An Assessment of Sport Event Tourists' Motivation with a Framework: A Case Study at a Southeast Conference Football Game

An Assessment of Sport Event Tourists’ Motivation with a Framework: A Case Study at a Southeast Conference Football Game

The decision to travel and attend sport events is usually an important process for the travelers that involves many key factors such as motivation, time allowance, interests, destination image, past experience, personal factors, and economic condition. While a significant number of studies have been conducted on sport event attendees’ and tourists’ behavior, especially their motivation, there is little research to date that examines and understands why tourists attend college football events in a structured framework. The objective of this study is to find these reasons and construct an instrument for measuring sport tourists’ motivation that can be useful in organizing sport events and developing marketing plans. Three important factors were found: Economical Sport Event Tourism, Football Game Itself, and Being a Good Resident. The results of this study will be very useful for Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) and college sport event organizers to understand sport event tourists.