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Abstract

Tourism and sport are key elements of today’s culture and have a specific influence

on the behaviour of society. Especially since the 1960’s sport has become a huge

international matter with large amount of media attention, money and also political

interest. On the other hand tourism remains the world’s largest industry as well as

very developing and growing.

Within sport tourism the distinction between active participation and passive

spectatorship is an essential difference. In this research a behavioural approach is

taken towards the principal of sport event tourism. There has been a significant

growth of sport event tourism over the years which provide certain tourists a lot of

opportunities for whom watching sport has become a primary reason to travel. This

development has encouraged the writer to examine the sport event tourist behaviour.

The aim of this study is to asses the factors of influence on sport event visit

motivation. Special interest goes out to the relation between the sport event and the

host-destination. To answer the aim and objectives the research was conducted in

two stages; the literature review presents an introduction on sport tourism, a deeper

understanding of the motivations of people to be a sport tourist and the relation

between the sport event and the host-destination. The second stage consisted

ofquestionnaire-based interviews with visitors of big sport events asking them which

factors played a role in their desire to attend and the relationship between them.

The gathered data was partly in line with the few other studies conducted on this

topic. Fan motives are the main reason why people would like to visit a big sport

event, followed by the factor of entertainment and the role of the host-destination as

motivation. Some surprising findings suggest that the festivities around an event are

more important then the competition itself and that visiting a big sport event is,

contrary to other forms of tourism, not seen as ‘time to take a break’.

Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................................... II
Declaration of Authorship.......................................................................................III
Contents ................................................................................................................ IV
List of Figures........................................................................................................ VI
List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................ VII
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................. VIII

Chapter 1.

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................1

1.1.

Background ...............................................................................................1

1.2.

Sport tourism research ...............................................................................2

1.3.

Research Aim & Methodology ..................................................................4

1.4.

Structure of the dissertation .......................................................................5

Chapter 2.

SPORT TOURISM ............................................................................7

2.1.

Introduction...............................................................................................7

2.2.

History of Sport Tourism...........................................................................8

2.3.

Defining Sport tourism ............................................................................10

2.4.

Active sport tourism ................................................................................14

2.5.

Sport Event Tourism................................................................................15

2.6.

Categorisation of events ..........................................................................17

2.6.1.

Local events.....................................................................................18

2.6.2.

Hallmark events...............................................................................18

2.6.3.

Mega events.....................................................................................18

2.7.

Conclusion ..............................................................................................19

Chapter 3.

SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION ..........................20

3.1.

Introduction.............................................................................................20

3.2.

Sport, Tourism and Motivation ................................................................20

3.3.

Push and Pull factors ...............................................................................22

3.4.

Decision Making Process ........................................................................25

3.5.

Factors of influence .................................................................................26

3.6.

Conclusion ..............................................................................................27

Chapter 4.

SPORT TOURISM DESTINATIONS .............................................29

4.1.

Introduction.............................................................................................29

4.2.

Geographical perspectives on the confluence of sport and tourism...........31

4.3.

Location Hierarchies ...............................................................................33

4.4.

Relation between Activity, People and Place in a geographical context of
Sport Tourism. ........................................................................................34

4.5.

Conclusion ..............................................................................................36

Chapter 5.

METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................37

5.1.

Research Aim and Objectives ..................................................................37

5.2.

Data collection methods ..........................................................................39

5.2.1.

Secondary research ..........................................................................40

5.2.2.

Primary research ..............................................................................40

5.3.

Research design and Realization..............................................................41

5.4.

Research limitations ................................................................................46

5.5.

Conclusion ..............................................................................................47

Chapter 6.

MAIN FINDINGS ...........................................................................49

6.1.

Sample Description .................................................................................49

6.1.1.

Background .....................................................................................49

6.1.2.

Fan Motives.....................................................................................51

6.1.3.

Entertainment ..................................................................................53

6.1.4.

Host-destination...............................................................................54

6.1.5.

Relaxation .......................................................................................55

6.1.6.

Experience.......................................................................................56

6.1.7.

Socialization ....................................................................................57

6.1.8.

Escapism .........................................................................................58

6.1.9.

Novelty............................................................................................59

6.1.10.

Self-development.............................................................................59

6.1.11.

Self-exploration ...............................................................................60

6.1.12.

Constraints.......................................................................................60

6.2.

Conclusion ..............................................................................................62

Chapter 7.

CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................64

7.1.

General conclusions ................................................................................64

7.2.

Recommendations for further research.....................................................66

Appendix A ............................................................................................................68

Appendix B ............................................................................................................69

BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................73

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION

This chapter gives an overview of the conducted study. It introduces the background

and general topics of the research area; presents the research aim and objectives and

the methodology is described. At the end the structure of the dissertation is outlined

1.1. Background

Tourism and sport are key elements of today’s culture and have a specific influence

on the behaviour of society. Especially since the 1960’s sport has become a huge

international matter with large amount of media attention, money and also political

interest. On the other hand tourism remains the world’s largest industry as well as

very developing and growing. For this reason a combination between the two can be

very lucrative and has a lot of cultural influence.

Sport and tourism can in different ways contribute to each others development. As

Weed and Bull (2004) describe the tourism industry can help evolve local sport

facilities or giving communities the opportunity to create them where that wouldn’t

otherwise be possible. Also tourism can benefit from sport because a lot of sport-

activities take place during holidays. Therefore it’s clear that greater co-operation

would be very attractive to both sectors in order to use mutual advantages.

Within sport tourism the distinction between active participation and passive

spectatorship is an essential difference which should be deliberated. As Hall (1992,

p.147) states ‘Sport tourism falls into two categories, travel to participate in sport

and travel to observe sport’. Many other authors (Maier and Weber 1993; Delpy

1997; Gammon and Robinson 1997; Gibson et al. 1997; Standeven and De Knop

1999) have described different levels of tourist engagement in participants and

spectator sports.

INTRODUCTION

In this research a behavioural approach is taken towards the principal of sport event

tourism. There has been a significant growth of sport event tourism over the years

which provide certain tourists a lot of opportunities for whom watching sport has

become a primary reason to travel. This development has encouraged the writer to

examine the sport event tourist behaviour.

1.2. Sport tourism research

Like many other areas of academic study, numbers of works have been made on the

topic of sport tourism. Especially since the beginning of the 1990’s such work has

appeared more regularly. In general we can say that most works are so-called

‘reviews’ or ‘overviews’. They are used in different forms by e.g. sport or tourism

agencies, published as articles or made out of conference keynotes.

However the diversity, the biggest part of these works are subjective overviews

based on opinions of the authors itself. The different kinds of reviews as mentioned

above are basically more descriptive rather than analyzing. As Weed (2006, p.6)

said, ‘as introductions to sport tourism research they are very useful, but as

evaluation of research in the area they may often been lacking’.

Taking a general look at research in the field of sport tourism it can be seen as a

twofold. The two big examined areas are sport events on the on hand, and on the

other hand so-called outdoor & adventurous activities. Furthermore some specific

sports like skiing have been researched as well.

The most featured topic in the literature is about behaviours, profiles and motivations

of sport tourists. Although the number of works is reasonable, most works are fairly

basic, giving more profiles of sport tourist behaviours rather then trying to give

explanation for this behaviour. Another popular item which is described quite a lot is

impacts of sport tourism, and then in particular the impacts of sport event tourism on

host-destination.

INTRODUCTION

There is a discussion in the field of sport tourism research about the contribution

which articles have to the body of knowledge. Often studies published in journals or

books are clear to the agencies that funded them, but have no significant meaning to

a broader understanding of sport tourism. As Stephen Page ((2005, p.664 Tourism

Management) cited in Weed 2006) said:

“So often one reads some of these papers and asks why have they been
written? Do they add anything meaningful to knowledge? … I would venture
to suggest if only 25% of the current tourism outputs were produced, our
knowledge base in this subject would not be adversely affected”.

As said before a significant number of studies have been made in sport tourism on

behaviours, profiles and motivations of sport tourists. Although the quantity of the

researches is sufficient the quality of these studies is often lacking. The

understanding of sport tourism participation is limited.

Already in 1998 Gibson (cited in Weed and Bull 2004) identified a number of

problems related to the field of sport tourism. He stated that there is a ‘lack of

integration in the realms of policy, research and education’. Furthermore he said that

‘at a research level, more multi-disciplinary research is needed, particularly

research which builds upon existing knowledge bases both in sport and tourism’.

Later Gibson (2004) argued in one of his articles it’s due to the fact that the majority

of research in the field of sport tourism focus on what kind of behaviours sport

tourists have, rather then trying to find out why they do so. He suggests that more

research should go deeper into the motivations rather then just giving an explanation

of this. A more detailed explanation of motivations will contribute to the

understanding of sport tourism.

The overall picture of sport tourism research is that is a broadly covered area but it

needs more deepening. Not much literature tries to give answer to the questions

‘why’ but gives more a general overview. This ‘lack of understanding’ formed the

starting point of the study reported on hereinafter.

INTRODUCTION

1.3. Research Aim & Methodology

The aim of this study is to asses the factors of influence on sport event visit

motivation. Special interest goes out to the relation between the sport event and the

host-destination. The study tries to discuss:

• the understanding of sport event tourism

• the motivations of visitors of big sport events

• the factors of influence on visitations with special interest in the host-

destination.

Assessing the factors of influence from the consumer side perspective may add to the

development of more realistic expectations. Furthermore it may indicate that current

expectations described in literature might be adjustable.

To investigate this topic this research will have the following objectives:

• review the characteristics of sport event tourism

• examine studies on motivations of visitors of big sport events

• explore the experiences of people who visited big sport events

In order to research the factors of influence the following questions have to be

answered:

• To what extend does background influence the decision to visit big sport

events?

• Do people visit big sport event as a response to what is missing now?

• Does the attractiveness of a certain destination make people visit a big sport

event?

• Which factors keeps people away from a big sport event?

It is important to choose appropriate research techniques to get a good answer to the

research questions. The used data collection can be seen as a ‘fit’ between the aim

and objectives and the available data. There are two different kinds of data collection

methods used in this particular research.

INTRODUCTION

To understand the topic and all the related concepts mostly English written

publications have been obtained. Most of the information are academical texts, for

example from books and journals, on sport tourism, consumer behaviour and host-

destinations of sport events. Based on the findings of the literature review, a

questionnaire-based interview was considered the most suitable method to examine

the motivations and factors of influence for sport event tourists.

The questionnaire based interviews were conducted in two different ways. Firstly the

author visited the international tennis tournament of Wimbledon in London, United

Kingdom, where 18 interviews were conducted with non-British visitors. Via the

Dutch internet-network ‘Hyves’ another eight interviews were taken from visitors of

big tennis events including Wimbledon and Roland Garros in Paris, France. The

findings of the survey come partly up to the expectations but give for sure on certain

point’s rather surprising results.

1.4. Structure of the dissertation

This dissertation consists of five parts: the introduction, the literature review,

methodology, main findings and conclusions.

The dissertation commences with an introduction, in order to give the reader a first

insight by describing the background of the study, the field of sport tourism research,

the research aim, methodology and the structure of the dissertation.

The literature review sets the framework for the dissertation. The first of the three

chapters is an introduction into the field of sport tourism by giving an overview of

important occurrences related to sport tourism and addresses sport tourism from

various points of views. The second chapter goes deeper into the motivations of

people to be a sport tourist and the decision-making process which is related to this.

The third chapter focuses on the theoretical foundation of the relation between a

sport event and the host-destination.

SPORT TOURISM

Chapter 2. SPORT TOURISM

In this first chapter of the literature-review an introduction is given in the field of

sport tourism. It gives an overview of important occurrences related to sport tourism

and addresses sport tourism from various points of views, keeping in mind the aims

and objectives of this research. In the end sport event tourism is described and the

categorisation of these events.

