The Motivation for Visiting Recreational Sports Event “Wild League” in Water Polo

Abstract

The “Wild League” is a recreational sports event, which takes place in Dubrovnik and has an extremely long tradition. The sport that is played in this competition is water polo. A study was conducted in order to identify motivational factors related to this amateur sport. The study had two main goals: to determine basic psychometric properties (construct validity and reliability) of the adjusted Questionnaire on sports events (QSE), as well as to determine the differences in motivational factors, according to several independent variables. A sample of 125 participants were examined in this study, using the QSE. All participants were Croatian citizens, and the study did not include those who are born (and currently live) in Dubrovnik. The results revealed three-component principal components’ structure, with reliable principal components that represent pushing motives, pulling motives and the limitations. Moreover, previous visiting Dubrovnik and the level of education did not appear as important independent variables to differentiate any sport tourists’ motives. Pushing motives are highly emphasized in males, participants who were actively engaged in sports, or those with Dubrovnik’s heritage. This clearly define some profile of tourist who may be attracted to visit the destination, motivated with “Wild League” event.