Who are the Big Spenders at a Grand Prix in a Gaming Destination?

Market segmentation by expenditure enables the identification of high spending visitors to festivals and events, enabling organizers to target this group with appropriate product offerings and promotions, thereby facilitating the achievement of economic goals from smaller participant numbers. Despite the potential usefulness of this tool, few studies have applied this technique in the festival and event literature. This paper examines the existing studies with a view to identifying similarities and differences amongst high spenders and other points of interest. An additional case study of visitors to the 2019 Macau Grand Prix is added to the current research. High, medium and light spending categories of Grand Prix attendees are identified and profiled. High spenders are found to differ from their counterparts on a number of socio-demographic and trip related characteristics, including age, income, length of stay in Macau and most of all a desire to thoroughly enjoy their whole Grand Prix trip, staying in comfortable accommodation, dinning and drinking and trying their luck in the city’s casinos. In addition, they exhibit a higher level of interest or attachment to the Macau Grand Prix and to motor sports more broadly. These outcomes support the findings of other studies using expenditure to segment festival and event goers, and provide valuable information for the event organizers and tourism operators in Macau.