2.1. Introduction

Tourism and sport are key elements of today’s culture and have a specific influence

on the behaviour of society. As the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de

Coubertin ones stated ‘competition produces harmony between competitors and the

organisations or nations they represent’. It was his belief that sport brings people

and nations together.

Especially since the 1960’s sport has become a huge international matter with large

amount of media attention, money and also political interest. On the other hand

tourism remains the world’s largest industry as well as very developing and growing.

For this reason a combination between the two can be very lucrative and has a lot of

cultural influence.

Sport and tourism can in different ways contribute to each others development. As

Weed and Bull (2004) describe the tourism industry can help evolve local sport

facilities or giving communities the opportunity to create them where that wouldn’t

otherwise be possible. Also tourism can benefit from sport because a lot of sport-

activities take place during holidays.

Therefore it’s clear that greater co-operation would be very attractive to both sectors

in order to use mutual advantages.

SPORT TOURISM

2.2. History of Sport Tourism

At present large numbers of people are participants or spectators of sport. The

connection between tourism and sport does exist already a long time, but the

relationship is gaining more and more meaning nowadays. A growing awareness of

people’s health is one of the main reasons. From this trend sport and tourism can

both benefit.

An important aspect in the development of sport tourism is the industrialization.

What makes this so important is the fact that from that time two clear trends can be

discerned: The development of sports requiring the participants themselves to travel

and the development of sporting activity involving travelling spectators (Weed and

Bull 2004, p.6)

Related to the sport participant’s two different groups originate at the same time. On

one hand there is the group who travels to participate in competitions and on the

other hand those who travel because they can’t find their own facilities in their

surroundings.

Besides the big changes which occurred over the centuries, by far the most important

era was the 20

century. Where in the beginning of the century different forms of

sport tourism where only for the middle and upper class, in the end this would have

changed dramatically.

Important occurrences were for example the diminishing of the working week. This

meant more leisure time and therefore more holiday time. Also the paid holiday time

was an important happening for the development of tourism. Although these

happenings were quite significant the most important changes were in the last quarter

of this century. One thing was that people got four or five weeks holiday per year.

Also leisure time and holidays were from then onwards seen as essential and

necessary life-cycle parts which has important implications for sport tourism.

SPORT TOURISM

Besides the fact that normal people had now the possibility to watch sport, they also

had the opportunity to participate in sport far away from their home environment. As

Weed and Bull (2004, p.12) said, ‘Sport and travel became central aspects of

people’s life’.

For various reasons sport and tourism were seen as important factors in life. Sport

was perceived as a way of fitness, health or achievement but nowadays it’s more a

matter of pleasure and fashion. Also the thought about holiday changed over the

years. Increasingly it became an important factor in people’s life, like Urry ((2002) in

Weed and Bull 2004) stated, ‘it is a crucial element of modern life that travel and

holidays are necessary’.

For this reason the life-style choice of combined sport and travel was becoming more

popular. This is particularly outlined by two types of sport tourism: outdoor pursuits

and international mega-events (Weed and Bull 2004).

The growth of big sport events is a result of different factors which influenced daily-

life in the twentieth century in general, namely commercialisation and globalisation.

As a result of global development sport has become more and more commercialised.

The reason for this is the internationalization of economic activity, growing impact

of sport culture, the expansion of communication possibilities, rising mobility of

people, acceleration of international migration and global regulations of

organisations like UNWTO which are important for sport and the sport-industry

(Dejonghe 2004).

SPORT TOURISM

2.3. Defining Sport tourism

If we start to talk about Sport as a way of tourism, we must define what is been

considered as Sport Tourism. Therefore conceptualising sport tourism is a good

starting point in this study. Broadly defined, sport tourism includes travel away from

one’s primary residence to participate in a sport activity for recreation or

competition, travel to observe sport at the grassroots or elite level, and travel to visit

a sport attraction such as a sport hall of fame or a water park (Gibson et al. 1997).

Tourists who are involved in sports at a destination are this because of different

reasons. They like a certain degree of dedication, competition or personal

achievement. Because of this reason the sport tourism market has often been

described as ‘niche’ markets or special ‘demand groups’. Like Delpy (1997) states ‘a

travel market focused entirely on participating or watching sport is a unique and

exciting concept’.

As described above the distinction between physical participation and spectatorship

is an essential difference which should be deliberated. Many authors have described

different levels of tourist engagement in participants and spectator sports.

An example is the theory of Hall (1992). On one side, Hall identified two types of

active sport tourist: ‘activity participants’, who regard their participation as a

medium of self-expression, and ‘players’, who are competitive in their participation.

On the other side, the passive sports do not pursue any individual sports activity. The

focus of this group lies with big sports events and distinguished sport sites. This

includes mainly attendants to high-performance athletes.

SPORT TOURISM

Another model is set out by Gammon and Robinson (1997) who make a distinction

in two forms of sport-tourism. They use the term ‘sport tourism’ if sport is the

primary reason to travel and ‘tourism sport’ if participation is seen as a secondary

activity. Furthermore they make a distinction in hard and soft definition.

Figure 1: Conceptualisation of sport tourists based on sport and travel

motivations

Sport tourism

Individuals  and/or  groups  of  people  who  actively  of  passively
participate  in  competitive  or  recreational  sport  while  travelling.
Sport  is  the  prime  motivation  to  travel,  although  the  touristic
element may reinforce the overall experience.

Hard definition

Active or passive participation in a competitive sporting event.
Sport is the prime reason for travel (e.g. Olympic Games,
Wimbledon, New York Marathon).

Soft definition

Active recreational participation in sporting/leisure interest (e.g.
skiing, walking, hiking, kayaking).

Tourism sport

Active or passive participation in competitive or recreational sport
as a secondary activity. The holiday or visit , rather then the sport,
is the prime travel motivation

Hard definition

Competitive or non-competitive sport as an important secondary
motivation that enriches the travel experience (e.g. sport cruises,
health and fitness clubs).

Soft definition

Competitive or non-competitive sport or leisure as a purely
incidental element of the holiday experience (e.g. minigolf, indoor
bowling)

Source: Gammon and Robinson (1997)

SPORT TOURISM

Related to the model of Gammon and Robinson given above is the description by

Standeven and De Knop (1999). At first they make the distinction between sport

tourism with non-holiday or holiday purposes. After that they distinguish between

active or passive sport tourists. Passive sport tourists are grouped according to how

important sport is during their trip. Casual observers are less involved in sport then

connoisseurs who like to visit sport events or sport museums. Active sport tourists

may engage in sport activity holidays, where sport is the main intention of the trip, or

in holiday sport activities, where sport is incidental.

Figure 2: Types of Sport Tourism

Passive

sport

Non-holiday/

business

Active

sport

Casual observer

Sport Tourism

Passive

sport

Connoisseur

Holiday

Organised

Holiday

sport

activities

Active Independent

sport

Multisport

activity

Sport

holiday

activity

holiday

Single sport

activity

holiday

Source: Standeven and De Knop (1999)

SPORT TOURISM

In addition to the above categorisations the description of Maier and Weber (1993) is

rather basic. They describe four different kinds of sport tourism demand groups and

their required facilities. These descriptions are based on the level of physical sport

activity.

Figure 3: Sport tourism demand groups and requisite visitor facilities

Demand
groups

Visitor demands and required facilities

Top
performance
athletes

The key-word for these travellers is efficiency. The priorities for
this  group  are  good  accessibility  to  training  facilities,
accommodation as well as the opportunity to fulfil certain dining
demands  and  injury  rehabilitation  or  other  performance-related
services.

Mass sports

This  aim  of  this  group  is  to  preserve  their  health  and  maintain
fitnessing  by  setting  individual  targets.  The  quality  of  sport
facilities  in  combination  with  good  accessibility  of  holiday
regions are the key consideration of this demand group.

Occasional
sport (wo)men

For  this  group  prestige  plays  a  bigger  role  then  sporting
ambitions.  Sporting  activities  and  cultural  interest  have  both
similar priorities.

Passive sport
tourists

No  individual  sport  activities  are  pursued  by  this  group.  They
focus  on  big  sport  events  or  visiting  sport  sights.  They  require
high-volume infrastructures.

Source: Maier and Weber (1993)

Besides the authors who basically distinguish between active participation and

passive spectatorship there are several other theories set out.

One of these popular theories is the diversification set out by Weed and Bull ((2004)

cited in Weed 2006). The five categories they differ are: sports training, sports

events, luxury sport events, sport participation tourism, and tourism with sport

contents. Just a separation in sport events and sport participation is in their opinion

not enough.

Also Reeves ((2000) cited in Hinch and Higham 2004) makes a different kind of

description of sport tourists. He identifies six different visitor types, which are

divided into; incidental, sporadic, occasional, regular, dedicated and driven. Within

SPORT TOURISM

these different visitor types a distinction is made in decision-making, participation,

non-participation, group profile, lifestyle and spending. The diversity in the sport

tourism market is by this schedule pointed out. In practice this schedule has it

limitations because sometimes is suggestive, e.g. spending patterns are rather

assumptions then based on academic research. Despite the limitations, it is a useful

theory because it provides important insight in the range of sport tourist types.

Figure 4: Sport tourism types and visitor profiles

Type

Decision-
making

Participation Non-

participation

Group
profile

Lifestyle

Spending

Incidental

Unimportant Out of duty

Not relaxing,
Holiday like

Family

Sport is
significant

Minimal

Sporadic

Relative
important

If convenient

Easily
contained/
put off

Friends
and family

Non-
essential

Minimal
except for
‘one-offs’

Occasional Sometimes

determining

Welcome
addition to
tourist
experience

Other
commitments

Often
individual,
especially
business
tourists

Conspicuous
consumption

High on
occasions

Regular

Important

Significant
part of
enjoyment

Money or
time become
prohibitive

Group or
individual

Important

Considerable

Dedicated

Very
important

Central to
experience

Due to
unforeseen
barriers

Individuals
and groups
of the like-
minded

Defining
element

Extremely
high and
consistent

Driven

Very
important,
but little
autonomy

Sole reason

Through
injury or fear
of it

Elite
groups or
solitary

The
profession

Extremely
high but
funded by
others

Source: after Reeves (2000 cited in Hinch and Higham (2004))

2.4. Active sport tourism

As described earlier in this chapter most literature refers to two major forms of sport

tourism. One of the two biggest forms of sport tourism described in literature is

Active sport tourism.

The active sport tourism market consists out of people who pursue to be physically

involved in competitive or non-competitive sports (Hinch and Higham 2004).

SPORT TOURISM

As Weed and Bull (2004, p.22) point out there are some major trends in the field of

active sport tourism;

• A spreading concerns for healthy living

• A strongly developed market for theme- and activity-based holidays

• A massive growth in demand for short breaks and second holidays

In combination with the knowledge that spare-time is increasingly seen as ‘time to do

something rather than relaxation time, this means a big opportunity to develop this

kind of tourism.

Another characteristic about active sport tourism is that it is rarely taken as the main

holiday, with many consumers seeing them as an extra break, taken outside the

traditional holiday period (Mintel (1999) cited in Weed & Bull 2004)

2.5. Sport Event Tourism

Over the years the significant growth of sport event tourism has been ascribed to

both a growing demand and a growing amount of commercial activities. As the focus

of this research is on sport event tourism, the development of this type of tourism

provides a lot of opportunities. The amount of tourists for whom watching sport has

become a primary reason to travel is rapidly growing.

From the destination’s perspective, sport event tourism is the development and

marketing of sport events to obtain economic and community benefits. For the

consumer the purpose is viewing, or participating in, a sport event.

From the event organizer’s perspective, tourist might be only one of the several

target markets to attract during the event. It might be necessary for some sport event

tourism organizations to give direction to events as tourism products. To become a

product for sale, the event has to be attractive to specific target segments, high in

quality, priced right, and packaged carefully to meet the needs of travellers.

SPORT TOURISM

Sport event tourism is somewhat unique. Getz (2003) considers the following special

characteristics:

• Many sport events are biddable; they can be attracted to a destination.

