Importantly, while communal celebrations, such as festivals, help to
build and strengthen community ties and often to enhance the development
of its base infrastructure, they also provide significant spending channels for
local residents and visitors alike. Increasingly, in regional Australia, festivals
such as the Tamworth Country Music Festival (TCMF), which is an annual
event that attracts approximately 50,000 visitors to the region, has become
important as a purposeful means of developing a destination image. As such,
the overall success of the event in terms of matching the visitor experience
with the services and product offerings are critical to both the community
and the event manager. Knowledge about the general motivations of visitors
to the TCMF is also important for it to retain its competitive advantage over
its rivals.