Motorsport Event Attendees: Who are They, What is Their Environmental Worldview, And How Does It Relate to Trip Spending?

Abstract

The relationship between economics and sustainability within the event industry is becoming increasingly important. Events with a reputation of not being sustainable (i.e., motorsport events) are chronically underserved in the literature. This research incorporated the revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) as a theoretical foundation to assess sustainability attitudes of motor racing event attendees at a series of major racing events in Monterey County, California (USA). The NEP assessment created the basis for examining relationships between sustainability attitudes and motorsport event patrons' characteristics including demographic information, tourist patrons' total trip spending, and per-day spending. Interestingly, patrons attending these traditionally nonenvironmentally sustainable events were found to have similar NEP scores to other event and nonevent research. Sustainability attitudes were not significantly different based on demographic variables, including age and income. However, an inverse relationship was found between environmental attitudes and spending. Tourist patrons with a less sustainable environmental worldview spent more per day and more per trip than those with a more sustainable environmental worldview. These surprising results provide a basis for industry and academic discourse within event management, sustainability, and marketing.