• Special events can attract more people than regularly scheduled games.

• Corporate sponsors love sport events.

• Major sport events can be catalysts for new facilities and infrastructure.

• New sport facilities, become permanent event venues.

• There is a potential for various sports events year round.

• Sport events appeal to everyone, regardless of age, gender or physical ability.

• Sport events can assist in destination branding.

• Sport events can benefit to tourism in rural areas that might have limited

attractiveness otherwise.

Hosting a big event is often seen as the ideal way for a city to put itself on the world

map. Especially big sport events, such as the Olympic Games and World Cup

Soccer, are seen as the perfect method to (re)create a tourist product centred on large

cities or countries.

The hosting of mega sports events appeals to many sectors of the community. The

opportunity to advertise products to a global audience, leverage business

opportunities in export and new investment, on-sell event management knowledge,

enhance the tourist industry of host-countries, and boost citizen morale and pride are

factors which motivate both corporate involvement and public support (Barney et al.

2002).

SPORT TOURISM

2.6. Categorisation of events

Events exist in various forms. They may differ in size, volume and impact, and they

reasons for hosting might be different, but one aspect is always is always the same,

they are of limited time duration. A particular type of event are the so-called special

events. These kinds of events are one-time or infrequently occurring events.

Within the field of sport events the focus in this research will be on big events or in

literature described as ‘hallmark’ or ‘mega’-event. But what makes a mega-event

‘mega’? There is several literature about ‘local’, ‘hallmark’ or ‘mega-events’ (Witt

1988; Roche 2000).

Events can be characterized according to their scale and size. In the figure below is

pointed out the proportion between the scale of impact and the category of event.

Figure 5: Categorisation of Events

High

Low

Local

Hallmark

Mega

Source: Own elaboration

cal

Category of event

SPORT TOURISM

2.6.1.

Local events

Events with a low scale of impact are local events. Other used terms for these events

are minor events (Van der Wagen 2001) or community-based events (Douglas et al.

2001). Most sport events held fall in this category. Almost every town or city runs

small annual sport events. They are as well of limited time duration but held more

often then special events.

2.6.2.

Hallmark events

The second event listed in the figure above is the hallmark event. This term is used to

describe a certain type of event; nevertheless it can hold various meanings.

According to Getz (1997), hallmark events are those that posses such significance, in

terms of tradition, activeness, image or publicity that the event provides, the city,

community or destination with a competitive advantage. Ritchie (1984, p.2) defined

it this way:

“Major one-time or recurring events of limited duration, developed primarily
to enhance the awareness, appeal and profitability of a tourism destination in
the short and/or long term. Such events rely for their success on uniqueness,
status, or timely significance to create interest and attract attention”

An example of a hallmark sport event could be Wimbledon, the tennis tournament in

London or the Grand Prix Formula One in Monaco.

2.6.3.

Mega events

Two main characteristics of contemporary mega-events are firstly, that they have

significant consequences for the host-city, region or nation where the event is held.

Secondly they will also attract considerable media-coverage. Therefore we can

conclude that events with less media-attention can’t be categorized as a mega-event.

Especially Roche’s (200) definition is used a lot nowadays. He states that mega-

events are best understood as,

“Large-scale cultural (including commercial and sporting) events, which have
a dramatic, mass popular appeal and international significance”

SPORT TOURISM

Another author is Roberts (2004) who defines certain sport events as mega when

they are so-called discontinuous, out of the ordinary, international and simply big in

composition. Mega he means in this case, events that have the ability to transmit

promotional messages to billions of people. Examples of mega sport events are the

Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup Football.

2.7. Conclusion

As we can read in this chapter there’s extensive literature on sport tourism. The

writer of this report has tried to set out different point of views on the topic. Some

concluding remarks about this chapter, which can be related to the research aims, are:

• The need to play sports and travel are central aspects in people’s lives,

therefore a combination has big influence on everyday life.

• Sport tourism is a unique and exciting concept and sport tourists can therefore

be seen as a ‘niche’ market.

• There’s a growing market of sport related holidays and also of sport event

holidays.

From these conclusions it’s interesting to know what really drives people to be a

sport tourists and more specifically what drives them to travel to be a spectator of a

sport event. Therefore the next step in this research is to analyse the sport tourism

consumer motivation.

SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION

Chapter 3. SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION

In this second chapter of the literature review the writer goes deeper into the

motivations of people to be a sport tourist. The subject motivation in general will be

set out and the fact that this motivation has big influence on the decision making

process is analysed.

3.1. Introduction

In order to know what drives visitors to come to certain sport events is good to know

what their motivation is and which kind of factors play a role in that.

Proprietors, entrepreneurs and managers of company’s operative in sport event

tourism are without doubt very interested in what motivates their consumers.

‘Motivation to travel or to participate in some form of tourism might be defined as

that set of needs and attitudes which predispose a person to act in a specific goal

directed way’ (Pizam cited in Kurzman and Zauhar 2005). According to this

quotation attitudes can be interpreted as the sense to respond to certain people,

objects or situations. Motivations can be described as behaviour towards travel goals.

Consumer motivation identifies what people want to do or want to have and the

intensity they want this. When a consumer sees a link between their desires and the

product or service offered they go to the next step of the process, which might result

in taking possession of this product or service.

3.2. Sport, Tourism and Motivation

It was back in 1997 that it was first suggested that sport tourism could be better

categorised by a consumer motivation approach (Gammon and Robinson 1997). First

it was necessary to divide sport tourism into two parts; making a differentiation

between those who travel primarily for sports, sport tourists, and for those where

sport is a secondary consideration, tourism sport.

SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION

When reviewing literature related to the combination of sport, tourism and

motivation it becomes clear that the explanations offered often depend on the

interpretation of the principle motivation. An example of this is that most writers

within the tourism literature give as the main straightforward reason to travel that

people ‘just need to take a break’. Such simplistic explanation doesn’t take in

account the cultural, sociological and physiological reason to travel. Also it fails to

discover whether the motivation is based upon a need to escape from a present

environment, push-factor, or the desire to escape to another, pull-factor, or maybe a

combination of both. Furthermore something which should be realized is that it’s

often unclear for tourists themselves why they are making the trip.

In addition, it’s kind of ambivalent whether (sport) tourism motivations should be

focused on the expressed or the underlying motives of travellers, while this last

initially drives them. To illustrate this point, the explanation of Iso-Ahola ((1980)

cited in Robinson and Gammon 2004) helps, when describing expressed leisure

needs using an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg (i.e. the part which is visible)

represents expressed motives while the big majority of the iceberg, the part which

stays under water symbolizes the underlying motives such as personality factors.

Figure 6: Travel Motives

Expressed motives

Underlying motives

Source: Own Elaboration after Iso-Ahola (1980)

SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION

3.3. Push and Pull factors

Although these underlying factors maybe interesting, it is unrealistic to identify all

the reasons for travel, which often maybe contradictory anyway. As a result of this

most sport tourism motives literature tends to categorise the reasons for travel as

escaping from and/or escaping to a particular destination.

Some examples of writers who categorise the travel motives are summed in the book

of Pizam and Mansfeld (2000). Dann (1977) gives a basic model with seven different

categories of travel motivations, namely:

1. Travel as a response to what is missing now (push factors)

2. Attractiveness of a certain destination (pull factors)

3. Willing to fulfil a fantasy

4. Motivation as a classified purpose, such as visiting friend and relatives or

study

5. Motivational typologies

6. Experienced based motivations

7. Motivation as auto-definition, which means that it’s better to define tourist

situations rather then just observes their behaviour.

Crompton (1979) agreed with Dann, concerning the theory of push and pull factors.

He deepens the idea of push and pull factors and classifies nine motives to travel.

Seven of those are socio-psychological or push motives; the other two are described

as cultural or pull motives. Push motives are escapism, self-exploration, relaxation,

prestige, regression and social inter-action. Pull motives are novelty and education.

Mannel and Iso-Ahola (1987) identified two main types of push and pull factors,

personal and interpersonal. They suggest that people want to leave behind their

personal or interpersonal problem in order to find personal or interpersonal rewards.

The personal rewards are; self-determination, sense of competence, challenge,

learning, exploration and relaxation. The interpersonal awards are a result of social

interaction

SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION

Figure 7: The escaping and seeking dimensions of leisure motivation

Seeking Personal Rewards

Escaping

Seeking

Interpersonal

Environments

Rewards

Escaping Personal Environments

Source: After Mannel and Iso-Ahola (1987 cited in Pizam and Mansfeld (2000))

Krimpendorf (1987) agrees with the other authors but has more his own ideas. He

states that travel is motivated by ‘going away from’ rather than ‘going towards’

something. He also mentions the fact that travellers’ motives and behaviour are self-

oriented. He lists 8 primary reasons for travel; recuperation and regeneration,

compensation and social integration, escape, communication, freedom and self-

determination, self-realisation, happiness and to broaden the mind.

The tourist motivation model presented by Plog (1974) is one of the most well-

known models. He classified travellers as allocentric and psychocentric. Allocentric

means the people are more into unstructured vacations and involved in local cultures,

while the psychocentric tourists more familiarity and touristy areas pursue. Later he

added to this theory energy which refers to the level of activity desired by the tourist.

It is important to point out that with all the approaches detailed above, and with

others elsewhere in the literature, a single motive is rarely identified as the sole

reason travel; rather are a number of motives for travel – though they maybe one

which takes precedence over the others (Robinson and Gammon 2004, p.223).

Most people’s holidays are a combination of motivation factors, where mostly one

motive becomes dominant (Swarbrooke and Horner 1999). Therefore tourism

motivation research demonstrates a combination of conscious and sub-conscious

SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION

reasons for travel, which illustrate the complexity of this area of study. Not only does

this research tries to address the causes why an individual may wish to visit a sport

event, but also the reasons of this event choice related to the destination which are

often conflicting. Furthermore Robinson and Gammon (ibid.) suggest that motives

do not act independently but are often combined. This combination is often divided

into primary and secondary tourism drives.

Equally, sport tourism has this multiple approaches to motivations, of which some

are similar to ‘normal’ tourism. These are for example, escaping from daily-life and

recuperation. However, there are also some very specific motivations, which are

special for sport, such as competitiveness, willingness to win and the opportunity to

share a special interest together with other people (Weed and Bull 2004). These

motivations can be applied to both active and passive sport tourism, which makes it

even more complex. For example Wann, Melnick, Russell and Pease ((2001) cited in

Robinson and Gammon 2004) identified the 8 most common sport fans motives;

group affiliation, family, aesthetic reasons, self-esteem, economic motives, eustress,

escape and entertainment.

As mentioned in the sport tourism motive literature, there are differences in

participating motives, either active or passive, and the underlying motives as well.

Although it may be better to try to define the different motives for active and passive

participation, this might be in practise difficult. Therefore a general approach to

define primary and secondary in sport related tourism might be better.

In a sport tourism context it’s not difficult to describe the variety of motivational

factors. An example is a sport tourist who travels to the UEFA Euro 2004 Football

Championships. Predictable reasons to travel to Portugal may be to watch his or her

team play, enjoy the nice summer weather, be part of the festivities around the games

or take advantage of the local hospitality. This example illustrates the complexity of

sport tourism motives and therefore its unrealistic to identify all the motivations

variables found in both sport and tourism.

SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION

3.4. Decision Making Process

The motivations for people to visit big sport events have big influence on the

decision making process of it. The questions of how decision-making could be

described and explained and how its outcome could be predicted have received

extensive attention in social science research. Early works in the field referred to the

purchase of products. The most influential so-called grand models of consumer

behaviour:

• view consumer behaviour as a decision-making process,

• focus on the behaviour of the individual consumer,

• assume behaviour to be rational and in that matter explainable,

• believe the consumer to engage in information search and evaluation,

• theorize that the individual narrows down the information in time and

chooses among the alternatives formed during the decision-making process,

• include a feedback loop demonstrating that outcomes from past behaviour

affect future decisions. (Sirakaya and Woodside 2005)

Based on these models researchers have developed a wide range of tourist behaviour

theories. In general, decision-making is modelled as a multi-stage process (Sirakaya

and Woodside 2005):

1) recognizing the necessity to make a decision,

2) formulating wants, goals and objectives,

3) creating a set of alternatives from which to choose,

4) searching for information about the alternatives,

5) making the choice among the alternatives,

6) acting upon the decision and

7) giving feedback for the next decision.

SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION

More related to tourism the theory of Kurtzman and Zauhar (2005) is applicable.

They speak about different factors which lead to the following sequential phases of

the travel decision:

1) incentive phase

2) decision phase

3) preparatory phase

4) travel phase

5) return phase

6) evaluation phase

3.5. Factors of influence

As already suggested earlier, the travel decision is influenced by a number of

interrelated factors, which Sirakaya & Woodside (2005, p.823) divide into:

• internal variables (i.e. attitudes, values, lifestyles, images, motivation, beliefs

and intentions, personality, lifecycle stage, risk reduction methods,

information search behaviour)

• external variables (i.e. constraints, pull factors of a destination, marketing

mix, influences of family and reference groups, culture and sub-culture,

social class, household-related variables such as life-style, power-structure)

• the nature of the intended trip (party size and composition, distance, time,

duration of trip)

• trip experiences (mood and feeling during the trip, post-purchase evaluation)

In order to try to give answer to the research aim of this topic external variables are

most considered. In this argumentation McIntosh and Goeldner (in Kurzman and

Zauhar 2005, p.27) identified four categories of travel motivators that could be

applied to sports travel, namely,

• Physical motivators – directly related to physical needs and drives such as

fitness, sports.

• Cultural motivators – linked to traditions, mores and heritage, such as sports

museums, halls of fame and historic sites.

SPORT TOURISM CONSUMER MOTIVATION

• Interpersonal motivators – include the socialization potential to be found in

sport resorts, cruises and world games.

• Status and prestige motivators – demonstrated by people enticed by high

profile destinations athletic celebrities and distinctive sport events.

All motivational theories show that travel decisions are based on specific

informational steps, particularly for the sports tourist. The travel decision could be

point out by the following steps:

1) Awareness

2) Interest

3) Desire

4) Action

First the sport tourist must hear through external sources or by previous experience

know that a potential destination or event exists. This means certain awareness is

created. After that the person further develops his/her interest to the

destination/event. After this stage, the sport tourist considers the potential of such an

experience. From this reflection the sport tourist makes a final decision to pursue or

not to pursue the destination experience.

3.6. Conclusion

The multitude of explanations detailing why people choose to actively or passively

participate in sport and how this decision is made, together with the several touristic

motives for travel illustrates the difficulty and variety in sport tourism. One can

conclude that motivations and behaviour are closely related and in some cases

overlapping each other.

Tourist behaviour, and in particular sport tourist behaviour, is very complex and

therefore difficult to understand and analyse. As it is impossible to understand very

single aspect of sport tourism behaviour, a relevant collection of aspects has been

addressed, by applying several theoretical concepts. As a result of the literature

review some concluding remarks have emerged;

SPORT TOURISM DESTINATIONS

Chapter 4. SPORT TOURISM DESTINATIONS

This third chapter of the literature review analyses the theoretical foundation of the

research aim about the relation between a sport event and the place where it’s held,

in other words the host-destination. It gives a look on the geographical perspective of

the confluence of sport and tourism, and the relation between the three main

components of tourism, activity, place and people.

4.1. Introduction

As pointed out before special interest in this study goes out to the relation between

the sport event and the host-place, specifically the influence of a destination on

visitations of big sport events. Therefore the understanding of what destinations

mean in sport tourism is very important and can be seen as a starting point for further

research.

Destinations are complex and diverse tourism systems. The reasons why people

choose to travel to particular destinations maybe many or few, related to sport

tourism these reason are similar and unambiguous. In one way or another sport

participation or –experience motives are increasingly common by tourists. There are

not many forces which generate such significant and heterogeneous travel flows as

sport. Furthermore sports are associated with rich and various visitor experiences and

therefore contribute to the image and characterization of tourism destinations.

(Higham 2005)

In this matter it is important to understand what role places or destinations play in the

field of sport and tourism. The relationship between tourists and the places they visit

is a very interesting research area. Sheller and Urry (2004, p.1) state that places to

play are also places in play. In other words places are not only made by physical

presence but moreover they are made and remade by the mobilities and performances

of tourists and workers, images and heritage, the latest fashions and the newest

diseases.

SPORT TOURISM DESTINATIONS

This playfulness of place is in part about the urge to travel elsewhere, the pleasure of

immersing oneself in another environment, and the fascination with little differences

in the materiality of the world. Related to this several question occur like ‘What

creates a fascination to visit other places?’, ‘What makes this place desirable to

visit?’ and ‘If we desire that other place, why do we actually go through the trouble

of physically visiting it?

Besides the questions about why people would like to visit other places, playfulness

of places also means in which ways places are themselves always ‘on the move’.

Relation to other places makes them more or less wanted and as a result more or less

visited. Places consist of physical presence, which itself is always in motion; new

infrastructure (hotels/airports), changement of nature (jellyfishes/erupting volcanoes)

and external forces (threat of terrorism) shape a place. So therefore we always ask

‘What needs to be mobilized in order to become a desirable place for (sport) tourists?

An important conception related to this is the so-called ‘tourism mobilities’ principle.

Sheller and Urry (2004, p.1) say,

“We  refer  to  ‘tourism  mobilities’,  then,  not  simply  in  order  to  state  the
obvious  (that  tourism  is  a  form  of  mobility),  but  to  highlight  that  many
different  mobilities  inform  tourism,  shape  the  place  where  tourism  is
performed, and drive the making and unmaking of tourist destinations.”

This can mean mobilities people and objects, airplanes and suitcases, plants and

animals, images and brands, data systems and satellites, all are involved in ‘doing’

tourism. Tourism is also concerned to mobilizations of memories, emotions and

atmospheres. Places have multiple contested meanings that often produces

disruptions and disjuncture’s. Tourism mobilities involve complex combinations of

movements and stillness, realities and fantasies, play and work. (Sheller and Urry

2004)

SPORT TOURISM DESTINATIONS

4.2. Geographical perspectives on the confluence of sport and tourism

As stated above place is a very important factor to help conceptualise the field of

(sport) tourism. A broader perspective is pointed out by Hall & Page (1999) who use

the geographical categorisation of space, place and environment. In this theory, space

refers to specific locations. It describes the relationship between sport tourism and

areas and destination. In other words, space relates to the ways in which sport

influences the travel patterns of tourists, whether as primary, secondary or tertiary

travel motivation (Hinch and Higham 2004).

The second geographical factor is place. Place refers to space that is infused with

meaning ((Lew 2001) in Hinch and Higham 2004). Standeven and de Knop (1999,

p.58) treat sport and tourism as cultural experiences – ‘sport as a cultural experience

of physical activity; tourism as a cultural experience of place’. From this they argue

that the nature of sport is therefore ‘about an experience of physical activity tied to

an experience of place’. It has been argued that sport infuses tourism destinations

with one of the most types of attractions. The concept of place in tourism raises

questions which are related to the role of sport in promoting tourism destinations.

Space and place have a central role in the geography of sport and the geography of

tourism. Sport has characteristics which are, unlike recreation and play, fixed spatial

parameters, such as time and dimensions. Tourism is also characterised by these

spatial parameters. Somebody must leave his/her house and travel to be considered as

tourist. The difference between space and place is though that place cannot be

measured objectively. It is a subjective concept which is changing constantly.

Thirdly Hall and Page (1999) describe environment in relation to the geography of

sport tourism. In which degree tourists find a place attractive is strongly influenced

by its physical environment, including landscape and climate ((Krippendorf 1986) in

Hinch and Higham 2004). Evidentially a lot of sports are closely linked to the

physicality of a destination.

SPORT TOURISM DESTINATIONS

A well-known general tourist motive is the search for regional diversity in the

landscape. Related to sports tourism Bale (2003) introduced in this matter the term

‘sportscape’ to describe the highly impacted and modified (e.g. golf-courses and ski-

slopes) sport environment. Essentially this means that sportscape describes the

tendency to transform landscapes into sporting environments

In order to try to give answer on the research questions in this report several analyses

which are made in the past can be useful to understand the principal theme. Tourism

destination analyses give important information which is a first step in the

development and management of sport tourism destinations and motivation for

people to visit it.

‘The spatial analysis of sport tourism involves the study of the locations in which

sports occur and the movements of tourists to these locations’ (Hinch and Higham

2004) is one of the useful bases analyses. Related to this some authors (Bale 1989;

Rooney 1988 in Hinch and Higham 2004) introduced several concepts such as

central place theory, distance decay and location hierarchies for consideration in the

field of sport tourism.

From this point is clear that distance is applied in both sport and tourism. In the

context of sport tourism, there’s a big advantage for sports that take place in central

locations. In theory this means that the power of attraction that a sport or sport event

has related to the travel decision process reduces due to less knowledge about the

travel location.

In reality, there are numerous factors which influence the distance decay, (Miossec

(1991) in Hinch and Higham 2004) such as political, cultural and climatic

characteristics, which may act as barriers or facilitators to travel. Furthermore Urry

(1990) addresses the urge of tourists to go to exotic and distant places, which give an

opposite picture to distance decay travel patterns. Other factors of influence on the

distance decay function are the quality of opposition, accessibility, and also the costs

of participating in the sport activity at the destination.

SPORT TOURISM DESTINATIONS

Clearly, sport tourism takes is related to spatial parameters in a complex way.

Different sports need different degrees of resources. Some sports are best performed

in remote areas where others need big central places. Another important point about

the relation between place and sport is the distance-time-cost threshold (Veal 1987;

Hinch and Higham 2004). The relation between the three have big influence on

spatial travel patterns of sport tourists, although sport tourism market range and

travel flows are influenced by a range of factors that are not well understood.

This time-distance-cost relation is such that the more people invest on those three

aspects this will bear upon the visitor experience. For instance, the further sport

tourists travel, the more likely it is that they will spend some time at the destination

engaging in tourist activities (Nogawa et al. (1996) in Hinch and Higham 2004) It is

also noteworthy that the area that a sports team represents may in fact stimulate

‘home’ supporters to travel considerable distances to support their team. The spatial

area that a team or a player represents may vary considerable from their reach. Reach

in this case means the exposure they have on sport tourists. This raises the prospect

of people travelling domestic or international, following their representative team or

sporters, without having the feeling they left home. Alike, these sporters may be

supported by expatriates who have a strong link with teams from countries or regions

they have lived in the past. This phenomenon contributes to the discussion about

travel mobilities related to sport tourism and sport tourists’ destinations. This

discussion opens questions about personal identity, representation, and fan interest.

4.3. Location Hierarchies

In order to attract sport tourist destinations or locations need to have specific

facilitations, because sport tourism is constantly changing. Often these modifications

are a result of changement in economy, location of sport facilities and the

transformation of sport destinations. Sports attractions exist within a hierarchical

organisational structure which is similar as hierarchy of ‘normal’ tourist attractions.

The hierarchy reflects that some locations have a local attraction function, while

others have a regional, national or international function.

SPORT TOURISM DESTINATIONS

Bale (2003) explains that sport facilities in central locations are located ‘as close to

potential users as possible in order to maximize pleasure from the sport experience

and to minimize travel, and hence costs’. These characteristics have been difficult

over the last years, as new factors have revealed which influence status of sport

locations. Examples of these changing factors are facility sharing, changing access to

infrastructure and the influence of media markets. Some tourism destinations

compete in these location hierarchies, while others focus on a specific sport. For

example Dubai is currently trying to be the world first dedicated ‘sport city’ with all

newly build facilities. An example of a destination which specifies is Hawaii which

uses surfing to profile them as a destination of prominence.

