They come from near and far: the impact of spatial distance to event location on event attendance motivations

Abstract

To best reap the benefits that events provide for host communities and firms, understanding attendance motivations has become a hot topic for researchers and marketers. Most research has focused on tourists’ motivations, with less attention paid to local residents and even less to comparing the two. This paper empirically explores whether spatial distance plays a significant role across five dimensions of event attendance motivations. The findings reveal that the closer an attendee lives to the event location, the more important the dimensions “Socializing,” “Entertainment: Interest in the Event’s Theme,” and “Geographical Location of the Event” become in attending events. Conversely, the farther away an attendee lives from the event location site, the more important the dimension “Loyalty: True Fan of the Event” becomes.