Push and pull factors of three Afrikaans Arts Festivals in South Africa

Afrikaans arts festivals are facing increasing competition and, at times, lack differentiation given the increasing numbers of festivals in the South African festival market. This ultimately threatens the sustainability of these events and its role-players, including artists, local economies and the community. The purpose of this research was to analyse the push and pull motivations of visitors to three South African Afrikaans arts festivals (KKNK, Aardklop and Innibos), in order to understand these visitors’ travel behaviour and be better able to cater for their needs. Surveys were conducted during 2011, with approximately 400 completed questionnaires at each festival. Statistical analyses entailed an ANOVA on the individual motivational items across the three events, followed by factor analyses regarding the push and pull motives of attendees at each festival. Homogeneous travel motivation behaviour was evident. Visitors across all three festivals travel for Escape and Exposure as push factors. Art and Festival Experience emerged as a common pull factor. This implies that the management of these festivals should not only focus their marketing campaigns on the identified travel motives, but also focus on each festival’s unique characteristics, in order to contribute to the sustainability of each of these valuable events. Keywords: Travel motivation; Push and pull factors; South African Afrikaans arts festivals. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation, 2013, 35(2): 211-22