THE INFLUENCE OF PRICE AND DISTANCE ASPECT TOWARDS VISITORS’ DECISION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN PAID & FREE ENTRY EVENTS IN SARAWAK

HUSSAIN Shaik Azahar Shaik , Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

LUENG Wilfred Liew Vui , Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Abstract:
The decision to travel and attend event is usually an important process for the visitor that involves many key factors especially motivation. Besides the most straight forward motivation question such as “Why do they come?”, this study have also asked “what are the main reasons they come and how price and distance factors influence their attendance?”. In this respect, the purposes of this study were to examine the importance of motivational items and investigate the underlying dimensions of motivation; focusing on price and distance aspects which lead to extension studies of willingness to travel and willingness to pay across two different events which were categorized as paid event (Rainforest World Music Festival 2014) and free entry event (Bintulu International Kite Festival 2013). The result of factor analysis suggested three motivation factors derived from 14 motivational items in both selected events. The findings proposed that price aspect influence greatly in free entry event but moderately in paid event. Surprisingly, distance aspect influence moderately in both events.

Keywords: Price, Distance, Motivation, Willingness to Pay (WTP), Willingness to Travel (WTT), Factor analysis

JEL Classification:

Volume: 69, Issue: 1

Pages: 52 - 73

Publication date: April, 2017

Download the article: http://economice.ulbsibiu.ro/revista.economica/archive/69105hussain&lueng.pdf

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