The comparative analysis of the motivations of visitors at four South Island, New Zealand, events—two food and beverage festivals, an air show, and a country and music festival—highlights the diversity in motives that are to be found from event to event. Event-specific factors are especially important; there is little evidence yet of generic event motivations. In contrast to earlier case studies, the comparative approach employed here gives more weight and greater visibility to events per se as a distinctive phenomenon.

This paper presents a systematic comparative analysis of the profile characteristics of visitors to four events in the South Island of New Zealand in 1998: two food and beverage festivals, an air show and a country music festival. A comparative methodology for the study of events tourism is outlined and the results are presented in two stages; firstly, by means an element-by-element comparison of each of the characteristics; secondly, by way of a summary matrix. This comparative analysis emphasises the heterogeneity of the demand for events. While some similarities are found, especially between the two food and beverage festivals, the general picture to emerge from the findings is one of difference. Event-goers do not appear to constitute a single homogeneous market; rather, different events appear to attract different audiences. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are outlined.