4.4. Relation between Activity, People and Place in a geographical

context of Sport Tourism.

The interaction between the three main components in tourism has been described by

Weed and Bull (2004, p.37) as ‘a social, economic and cultural phenomenon arising

from the unique intersection of activity, people and place’. The relationship between

this hasn’t been addressed systematically in sport tourism literature (Hinch and

Higham 2004), while the nature of this relation summons more questions.

There are some examples of studies which tried to research the relation between the

activity, the people and the place. Green and Chalip (1998) made a study of women

football players from across the United States, who were participating in an annual

tournament in Florida. They found out that the real attraction for the players was not

that they could play their sport away from home or the place itself, but the fact that

they could celebrate their subculture with other from distant places.

Another study was conducted by Kim and Chalip (2004) who surveyed 600 people

from USA about attending the FIFA World Cup Football in South Korea and Japan

in 2002. The main reason for people to visit South Korea and/or Japan was because

of interest in the World Cup. On the contrary the financial constraints affected

negatively the sense that people would attend. These two conclusions describe the

relation between the activity, the people and the place.

SPORT TOURISM DESTINATIONS

In addition to this it’s noteworthy to mention that people themselves also have

‘place-making qualities’ (Hinch and Higham 2004). An example of this is the

congregation of football fans who watch the games in public spaces on a temporary

screen, for example during the FIFA World Cup in Germany in 2006. The gathering

of all the people created a place which attracted people who were not interested in

football but just in ‘being in a sport-atmosphere’.

To make the place more profound in the geographical perspective of sport tourism

the paper of Hinch and Higham (2004, p.42) is useful. They describe the three

variants of place which have relevance to sport tourism. They are place attachment,

place identity and place dependence. Each of these three variants can help to clarify

the role of place in sport tourism.

Place attachment can be seen as a positive relation between an individual and a

specific place. Greater insight in the nature of the attachment between is a more

deepen question in the understanding of activity, people and place, which is

described earlier. Weak place attachment, for example as in the study of Green and

Chalip (1998) means little commitment to a specific destination. On the other hand, a

lot of attachment not only means a lot commitment but also that visitors try to protect

a certain destination. Place identity can be applied to individuals as well as groups.

Individuals may strongly identify particular sites which are associated with their

sport, while groups may identify nations with a certain sport, for example, Swiss

nationals and alpine ski resorts. Place dependence is the third variant described by

Hinch and Higham and is set out as a form of attachment which is based on the

possibility of a certain place to fulfil specific needs or wishes from sport tourists.

Related to place identity it means that an individual may not get a real sense of

identity from a place but may depend on this in order to participate in an activity.

METHODOLOGY

Chapter 5. METHODOLOGY

In this chapter an explanation will be given on the different methods being used to

gather information for this research, in order to address and fulfil the statements that

have been detailed in the research and aim objectives. This chapter addresses each

stage of the research process that has been undertaken, to enable the reader to follow

the methods. This chapter will also outline the various methods of analysis and the

limitations encountered during the research process.

5.1. Research Aim and Objectives

As becomes clear in the literature review related the combination of sport, tourism

and motivation, the explanations offered often depend on the interpretation of the

principal motivation. An example of this is that most writers within the tourism

literature give as the main straightforward reason to travel that people ‘just need to

take a break’. Such simplistic explanation doesn’t take into account the cultural,

sociological and physiological reason to travel. Also it fails to discover whether the

motivation is based upon a need to escape from a present environment (push-factor)

or the desire to escape to another (pull-factor), or maybe a combination of both.

The aim of this study is to asses the factors of influence on sport event visit

motivation. Special interest goes out to the relation between the sport event and the

host-destination. In order to investigate the factors of influence in the selection

process, the following questions have to be answered:

• To what extend does background influence the decision to visit big sport

events?

• Do people visit big sport event as a response to what is missing now?

• Does the attractiveness of a certain destination make people visit a big sport

event?

• Which factors keeps people away from a big sport event?

METHODOLOGY

The four main questions of this research mentioned above have each several sub

research areas. In general the questions, which will be explained in the next part of

this chapter, represent respectively;

• The background of visitors; indicators like demography, experience, financial

situation are examined within this question

• Push factors; indicators like escapism, relaxation, self-exploration,

entertainment and socialization

• Pull factors; indicators like prestige, novelty, self-development and fan

motives

• Constraints; indicators like financial risks, threats and competition

As described in the literature review, research suggest that pull factors, push factors

and constraints should effect each other (Robinson and Gammon 2004, p.23

Subsection 3.3). In the opinion of the author of this research the item of background

should be added to this, in order to get a complete picture of possible factors of

influence for people attending a big sport event. Therefore the author made a

conceptual model (Figure 8) describing and visualising the relationship between

them.

The model shows the relationship between background, push factors, pull factors and

constraints (Pizam and Mansfeld 2000; Robinson and Gammon 2004; Weed and Bull

2004). The first three determents are drawn on one line showing they have same

importance, or in other words it’s difficult to estimate which one is most important. It

depends on the response of the visitors. The arrows in between background, push

factors, and pull factors show that everything is linked and has effect on each other.

Constraint is in the authors’ opinion in such a way important that it’s drawn

underneath the background, push- and pull factors. It shows that one of the first three

factors can be very important, one or more constraints can have that much influence

on interest that it’s most likely it will affect visitation negatively. After the

consideration of all the factors the result is described as the outcome of the

attendance motives.

METHODOLOGY

Figure 8: A conceptual model of sport event interest

Background

•  Demography
•  Financial situation
•  Previous experience

↔

Push factors

•  Escapism
•  Relaxation
•  Self-exploration
•  Entertainment
•  Socialization

↔

Pull factors

•  Novelty
•  Fan motives
•  Self-development
•  Destination

Constraints

•  Risks
•  Threats
•  Competition

Outcomes

Attendance motives

Source: Own elaboration (after Pizam and Mansfeld 2000; Robinson and Gammon 2004; Weed and

Bull 2004)

5.2. Data collection methods

It is important to choose appropriate research technique to get a good answer to the

research questions. The used data collection can be seen as a ‘fit’ between the aim

and objectives and the available data. There are two different kinds of data collection

methods: secondary and primary research, which are both used in this particular

research.

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5.2.1.

Secondary research

The secondary research in this report is conducted to be able to give an academically

and theoretical basis for further primary research. Secondary research includes data

which is published previously in various forms. Veal (1997) describes secondary

data as previous published data (can be words and statistics), which have been

collected and analysed by others, and is immediately available at minimal costs and

provides a good starting point for further research.

Literature in research can function in different ways; it can be used as the whole

basis for a research, it can give the authors different point of views of the topic or it

can be used to compare or support the new research. For this research different

resources have been used to collect data. Most of the information are academical

texts, for example from books and journals. Additionally, different websites, mainly

the one from Bournemouth University, provided the author with information in the

form of e-journals and articles from related academical magazines. Furthermore

some previous studies in the field of sport event tourism have been applied as well.

5.2.2.

Primary research

Primary research is described by Veal (1997) as the gathering of information not

available from any other source. The new data in the research can be acquired by

quantitative or qualitative methods. A quantitative approach is research which

involves statistical analysis and relies on numerical evidences to draw conclusions or

to test hypothesis. On the other hand, qualitative research involves gathering a great

deal of information about a small number of people. In this research the use of a

qualitative approach is the appropriate measure to collect the primary data, which

will be explained further in this chapter.

Qualitative research is described by Veal (1997, p.129) as ‘an approach which tends

to collect a great deal of information about relatively few people rather than more

limited information about a large number of people’. From this point of view it is

quite clear that the appropriate research method to fulfil the aims of this research is a

qualitative one. Especially when it comes to better understanding of the behaviour of

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sport event tourists, qualitative research is most appropriate. Nardi (2003, p.15) adds

to this:

“If the goal is to understand human behaviour in its natural setting and from
the viewpoint of those involved, then the appropriate method is a qualitative
one. Qualitative research explores new topics by getting into the setting
where people carry out their lives”.

There are several qualitative methods to gather primary data. In-depth interviews,

group interviews and focus groups and participant observation are some of the

common types (Veal 1997; Nardi 2003).

5.3. Research design and Realization

Creating a research design or plan is essential carrying out a scientific study. By

carefully specifying the steps necessary for researching a topic someone avoids

certain pitfalls. When it comes to designing a research there are several stages which

should be followed.

In this research the author conducted a series of questionnaire-based interviews

(Appendix B). This qualitative method has been chosen because, ‘the best, and often

the only, sources of information about individuals’ leisure or tourism behaviour or

attitudes are the individuals’ own reports about themselves’ (Veal 1997, p.33).

The interviews were conducted in two different ways. Firstly the author visited the

international tennis tournament Wimbledon in London, United Kingdom. Secondly

via the internet-network ‘Hyves’ other visitors of big sport events were found to

conduct more interviews. Later on these two methods will be explained more

detailed.

The most decisive factor for the success of a qualitative research is the willingness of

people to participate in any form of interview, which might sometimes be a problem.

But there are more difficulties associated when it comes to the dependency on

people’s account. People can have problems recalling the past, don’t understand

METHODOLOGY

questions or exaggerate or bend the truth. The accuracy of the answer therefore

cannot be guaranteed. Yet in practise, to explore people’s feelings, ideas, experiences

and motivations, interviews as type of research is the only possible method.

To explore the above mentioned internal variables, the questionnaire-based interview

was considered the most suitable method. The participation likelihood is generally

higher than in-depth interviews. Also this kind of method can take more visitors into

account, the responses are more accurate and the relation between different factors

can be examined. Also reactions and comments of visitors can add to the

understanding. Other advantages of this technique are that theirs is a form of

interaction between interviewer and interviewee which can cause new perspectives

as well.

The design of the questionnaire has been based on two studies on sport event

visitation motivation (Kim and Chalip 2004; Robinson and Gammon 2004), the

literature review combined with the own ideas of the author of this dissertation. The

questionnaire includes 7 questions and 21 statements divided into 4 sections and 15

categories. The sections and categories are:

• Questions 1 – 6 are related to background; with the categories demography,

financial situation and previous experience.

• Statements 7 – 14 are related to push factors; with the categories escapism,

relaxation, self-exploration, entertainment and socialization.

• Statements 15 – 22 are related to pull factors; with the categories novelty,

fan motives, self-development and destination.

• Statements 23 – 27 are related to constraints; with categories risks, threats

and competition.

• Question 28 is a combination of background (experience), push factors and

pull factors.

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The first section has some personal questions for the visitors. Questions are related to

age, gender, education and income. Zhang et al. (2001) found out in sport event visit

motivation research that demographic characteristics of spectators added to the

prediction of attendance. Also financial situation has great influence of attendance

expectancy as described in the distance-time-cost threshold (Veal 1987; Hinch and

Higham 2004, p.33 Subsection 4.2). Another category is this section is previous

experience, in which the personal experiences are central. Those who have

previously attended are more likely to attend than those who never attended before

(Wann et al 2001). Besides personal experience, also the experiences of family or

friends as they are seen as a very influencing factor (Sirakaya & Woodside 2005,

p.26 Subsection 3.5).

The second section comprises information about the reasons why visitors leave there

place to come to the sport event. Those aspects are in ‘regular’ tourism seen as main

travel motives (Crompton 1979, Mannel and Iso-Ahola 1987 and Krimpendorf 1987,

p.22-23 Subsection 3.3), but can that theory also be applied to sport event tourism?

In order to asses the answers to the questions of this sections more accurately, the

principle of regeneration has been split up into escapism, relaxation and self-

exploration, because a positive attitude towards escapism doesn’t automatically

means the need for relaxation as well. This part also embraces the question about the

influence of the entertainment factor on visitation. Last category is the importance of

sharing certain interest with other visitors, in other words how significant is

socialization.

