4.9

9.1
9.4

7.1

11.4

The purpose of this study was to understand what motivates students to attend events or
festivals. Results of this exploratory examination showed that motivations vary according to
demographic characteristics. For example, in their studies Mohr et al. (1993) found
socialization to be the most important motivation at the ballooning festival, whereas in Uysal

and Wicks (1993) corn festival study, escape emerged as the dominant motivation. At the
Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, Formica and Uysal (1996) identified excitement/thrills as the
leading motivation, followed by socialization, while at the Spoleto Festival; the dominant
factor was socialization and entertainment (Formica and Uysal, 1998). Crompton and McKay
(1997) also identified cultural exploration as the dominant motivation for attending the Fiesta
San Antonio. The five clusters were significantly differentiated in terms of their motivational
factors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the fact that multiple motivations exist supports Mohr et al.’s (1993)

suggestion that different motivational elements are important to visitors when they attend
different events. This information could be very important to event organizers in determining
ways in which motivations vary from event to event and to explore the issue of whether
individuals’ motivations vary from event to event. Additionally, our study also reveals many
important implications for the tourism industry; or event organizers for young adults. It is
observed that the main factors that determine an intention to attend an event or a festival
seems to be based on the attendee’s state of anticipation of finding new experiences, relieving
stress or sharing experience with friends. Overall, whilst the study examined students’
motivations to attend an event or a festival at an exploratory stage, further research with
larger sample size and geographical locations could reveal more information about students’
motivations for such attendances.

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