Ticket to intoxication: Exploring attendees’ motivations for attending craft beer events

ABSTRACT

The growth of festival and event tourism requires an understanding of what motivates people to attend events and the characteristics of their motivation to choose particular events to attend. The current study identified a measure to (1) accurately and reliably measure the motivations of beer tourists to attend a craft beer festival and (2) identify the different motivations among subsamples of beer tourists. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) identified a nine-factor structure that accounted for 71.12% of the total variance. Three groups of beer tourists were also identified (i.e. frequent craft beer drinkers, casual craft beer drinkers and infrequent craft beer drinkers). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a structural equation model (SEM) confirmed the quality of the measure and different motivations among beer tourists. Results showed that frequent craft beer drinkers (people who drink craft beer more than once per month) demonstrated greater motivation to attend craft beer events to become intoxicated, compared to casual and infrequent craft beer drinkers. Frequent craft beer drinkers were also less motivated to attend craft beer events for the following reasons: to try new things, socialise, or attend an event that is novel/unique.

KEYWORDS:

• Beer festivals/events
• motivation
• pull motivation
• push motivation
• factor analysis
• structural equation model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Grace Hodge

Mary Grace Hodge has a Masters in Tourism & Hospitality Management from Temple University. Mary Grace’s research has focused on tourism and engagement in the craft beer industry. Mary Grace has spent several years working in the beer industry in sales and has also taught Fundamentals of Beer at Drexel University.

Benjamin M. Torsney

Benjamin M. Torsney holds a PhD in Educational Psychology from Temple University and is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies Department. Ben’s research is focused on college students’ engagement in schoolwork at various units of analysis; John Henryism, a form of high effort coping as a response to environmental stressors; college students’ willingness to take environmental action; and the motivation of pre-service teachers to enter the teaching field.

Joseph H. Paris

Joseph H. Paris, Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Policy, Organizational, and Leadership Studies at Temple University. His research and professional interests include test optional admissions, institutional finance, and college access and student success. He holds a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Leadership from Temple University and a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University.