Understanding Attendee Motives

Name

Institution

Outline

Introduction

Statement of the research purpose

Research questions

Literature review

Research methods

Research design

Data Analysis Process

Results

Demographic profile

Sample mean and standard deviations

Conclusions

Recommendations

Understanding Attendee Motives

Festivals are growing at one of the fastest rates in the tourism industry. Researchers and scientist have taken up their time to understand the reasons behind festival attendance. Attendee satisfaction and motivation have proven to be one of the key reasons behind why people attend festivals especially music festivals. However, little or no research has been focused on understanding the attendee decision to revisit a similar event. For these reason the study purpose is to establish a well defined model of explaining and predicting attendance behavior. More particularly, the study will identify factors that are likely to facilitate and determine a consistent growth of the industry. Understanding the demographics, motivation, information sources, behavioral characteristics, constraints as well as satisfaction will help understand the motive of the attendance. A logic understanding of the attendee motives will mean that it will be easier to monitor the consistent growth of the tourism industry by both tourists and non tourist. The research will therefore focus on a large music event in Brisbane to understand employee motives. The sample will also be attained to better understand the topic and attendee motives. From the thousand number of attendee that attended the function, a random sample of a hundred what chosen from even third person who left the hall after the event came to an end. The main reason for carrying out this research immediately after the performance was to ensure that the researcher capture the attendee level of satisfaction, thus making it easier to relate it to future attendances. After carrying out the research or the study it will be possible to answer the following question which assists in defining the future of the tourism industry or basically the trend of festival attendances:

(a) Why do people attend festivals such as music performances?

(b) What determines attendees’ level of satisfaction?

Literature Review

According to an article by Heather and Margaret titled “Does the Music Matter? Motivations for attending a music festival” there are a variety of reasons as to why people attend a unique special events. Therefore, before organizers can approximate how many people are going to attend a function, the first step should be to focus of the motives of attendance. The two researchers go further and carry out a research using an annual music festival held in Virginia “Celebrate FairFax. Their research revealed that there are actually four groups of people who attend a festival and the pattern is based on their motivations. The four groups are namely:”Just Being Social”, “Enrichment over Music”, The Music Matters” and finally “Love it all”. Each group consisted of persons of different races, marital status and of different household income. Therefore, this was prove that there are multiple reasons as to why people attend festivals and therefore it is not right to just focus on music itself while planning an event. The article is an excellent academic reference that provides evidence on the topic using quantitative data but fails to provide substantial information of nonmusical experiences relating to the sample of attendee selected (Heather, & Margaret, 2005).

The article “Motives of Visitors attending festival events” by Crompton and Mckay also focus on the impact of visitor motives when attending a festival. The article pays close attention to use of push and pull factors conceptual framework when making personal decisions. the concept also worked hand in hand with escape-seeking dichotomy when it came to measuring motive impact to the development of the tourism industry in most countries. In being more specific in their research Mckay and Crompton carry out a research using a random sample attained from three social events. They ensured that all the events where to be attended by persons from different cultures. After their research which great reference of the sample results, they concluded that attendance of festivals was as a result of sic motive domains: cultural exploration, recover equilibrium and group socialization and gregariousness (Crompton & Mckay 1997).

Nicholson and Pearce research as discussed in their article tend to prove that there is handly a generic event motivation. The two great researchers analyzed visitors motivation in four unrelated events in Sourth Island, New Zealand. The events were: two food and beverage festivals, a country music festival and an air show. After a comparative study of the event attendance they concluded that the weight and visibility of an event provides greater motivation and consequently greater attendance in the present and possible future than distinctive phenomenon. Their research meant that people decide to attend an event based on the ability of the event to assist them escape from daily activities and provide cultural experiences rather than the quality of products presented in the festival such as quality of food, of music or of a movie (Nicholson & Pearce, 2001).

Methodology

The study carried out in Brisbane following an event, mainly employed the use of a questionnaire administered to a randomly selected sample. The questionnaire was comprised of questions meant to establish the demographics of the interviewee, their motives for attending the event, as well as their levels of satisfaction with the event and the probability that they would attend next year’s event. The sample of 100 was selected from individuals leaving the event, with every third individual leaving the event being drafted in as part of the randomly selected sample. The analysis of the findings will be done using t-tests and correlation. The t-test will enable the effective comparison of the findings for both the tourists and non-tourists, hence enabling the comparison and determination of whether the levels of satisfaction and motives for attendance are similar or markedly different. The correlational tests and analysis will allow for the establishment of whether or not the level of satisfaction with the 2012 performance will significantly affect attendance in 2013. Overall the methodology will mainly be quantitative, with opinions attitudes and beliefs being quantified in figures, hence making assessment much easier. The figures were mainly arrived at by codifying various attributes that might have led to the eliciting of qualitative data. For instance, instead of commenting “strongly agree” or “strongly disagree,” a scale of 1 to 5 will be used, with 1 indicating strong disagreement and 5 indicating strong agreement.