The third section encloses eight statements divided in the categories novelty, fan

motives, self-development and destination. Novelty describes the need for people to

do something unique or as Dann (1997, p.22 Subsection 3.3) stated ‘willingness to

fulfil a fantasy’. Secondly fan motives are assessed in this section. Fan motives are

event interest, identification with teams or players and the beauty of the game (Wann

1995 and Funk et al 2001 in Kim and Chalip 2004). The third category is self-

development which refers to the fact that tourist want to ‘learn’ something when

there on holidays. Zhang and Lam (1999) describe this as the need from people to

increase knowledge about a foreign destination.

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As described before special interest in this research goes out to the relation between

the host- destination and the sport event. Bale (2003) states that sport facilities in

central locations are located ‘as close to potential users as possible in order to

maximize pleasure from the sport experience and to minimize travel, and hence

costs’.

The last section with statements deals with the constraints which may affect the sport

event visit. Although a strong attraction to an event may exist, it’s not a guarantee to

generate travel to attend. Especially constraints can influence attendance likelihood

strongly.

The three determents research are risks, threats and competition. The author means

high financial costs, unfamiliarity with a particular destination and possible negative

weather circumstances as a risk. A study by Um and Crompton ((1992) in Kim and

Chalip 2004) shows that monetary cost and risk were perceived as important

inhibitors to travel to sport events. Also weather can strongly influence the timing

and success of the event (Turco et al. 2002).

Threat is a category which has not been described much as a constraint in literature,

but came as an idea from the author itself. Especially with the terrorism threat in

certain important sport event tourism destinations, e.g. London, it seems according to

the author an interesting subject to research. The last category in this section is

competition. Competition in this case comes from broadcasting media rather then

from other sport events.

The last question is asked to research the relation between background (experience),

push and pull factors as mentioned above. It asks respondents to judge ten items in

order of importance. Those items are; experience, escapism, relaxation, self-

exploration, entertainment, socialization, novelty, fan motives, self-development and

destination.

The questionnaire based interviews were conducted in two different ways. Firstly the

author visited the international tennis tournament Wimbledon in London, United

Kingdom. It was decided to partly conduct the visitor survey during a big sport event

METHODOLOGY

because of several reasons. As mentioned earlier there are some difficulties when it

comes to qualitative research. People can have problems recalling the past, don’t

understand questions or exaggerate or bend the truth. By interviewing visitors on-

the-spot these difficulties where tried to reduce to a minimum.

The interviews were basically conducted at one particular spot in the Wimbledon

Park. This place, called in popular language ‘Henman Hill’, is a grass area where a

on a big television screen matches on different courts are shown. Numerous people

usually sit here to eat and drink something. It was found that this area was most

suitable to accomplish the interviews because next to the tennis courts silence is

requested. Besides most people were having lunch or talking so they had most likely

interest and time to participate.

The interviews were conducted on Friday the 6

of July. The prerequisite for the

interviewees set by the author of this report was non-British citizens. The reason for

this is that visitors from outside the U.K. really have to travel far to attend this sport

event. Randomly visitors sitting at Henman Hill were approached and asked if they

had about ten minutes time to answer some questions for the interviewer’s master

thesis on tourism. Most people reacted reticent, however as they were assured their

answers would be treated confidentially, they agreed. As most people came from

London or its surroundings it was difficult to find interviewees who fitted in the

profile. Therefore listening to the language that people spoke was important to find

as much people as possible. Also the large amount of non-British inhabitants in

London created an extra difficulty.

Approximately 30 non-British people were asked to participate and 18 persons

reacted positive on that. Reasons for non-participation were a lack of time, language

barriers or no interest. 13 of the 18 interviews were conducted in English, the other

five in Dutch. The questions were asked in order as outlined in the questionnaire.

Sometimes, interviewees’ comments referred to questions which were not addressed

yet. In those cases the interviewer had to respond to modify the questions at that

time.

METHODOLOGY

The second method used in this research was conducting questionnaire-based

interviews via the Dutch internet-network ‘Hyves’. Hyves, named after the English

word (bee-)hive, exists since October 2004 and is a free Dutch profile-site which is

aimed to maintain and enlarge a social network. Hyves is particularly popular among

students and young professionals. Hyves has approximately 3 million Dutch users.

A special item within Hyves is the so-called categorical interest. Members have

different interests and can be part of a category or as called ‘Hyve’. The addressed

persons were members of two different Hyves; the Tennis-Hyve and the Wimbledon-

Hyve. In total these two categories have approximately 13.500 members. At the 25

of July these persons were approached to participate in the survey. Because it is not

clear which part of this group ever attended Wimbledon or another big tennis

tournament the response was very doubtful. In total 8 persons responded positively

on the appeal. Those people were send a questionnaire by e-mail and the request if

they agreed on giving a short explanation by phone to the questionnaire they filled in,

which they all did.

The interviews by phone were conducted the same as the interviews at Wimbledon.

Because the respondents already returned the filled-in questionnaire to the author of

this research, the phone call was usually less then 10 minutes.

5.4. Research limitations

The selected method of questionnaire-based has several disadvantages. The main

shortcoming is the fact that it only considers visitors of sport events and not persons

who decided not to go. Furthermore the reliability and accuracy of the answers on the

questions was sometimes doubtful.

As mentioned before, the author had difficulties finding appropriate candidates. In

the limited cases somebody was found, people tended to be very reserved. Time

constraints were the main reason not to participate. Also six of the 26 interviews are

METHODOLOGY

doubtful whether they can be categorized as interviews. Those 6 respondents filled-in

the questionnaires themselves and couldn’t, mostly because of language barriers, add

orally any new information.

Another major limitation of this research is fact that people have difficulties

expressing their attending motives. As described in the literature review (Figure 6, p.

21 Subsection 3.2) this has shown to be a problem. The task of the interviewer was in

this case to go deeper into the question. Direct contact between the interviewer and

interviewee may result in these cases in biased responses. On the one hand, in some

occasions the interviewer had the idea that the respondents answered in an

affirmative way, because they had the feeling that was correct. On the other hand, the

responses may be influenced by the interviewee’s desire to be helpful. Also the

language barriers may have had an influence on the outcomes of the interviews, as

the interviewer and most of the time also the respondents were not native English

speakers.

5.5. Conclusion

This methodology chapter has tried to point out the importance of research methods

used. The method has been chosen to fulfil the research aims and objectives of this

report. The potential limitations have been set out and made it clear why the

questionnaire-based interview is the best way to explore motives of sport event

visitation.

The author started to set out the research aims and objectives of this study. The four

main questions of this research are divided into background, push factors, pull

factors and constraints. In order to demonstrate the relationship among those research

areas the author created a model, based on a combination of literature, which shows

the link between the factors on influence. The model shows that the background,

push factors and pull factors are strongly linked. The relation with the constraints is

seen as vital; one of the three factors can be very important, one or more constraints

MAIN FINDINGS

Chapter 6. MAIN FINDINGS

In this chapter the gathered data from the questionnaire-based interviews is

examined. It gives answer to the aim of this study to asses the factors of influence on

sport event visit motivation. Special interest goes out to the relation between the

sport event and the host-destination. The literature review will be used wherever

applicable to understand the qualitative research.

6.1. Sample Description

The sample interviewed embraces 26 visitors of big sport events. 23 of those visited

the tennis tournament of Wimbledon in London and three visited the tennis

tournament of Roland Garros in Paris, France.

6.1.1.

Background

The first part of the interview deals with the background of visitors in order to create

an intelligibility clear framework as a starting point. It embraces six questions which

respectively ask for age, nationality and place of living, gender, education level,

income, personal previous experience and possible influence of family, friends or

relatives. The question of place of living is not explained more detailed as it is a

question which is to ensure that the respondent falls into the target group, as

described in the literature review (p.33 Subsection 4.2) ,‘sporters may be supported

by expatriates who have a strong link with teams from countries or regions they have

lived in the past’.

Besides this information as starting point and to ensure the respondent fall into the

target group it has another function as well. Zhang et al. (2001) found that

demographical characteristics (e.g. age, gender, education) add to the prediction of

attendance.

MAIN FINDINGS

From the interviewed persons 18 are coming from Europe and 8 outside Europe

(Appendix A). The age lies in between 19 and 64 with an average age of 34 years,

which was predictable concerning the approach target group via the internet-forum

Hyves. All, but three respondents, travelled in company, mostly with the partner.

The level of education of the respondents is predominantly high. Most persons

finished an education on bachelor or master level. Five respondents are still studying

of which three on master level. Of all the respondents, 23 are working and therefore

have an income. The twenty persons who responded, three respondents didn’t answer

this question, have mostly an annual income around €30.000. This information is

useful because some literature (Kim and Chalip 2004) suggests that income-based

segmentation may allow sport event marketers to reach those who are likely to feel

constrained by event costs.

The last question of the interviews is implemented in order to research the relation

among the proposed factors and therefore what is perceived as the main reason or

reasons to visit a big sport event. The respondents were asked to choose three items

which influenced their visit mostly. Outcomes are presented in the form of a chart.

Figure 9: Relationship among Factors of Influence

Experience

Escapism

Relaxation

Socialization

Fan Motives

Host-destination

Self-exploration

Entertainment

Novelty

Self-development

MAIN FINDINGS

To give a better overview which factors are most important the writer of this

dissertation follows the order of the outcome of the research rather than the sequence

of the questions.

6.1.2.

Fan Motives

As can be seen fan motives are rated as the most important factor to visit a big sport

event, it is the variable with the largest impact on attendance desire. In literature fan

motives are described as very important factors for sport event tourists to visit a

certain sport event. (Kim and Chalip 2004; Robinson and Gammon 2004)

Three statements tried to analyse the influence of this factor by dividing it into event

interest, identification with teams or players and ‘the beauty of the game’ (Wann

1995 and Funk et al. 2001 in Kim and Chalip 2004).

If it comes to event-interest the comments were unambiguous. 25 of 26 respondents

strongly agreed on the statement that they wanted to experience a big sport event.

Only a Japanese backpacker (17) answered by saying; “I had no plans for today, but

saw this on television and decided to come”. Other comments were; “This is a very

nice experience” (13), “Without doubt I would like to experience a big sport event,

it’s my main reason to come here” (12) and “Wimbledon is great!”(2).

“Of course I come to see players from my country, who doesn’t”? This comment was

made by a respondent from the USA (4) on the statement if identification with

certain players influenced the reason to attend Wimbledon. The most exceptional

remark was made by two South-American women (1+2). They stated; “We came

especially for Nadal (Spanish player) and Gonzalez (Chilean player). On the

question if they therefore travelled that big distance they answered; “Basically yes”.

In the research of Kim and Chalip (2004) they also experience that supporting the

national team had by far the strongest effect among all the variables, which is

consistent with previous work (Chalip et al. 1988).

MAIN FINDINGS

Contrary to these comments is the theory of Higham and Hinch (2006) who state that

‘the spatial area that a team or club represent may vary considerably from the

spatial extant of the team supporter and player catchments’.

Some related comments came from European visitors. “I like to see players from my

country, but I’m more interested in the real toppers” (19). However the negative

effect of interest in particular players, mainly by Dutch respondents, it is commonly

argued that an interest in national sport stars will foster attendance (Graham,

Goldblatt and Delpy 1995 cited in Kim and Chalip 2004). A reason for the saying

above might be the lack of high profile stars from a specific country. Or maybe the

level of proudness has an influence in this matter.

Another comment came from a Belgian visitor (7), “We are interested Justin Henin

(Belgian player), but she’s not the main reason why we are here”. Other literature

which describes the relation between background variables and attendance motives is

the article of Higham and Hinch (2006). They suggest that personal identity and

representation implicate interesting questions for travel mobilities to sport events

Thirdly part of fan motives is ‘the beauty of the game’ as reason to attend. Some

comments about this came from a Dutch respondent (22). “I’m a tennis player myself

and to see some men/women playing my sport this good makes me want to visit”.

Another interviewee (9) added; “Maybe tennis is not the most exciting sport to

watch, but I love it!”

