Attracting and Leveraging Visitors at a Charity Cycling Event

Abstract

Sport events are increasingly being recognized as integral to a destination's marketing strategy. Charity sport events are a type of event that can be leveraged by local businesses and destination marketers as a way of stimulating flow-on tourism, shaping an image and generating word of mouth. Yet, little research has been conducted in this area. Previous research has shown that length of stay in a destination and group composition can impact subsequent tourist behaviors. Thus, visitors' push and pull motivations and their influences on participants' choice of event and mode of participation (team versus individual) were assessed as a way of developing this line of research. The motives of supporting others, learning about the destination and cycling identity were predictive of event choice. Social motives and an identity tied to cycling predicted participants' mode of participation. Further, motives were distinguished between first-time and repeat visitors. First-time visitors were more motivated than repeat visitors by the physical aspects of the event and the opportunity to learn about the destination. Conversely, repeat visitors were more motivated by identities tied to the cause and the sport at hand than first-time visitors.