Visitors' motivation for attending traditional cultural events as the basis for market segmentation: Evidence from Slovakia

Abstract

In an increasingly competitive festival market, identifying visitors' motivation has been recognized as a key prerequisite for satisfaction, which is expected to lead to positive referrals and future visitations of an event. The objective of this study is to identify the main factors which motivate visitors to attend traditional cultural events in Slovakia and to examine their viability as the basis for festival market segmentation. Building upon previous research on festival attendees' motivation, a set of potential drivers of visitors' behavior has been identified and by the application of exploratory factor analysis further refined into the following six domains of visitors' motivation: new and different experience, friends and family togetherness, reconnection with culture and tradition, socialization, recover equilibrium and change from everyday life. The application of k-means clustering on the basis of motivational domains indicated four clusters of festival visitors and provided evidence in support of suitability of visitors' motivation as the basis for festival market segmentation. Findings of the study have been discussed, limitations are noted and directions for future research are highlighted.