Analysing these two sayings result in the conclusion that the positive rating of ‘the

beauty of the game’ is similarly consistent to other work on fan behaviour (Wann et

al. 2001)

MAIN FINDINGS

6.1.3.

Entertainment

Rated as second most important factor is entertainment. Two statements are

presented in the questionnaire in order to cover this item. Both the general

atmosphere of a big sport event and the festivities around it were attended to the

matter.

The statement resulted in a very clear picture about the influence of both the

atmosphere and the festivities, which confirms MacAloons ((1984) in Kim and

Chalip 2004) theory saying that the festival surrounding an event is one of its key

appeals to attendees. “Even if I wouldn’t see any tennis, because for example of rain,

my day would be a success”, was the comment of a Belgian man (7). A Swiss

respondent (10) adds to this opinion by saying; “A friend of mine who visited the

World Cup Football told me that he enjoyed more the festivities in Dortmund around

the game rather then the match Switzerland – Togo he saw”. He continued by

saying; “I ones visited the Tour de France (cycling) and the activities around it

where more interesting than seeing the racing cyclists”.

The festivities around a big event are rated even more important than the atmosphere.

As for example Green (2001) points out the importance of the festivities around a

sport event because it provides an opportunity for attendees to revel in an atmosphere

that celebrates the sport’s sub-culture. Another, often refered, writer is Chalip (1992)

who adds to this that event organizers should pay particular attention to the way they

construct their event’s atmosphere.

An experienced tennis event visitor from USA (2) said; “The specific activities or

festivities around a big sport event are for me decisive. The atmosphere is mostly the

same at different tennis events. This saying can be analyzed as that the type of sport

is also an important factor. A Dutch respondent adds; “I’m a sports-fan and

therefore I like to visit sport happenings like football, formula 1 or tennis. Especially

in tennis the atmosphere is very friendly”. He continued by saying; “You can even

see the players walking between the public, that’s something which doesn’t happen

in every sport”.

MAIN FINDINGS

The relation between the general atmosphere and specific festivities around an event

was also expressed by the Australian respondent (18), “The atmosphere here is

similar, but the festivities around the Olympics were much better”.

6.1.4.

Host-destination

Special interest in this research goes out to the connection between the host-

destination and the sport event. The relation between Activity (big sport event),

People (sport event visitors) and Place (host-destination) in a geographical context of

sport tourism is examined, as outlined on page 31, subsection 4.2.

Some comments about the relation between host-destination and the sport event

were; “I came only for Wimbledon” (14) and “Low-cost airlines make it easy to go

for a day to a certain place” (13).

Contrary to the theory of Standeven and De Knop (2004) who stated that sport

tourism is ‘an experience of physical activity tied to an experience of place’, was the

comment of a Swiss respondent. She said; “Even if this event was at in remote

country-side village I would have come (11).

The opinions that the event is the sole reason to attend were partly backed up by

other respondents who confirmed there main reason to visit was the sport event, but

as long as they were at the host-destination they visited other places as well.

Examples of this were given by a Dutch respondent (25) “I combined visiting Roland

Garros with a city-trip”, a Swiss couple (10+11) “Our main reason is visiting

Wimbledon, but we will go to other places as well” and three Belgian friends

(7+8+9) “Wimbledon today, Tour de France tomorrow, perfect weekend for us”.

Furthermore the passionate reaction of a Canadian respondent (5) is useful

information. He said; “Do you really think I travel 18 hours and pay $1000 just to

see some people hitting a ball?” This comment confirm the theory of that the further

sports tourists travel, the more likely it is that they will spend some time at the

destination engaging in tourist activities (Nogawa et al 1996; Gibson 2002).

MAIN FINDINGS

The results of this part of the research confirms a central aspect of the connection

between the host-destination and the sport event, in fact the distance-time-cost

threshold (Veal 1987; Hinch and Higham 2004) which is described in the literature

review (p. 33, Subsection 4.2).

Another aspect in relation to the influence of a destination on sport event visitation is

the culture of the host-destination. Remarkably this seems to be very important. “The

tradition of Wimbledon attracts me, this kind of culture of a sport event you only find

here” (11) and “Every Grand Slam (4 big tennis tournaments in Australia, France,

United Kingdom and USA) has its own culture, but in Wimbledon this plays a major

role”.

6.1.5.

Relaxation

Rated a fourth most important is relaxation. This item tries to research the degree of

relaxation related to big sport event motivation. Nineteen respondents rated this

relation as strong or decisive (4-5). An older female respondent from Germany (15)

said; “It’s the third time I visit Wimbledon with my sister. This is for us a form of

relaxation, the excitement of such an event, while our husbands find it too busy”. Her

sister (16) added, “Even with all the negative happenings around this event, such as

queuing, it’s relaxing to visit”.

This is backed up by another respondent (21) who said; “When I told my family or

friends that I went to Wimbledon to relax, they were surprised. “Isn’t such an event

far from relaxing?” asked my father”.

Although the comments show that not everybody considers a big sport event a

relaxation, most of its visitors do so. This confirms the theory that relaxation is a

main motive to travel set up by several authors (Crompton 1979; Mannel and Iso-

Ahola 1987, p.22 Subsection 3.3)

MAIN FINDINGS

6.1.6.

Experience

The hypothesis that ‘those who have previously attended are more likely to attend

than those who never attended before’ (Wann et al 2001 in Kim and Chalip 2004)

and that ‘the experiences of family or friends are seen as a very influencing factor’

(Sirakaya & Woodside 2005, p26 Subsection 3.5) are tested in this question.

For most of the respondents it was their first visit to a big sport event. Ten

respondents visited a big sport event before where they had to travel a substantial

distance to attend. There is a strong connection between present visitation and

previous experience. All of these respondents said that previous experiences

influenced the current visit positively. A respondent (18) from Australia stated: “In

the year 2000 I was a volunteer at the Olympic Games in Sydney. The good time I

had made me wants to experience this abroad as well”. An interviewee (8) from

Belgium added, “Visiting Roland Garros a few years ago was always a dream for

me, since that I have the sport event visit virus”.

On the question if anyone of the family had any influence on the visit the answers

were ambiguous. The comment of a Swiss interviewee (10), “A friend of mine visited

the World Cup Football in Germany last year. When I asked his opinion on visiting a

sport events or more particularly Wimbledon he said, don’t hesitate, and go!”

Furthermore a respondent (25) said, “The enthusiastic story of a friend of the tennis

club who visited Wimbledon last year, made me think about visiting as well.

Although it was not her purpose, in some kind of way, she encouraged me to go”.

As expected previous attendance, both personal and of acquaintances, has a large

influence. This is consistent with work showing that experiences with leisure

activities affects future interest and repurchase intentions (Williams, Schreyer and

Knopf 1990; Petrick 2002 cited in Kim and Chalip 2004).

MAIN FINDINGS

6.1.7.

Socialization

In literature meeting other people was found to be a primary tourist motivation.

These contacts can be both fleeting but some travellers also look for more permanent

relations (Turco et al 2001). This item investigates the relation between the

opportunity to meet new people, the opportunity to share a common interest with

other people and sport event visit motivation. Two statements were made by the

researcher: the first one insinuated that a big sport event is an opportunity to meet

new people. The second one says that a big sport event gives people an opportunity

to share a sport interest with other people.

The answers on the questions were similar, although the opportunity to share sport

interest is seen more important than meet new people. A Dutch respondent (21)

stated; “In some kind of way, it’s very easy to get in contact with other people at

such an event. I think it’s because of a certain common interest”. On the question

how ‘deep’ these contacts are he said; “I remember I had lunch with another couple

at Roland Garros, but that is quite exceptional I think. There’s been no contact after

that anymore”.

Another Dutch respondent (24) reacted more significantly; “I like to share my

interest with other people, but it’s not a prerequisite. I’m not here to build up life

long relationships”.

The comments above show various opinions about socialization, whilst this is in a

study of Kim and Chalip (2004) not the case. Contrary to above, here the respondents

felt that socialization is a main reason to travel to a big sport event. Also Weed and

Bull (2004) describe the opportunity to share a special interest together with other

people as a very specific main motivation.

MAIN FINDINGS

6.1.8.

Escapism

This item researches the relation between the need to escape daily life and the

attendance a big sport event. In other words, to what extend has escapism influence

on motivation to visit a big sport event? The first statement is saying that attending is

a result of escapism. The second assumes that escapism leads to visitation of sport

events.

Most respondents rated the first statement between any influence and quiet important

(3-4). A respondent (6) said, “Of course, I get away from every day life. This is

completely different than what I usually do”. This answer assumes that attending a

sport event always means ‘getting away from every day life’. Contrary to this a

Dutch respondent (26) stated; “Visiting a big sport event for one day, doesn’t mean I

get away from daily life”.

From the statements mentioned above can be concluded that the relation between the

length of the trip and the degree of ‘getting away’ is strong.

The second escapism-statement approached this item from a different angle. It

presumptions that the need to escape leads to big sport event visitation. The result of

this statement was not very clear, although most people tend to a mention a weak

relationship.

A respondent from USA (3) clarified this by saying; “Obviously this is a form of

escaping, but if I really want to escape I go to a quieter place, for example the

forest”. A Dutch respondent (25) added; “Yes I saw my Roland Garros-trip as

escaping, but the real escape is our main summer holiday”.

MAIN FINDINGS

6.1.9.

Novelty

Novelty describes the need for people to do something unique or the so-called

‘willingness to fulfil a fantasy’ (Dann 1977, p.22 Subsection 3.3). This statement

researches the relation between the need for novelty and the motivations to visit a big

sport event.

21 of the 26 respondents answered ‘strongly agree’ on the statement; ‘Attending a

sport event is always been a dream for me’. An interviewee (8) from Belgium said,

“Visiting Roland Garros a few years ago was always a dream for me, since that I

have the sport event visit virus”. Another respondent (15) adds; “The first time was

fulfilling a life-long wish. Although it’s not the first time anymore now, its still is very

impressive”. The opinion of 41-year old Dutchman (23) is less strong by saying; “A

dream is maybe too much, but it was ‘high’ on my list”.

An interesting comment was made by a Dutch respondent (26) who said; “To be

honest, I feel kind of proud that I visited Wimbledon. I know that several colleagues

would like to do so as well”. By saying this she points out the factor of prestige,

which is in a certain way linked to novelty.

6.1.10.

Self-development

This item is referred to in literature as ‘the fact that tourist want to ‘learn’ something

when there on holidays’ (Zhang and Lam 1999). On the statement was reacted very

differently.

“I come to watch tennis, not to learn about Wimbledon or London”, was the

comment of a Belgian visitor (7). An alternative outcome was given by an older

German visitor (16) who said; “The history and tradition of Wimbledon interests me.

Where is better to satisfy this interest than here”.

Opposing results to this come from the study of Kim and Chalip (2004, p. 703) who

reported the opportunity to learn about a host-destination as a major influence of

attending a sport events. Their theory ‘that respondents’ interests in learning about a

destination can be a significant marketing asset when marketing an event’ can’t be

applied in this research.

MAIN FINDINGS

6.1.11.

Self-exploration

Statement number ten in the questionnaire researches the relation between self-

exploration and attending a big sport event. Wann, Melnick, Russell and Pease

((2001) cited in Robinson and Gammon, p.24 Subsection 3.3) identified it as one of 8

different factors.

The estimation of the statement was clear. All the respondents who replied, not

everybody understood the meaning of self-exploration, answered with disagree or

strongly disagree. One comment came from a Dutch visitor (12) at Wimbledon. “I’m

not here to explore myself. I have no time to think about that”. This presumes that

the length of the trip has an influence of the level of self-exploration. However, a

Canadian visitor (5), who was in London for a week, said; “Self-exploration

someone should do in a quiet place is my opinion or at least in a less-thrilling

environment”.

6.1.12.