Results

The findings indicated that the number of men within the sample were 48 while the number of women were 52. Out of these, 52 were tourists and 48 were non tourists. Of the 100, 46 were aged between 18 and 30, while 31 were between 31 and 40. Those aged between 41-50 were only 12 in number, while those between 51-60 were 8, those falling between 61-70 were only a paltry 2 and only 1 participant was aged 70 and above. When it came to income, the largest majority were between 0 to 50,000, 19 between 100,000 and 150,000, while 23 were earning between 150,000 and above. The final category fell between 50,000 and 100,000, with 23 falling within this cluster.

Table for Age

Row Labels Count of Age

18-30 46

31-40 31

41-50 12

51-60 8

61-70 2

70+ 1

Grand Total 100

Table for Gender

Row Labels Count of Gender

Female 52

Male 48

Grand Total 100

Income

Row Labels Count of Income

$0-$50,000 34

$50,001-$100,000 23

$100,001-150,000 19

$150,000+ 24

Grand Total 100

Relationship Status

Row Labels Count of Rel

Currently single 10

De facto 19

Married 33

Never married 38

Grand Total 100

Nature

Row Labels Count of Tour

No 48

Yes 52

Grand Total 100

Findings on the motives for attending the event, as well as t-test results were as follows

Variable Sample Non Tourists Tourists T-test

Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD p-value

Esc 3.83 1.18 3.79 1.17 3.87 1.21 0.756923

KGS 3.14 1.35 3.98 0.86 2.37 1.25 0

EGS 3.88 0.99 3.83 1.06 3.92 0.93 0.652153

Nov 3.93 0.99 4.00 0.99 3.87 0.99 0.498547

Cult 3.48 1.31 2.79 1.09 4.12 1.17 0

EvAttr 3.83 0.93 3.65 0.98 4.00 0.86 0.057395

Sat 3.70 1.14 3.73 1.33 3.67 0.94 0.807495

Int 3.09 1.41 3.50 1.35 2.71 1.38 0.00481

Mean satisfaction for Sample 3.7 Intention to Re-attend 3.09, Correlation 0.41

Tourists Mean Satisfaction 3.67, Intention to re-attend 2.71, Correlation 0.17

Non Tourists Mean Satisfaction 3.72, Intention to re-attend 3.5, Correlation 0.63

The demographic statistics indicate that the event is hugely popular with individuals aged between 18 and 30, compared to the other ages.

The findings for satisfaction and intention to attend the next year’s event demonstrate a positive correlation, as the higher the satisfaction level of the interviewee, the higher their likelihood of recording a higher intention to attend the next year’s event. Further, the lower correlation for tourists, suggests that satisfaction is not really the determining factor when it comes to their intention to re-attend. Further, the participants were mostly women, suggesting that the event is mostly attended by females. As for relationship status, majority of the attendants belonged to the “never married” category and surprisingly the married category (38 and 33 respectively). At least 57 of the study participants indicated that they earned less than $100,000 a year.

The standard deviations when it came to motives for attending the event, indicate quite a wide spread and distribution of data for each motive, with spending time with friends recording the highest standard deviation for the general sample. Amongst non tourists, escape recorded the highest deviation, while for tourists it was spending time with friends.

Conclusions

The findings generally indicate that a majority of the sample selected the main motive for attending the event as being the need to experience something new and novel. Most non tourists felt that the need to experience something new and novel was their main reason for attending the event, while most tourists indicated that cultural experience was their main reason for attending the event. Indicating that depending on the target, event organizers need to focus on either the cultural appeal of an event, or its ability to surprise and stay fresh.

The correlation findings indicate that indeed the level of satisfaction determines the willingness of the participant to attend the subsequent events. Non tourists who recorded the highest level of satisfaction with the event also displayed the highest likelihood and intention of attending next year’s event, while tourists who displayed the lowest level of satisfaction, recorded the lowest intention of attending next year’s event.

The recommendation is therefore that event organizers need to:

Tailor events aimed at attracting the hugest crowd at such events, individuals aged between 18-30.

The eventgs must be structured in a way that appeals to the target audience, if tourists, they must be rich in cultural connotations, while if non tourists, the event must offer multiple opportunities to experience novelty and adventure.

References

Heather, B. & Margaret, D. (2005) Does The Music Matter? Motivations For Attending A MusicFestival. Event Management Volume 9, No: 3: Cognizant Communication Corporation

Crompton, J & Mckay S. (1997) Motives of Visitors attending festival events: Elsevier ltd.

Nicholson, R & Pearce, D (2001) Why Do People Attend Events: A Comparative Analysis ofVisitor Motivations at Four South Island Events. Journal of Travel Research