An analysis of travel behaviour and event-induced expenditures among American collegiate championship patron groups

Abstract

The topic of economic impact has been frequently explored by scholars and practitioners alike. Generally, the thrust of these investigations has been directed toward the magnitude of expenditures made by visitors to the host community as well as methodological critiques. Disappointingly, an assessment of visiting event patrou expenditure behaviours based on participating team affiliation type has been omitted from these analyses. Furthermore, limited research at best has been conducted on the travel planning behaviour of team-oriented sporting event patrons as well as its impact on the event-induced expenditures of the traveller. Therefore, the fundamental purpose of this paper was to explore vacation planning and subsequent event-induced expenditure behaviour patterns of team-affiliated patron sub-groups. An analysis incorporating 1,646 visiting event patrons was conducted at ten American collegiate national championships over the course of a six-mouth period. Factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures identified several significant statistical differences existing among expenditure behaviours of the team-affiliated event patron groups under investigation yielding valuable information for event managers and communities hosting team-oriented sporting events.

Keywords

sport expenditure patron travel team affiliation

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