Constraints

The last section with statements deals with the constraints which may affect the sport

event visit. Although a strong attraction to an event may exist, it’s not a guarantee to

generate travel to attend. Especially constraints can influence attendance likelihood

strongly. As the answers will show, risks, threats or competition are not seen as

constraints in order to visit sport events.

The first of five statements referred to the financial aspect of sport events. It

investigates the influence of high costs. As already shown in other comments, of

respondents 5 and 13, high financial costs have some influence. A Swiss girl (11)

added by saying; “For me the costs don’t matter, now I’m here I want to enjoy it as

much as possible”. A Dutch respondent (21) complements this; “I don’t keep my

eyes on my wallet those days”.

Besides those two comments the general opinion is that financial constraints

negatively affect sport event attendance. This supports the research by Kim and

MAIN FINDINGS

Chalip (2004) where in their study costs were, on average, rated as a significant

constraint.

Another researched item was unfamiliarity with the host-destination. “What is

unfamiliarity nowadays?” was one of the comments. A Dutch respondent added; “It

attracts me even more when it’s a relatively unknown host-destination”.

Surprisingly, this outcome is similar to earlier studies where respondents desire to

attend increased with the anonymity of a host-destination. It’s unclear where this

approach comes from but maybe it’s a result of the greater ability to deal with

unknown situations.

Especially the bad reputation if it comes to climate of London resulted in the

statement that bad weather prediction leads to fewer visitations. Also the climate

issue related to the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, possible smog problems, seems

for the author interesting item to investigate. “When I told my parents I was planning

to visit Wimbledon they reacted reserved. They said it’s always raining there and

England is so expensive. Maybe it’s true, but this is not keeping me away!” a Dutch

respondent (20) stated. “Even if I wouldn’t see any tennis, because for example of

rain, my day would be a success”, was the comment of a Belgian man (7). A

Canadian couple (5+6) was more reserved in their comment; “We looked at the

weather-predictions for this week and therefore we decided to go today”.

Most of the visitors of Wimbledon said that the failed bomb-attacks in London of the

June made them think about their plan to attend. “All the things which happen

lately here in London made me think not to go. But the instigation to go is too

strong”. This was said by a Dutch respondent (12) at Wimbledon in relation to the

threat of safety during a big sport event. A Belgian visitor (7) said; “Of course you

think for a moment not to go”. In this case besides a safety also a health threat was

considered.

The last investigated item related to constraint is about competition. Competition in

this case is meant by broadcasting media rather then from other sport events. The

MAIN FINDINGS

answers were as clear as plain day-light. “You can’t compare watching TV with

being here” commented an American woman (4). “Tennis is a great sport to watch

life” and “The real-life experience is so much better than watching it from my living

room” were other comments given by respectively a German respondent (15) and a

Dutch respondent (26).

This research shows alternative outcomes related to constraints then the theory that

constraints and perceptions of constraints play a vital role in the leisure choices

individuals make (Jackson and Scott 1999)

6.2. Conclusion

Concluding the research about the factors of influence on visitors of big sport events

there are several characteristics and factors which can be related to sport event visit

motivation. Some things which should be kept in mind are related to the

shortcomings of this research. The fact that the sample is taken among persons from

all over the world makes certain question difficult to evaluate. The diversity of the

answers confirm the theory of Sirakaya and Woodside (2005, p.823) who stated that

‘behavioural approaches suggest that tourists are motivated by a number of factors

which may need their needs’.

• Experiencing a big sport event is percepted by its visitors as excellent.

• Identification with players is related to the culture of people, but also to the

travelled distance to the host-destination.

• Specific type of sport events are visited by this type of sport-lovers, rather

than people with a general interest in sport

• Entertainment is very important factor. Surprisingly the festivities around the

sport event are more important than the competition itself.

• Regardless the location of the host-destination people will visit anyway.

• The travelled distance to the host-destination has major influence on the

length of the stay and the program of the trip.

MAIN FINDINGS

• The relation between the distance, the time and the costs is a major factor in

sport event visit motivation.

• People would like to experience the culture of a host-destination.

• Attendance at a big sport event is relaxing for its visitors.

• Everybody has a good previous experience when it comes to sport event visit.

This personal previous experience has big influence on repeating visit

motivation.

• Sport event tourists are determined. Experiences from family, friends or

relative have major influence on visit motivation and negative opinions not

based on experience are mostly ignored.

• Visitors of big sport events like to get in contact with other visitors, but its

not seen as a condition for a successful visit.

• Contrary to other forms of tourism, in sport event tourism escapism is not

seen as a main travel reason.

• Getting away from daily life stress doesn’t have a major influence on sport

event visit motivation, although there is strong relationship between the

length of the trip and the degree of ‘getting away’.

• Visiting a sport event for the first time is seen as ‘fulfilling a fantasy’.

• Visitors like to tell others about their experiences as a form of prestige.

• Self-exploration has no relation to sport event visit motivation, even if the trip

is long and people have time to ‘think’.

• Sport event tourists a difficult to bring to a halt in order to fulfil their wish to

visit big sport events.

• Sport event tourists are realistic people who care about possible safety issues.

CONCLUSIONS

Chapter 7. CONCLUSIONS

The research aim of this dissertation was to asses the factors of influence on sport

event visit motivation. Special interest goes out to the relation between the sport

event and the host-destination. In order to investigate the factors of influence in the

selection process, the following questions have to be answered:

• To what extend does background influence the decision to visit big sport

events?

• Do people visit big sport event as a response to what is missing now?

• Does the attractiveness of a certain destination make people visit a big sport

event?

• Which factors keeps people away from a big sport event?

The main objective was to find out which factors influence the motivation of sport

event tourists. Several factors have been examined according to the discussions

within the research field.

7.1. General conclusions

The last question of the questionnaire-based interviews shows which factors are

perceived as most and which less important for sport event tourists. Fan motives are

the main reason why people would like to visit a big sport event. Interest in

experiencing a big sport event was the variable with was rated as most important

factor. However this is according to the expectation, surprisingly the majority of the

experienced visitors rated this as most important as well. Another conclusion from

fan motives is that identification with players is related to the culture of people, to

the travelled distance to the host-destination and to the potential of national high

profile stars. This can be concluded according to the different comments of

respondents from different countries. The last conclusion from fan motives is that

‘the beauty of the tennis-game’ attracts tennis-lovers rather than people with a

general interest in sport.

CONCLUSIONS

The need for entertainment is a very important reason for people to visit a big sport

event as well. Surprisingly the festivities around an event are more important for

visitors than the competition itself. Also the location of the host-destination is not

seen as an obstacle because people will visit it anyway. They are willing to travel a

big distance to the event-location. Although large travel distances don’t stop the sport

event tourist, it has a major influence on the length and the program of the trip. If

people stay within their continent the trips are usually shorter and the only activity is

visiting the sport event, whereas they travel intercontinental the trips are longer and

besides the sport event tourist activities are undertaken as well. Also the budget of

the trip has influence on this. High amounts of travel costs are spend on more time

consuming trips. Therefore it can be concluded that the travelled distance, the used

time and the spend money are closely linked.

Other findings indicate that most of the visitors experience a big sport event as

relaxing, which is remarkable because the atmosphere around big sport events is

usually not relaxed as a result of the nature of sport, e.g. competitiveness. The

interviewed visitors who experienced a big sport event previously did all have a good

experience. This personal previous experience has big influence on repeating visit

motivation. Related to this is the influence of family, friends or relatives which plays

a major role as well in the decision to visit a big sport event.

Contact with other visitors is appreciated as well by the majority of the respondents,

although this is not seen as a ‘must’ in order to have a good experience. Usually the

contact is for the time being and doesn’t continue after the event. Related to the item

of escapism sport event tourists have a different opinion. Contrary to other forms of

tourism escapism is not seen as a main travel reason. Neither is ‘getting away from

daily stress’ seen as a main travel reason, although there’s a strong relationship

between the degree of getting away and the length of the trip. The more time people

spend away from home the more they have the feeling they get away.

CONCLUSIONS

Most first-time visitors of a big sport event see it as a form of ‘fulfilling a fantasy’.

Media coverage and experiences of relatives add to this perception. As a result of this

‘fulfilment’ visitors are eager to tell other people about their experiences. This makes

people proud and is seen as a form of prestige.

Generally speaking, the big sport event visitor appeared to be a determent person,

who has a strong affection with the sport at the event. The big sport event visitor

keeps in mind the possible negativities related to an event but is difficult to bring to a

halt in order to fulfil the wish to attend. Sometimes they have difficulties expressing

their motives to attend because it’s unclear to people themselves what initially drives

them to be a sport event tourist.

7.2. Recommendations for further research

The study identifies several areas for further research. As described before there are

not much studies made on this particular topic. Although the number of works is

reasonable, most works are fairly basic, giving more profiles of sport tourist rather

then trying to give explanation for their behaviour. Another popular item which is

described quite a lot is impacts of sport tourism, and then in particular the impacts of

big sport events, like Olympic Games or World Cup, on host-destinations.

Some outcomes of the research show very interesting result which summons

questions. An example of this is the interesting result that previous attendance

predicts future attendance likelihood. In other words it shows repurchase intentions.

This suggests the value of further work that explores the effect of event attendance

history and therefore the way visitors formulate their future attendance decisions.

This suggests the use of database marketing for both the organisation and tourism

industry.

Another part of this dissertation which could be further researched is the fan motives

as main factor of influence on attendance likelihood. Because this research only

addressed three fan motives, better understanding by approaching more fan motives

Appendix A

Demographic characteristics respondents

Person

Nationality

Age

Gender

Colombia

Chili

USA

Canada

Belgium

Switzerland

Netherlands

Spain

Germany

Japan

Australia

Netherlands

Source: Own Elaboration

Persons 1 to 18 were interviewed at the tennis tournament Wimbledon in London;
the other eight (19-26) were interviewed by phone.

Appendix B

Questionnaire Wimbledon

Background

Demography

1. What’s your age?

2a. What’s your nationality?

2b. Where do you live?

3. What’s your gender?

• Male

• Female

4. What’s the highest level of education you have completed?

• Ground School

• Secondary School • High school

• Bachelor

• Master

Finance

5. What’s your annual income?

• < €15.000

• €15.000 – €30.000 • €30.000 – €45.000

• €45.000 – €60.000 • €60.000 – €75.000 • €75.000 >

Previous experience

6a. Did you ever attend a big sport event, which included an overnight stay,

before?
Big sport event can be e.g. Olympic Games, World Cup Football, and Grand
Slam Tennis before?
• Yes

• No

6b. Did anyone of your family, friend or relatives had any influence on this visit

here?
• Yes

• No

If yes, in which way?

Push factors

Escapism

7. By attending a big sport event I get away from daily life stress

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

8. Escaping from daily life stress makes me want to visit a big sport event

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Relaxation
9. Visiting a big sport event is for me a form of relaxation

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Self-exploration
10. Attending a big sport event is a form of self-exploration for me

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Entertainment
11. The atmosphere at a big sport event makes me wants to visit

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

12. I would like to be part of the festivities around the big sport event

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Socialization

13. Attending a big sport event gives me an opportunity to meet new people

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

14. Attending a big sport event gives me an opportunity to share my sport interest

with other people

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Pull factors

Novelty
15. Attending a big sport event has always been a dream for me

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Fan motives

16. I would like to experience a big sport event

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

17. To see national sporters/team play makes me want to visit a big sport event

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

18. The beauty of the game of sport makes me want to visit a big sport event

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Self-development

19. I would like to learn something about the destination where the sport event is
held

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Destination

20. The sport event is the only reason I travelled towards the destination

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

21. I would like to visit other places besides the sport venues

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

22. I would like to experience the culture of the place/country where the sport

event is held

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Constraints

Risks

23. High financial costs keep me away from a big sport event

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

24. An unknown country where the sport event is held keeps me away

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

25. The risk of bad weather keeps me away from a big sport event

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Threats

26. Probable safety or health problems keep me away from the sport event

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

Competition

27. I would prefer to watch the sport event on television

Strongly agree

Strongly disagree

•

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