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

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.


INTRODUCTION/Uvod
The major sports events are of extreme importance, not only because everybody strives to achieve maximum sports results, but also because they can improve the development of sports tourism in the area where a particular sports event is held, as well as in the wider area.This study aims at exploring the motivation for sports tourism in the context of recreational water polo competition Wild League in Dubrovnik.The results can provide guidelines to improve conditions for sports and / or cultural tourism based on this local recreational sports event.

SPORTS TOURISM / Sportski turizam
The term sports tourism refers to travel from the person's place of residence in order to participate in sports activities (recreational or competitive), travel to participate in elite level sports competitions, and also to visit sports attractions such as water parks or "houses of fame" (7), (6).The main reasons why a particular tourist destination is chosen are natural and cultural resources, tourist facilities, communications infrastructure, accommodation and restaurants.The type of tourism in a particular place is determined by the combination of local tourism resources and the services that are offered: e.g.coastal (marine) tourism, mountain tourism, sports tourism, religious tourism, gastronomic tourism, conference, or business tourism (11).

PUSH AND PULL FACTORS IN SPORTS TOURISM / Privlačni i odbijajući motivi u sportskom turizmu
Key elements of contemporary culture are tourism and sport, and they have an important impact on the society as a whole (15), (27).Sports audience can either actively or passively participate in sports activities within sports tourism, and there is an essential difference between these two types of audiences.A significant increase in sports tourism occurred in the last few decades.This increase is related to sports events, to such extent that sports events have become the main reason why many tourists, who are attending or participating in sports events, decide to travel (1).The experts in sports tourism tend to categorize tourist travel motives as "escaping from" (e.g. the noise, everyday working routine, routine in general, etc.) and / or "running to" (e.g.places where you can relax or entertain) a certain destination (17), (13).
Tourist travel motives can be identified as push and pull factors."Pushing" (push) factors represent mostly sociopsychological needs of a person, based on the need to "run away from" current everyday human environment."Pulling" (pull) factors can be defined as the desire to "escape to" a certain tourist destination (due to its attractiveness, or some other reasons) (15).Dann (12) provides a basic model with seven different categories of tourist motivations.Author claims that tourists travel to find and explore what is currently missing in their lives (push factors); because they are attracted to a particular destination (pull factors); they wish to fulfill their own fantasies that would probably not be satisfied in their place of residence; because they have a clear purpose (visiting friends and relatives or educational purposes); for different types of motivation; to gain experience as tourists; for motivation which is self-defined (the way in which tourists define their situations offers a better understanding of tourist motivation than just observing their behavior).Crompton deepens Dann's 'push and pull' theory, saying that there are nine motives for tourist travels, seven of which are socio-psychological or push motives (escape, self-exploring, relaxation, prestige, regression, enhancing family relationships and social interactions), while the other two are cultural or pull motives (novelty and education).Crompton (12) and Mannel & Iso-Ahola (17) state that there are two main types of push and pull motives and they can be identified as personal and interpersonal.According to Mannel and Iso-Ahola, people travel to leave personal or interpersonal problems behind and to find personal or interpersonal rewards.Personal rewards are self-determination, sense of competence, challenge, learning, exploring and relaxing.Interpersonal rewards are the result of social interactions (17).

SPORTS TOURISM MOTIVATION -OTHER CLASSIFICATIONS / Motivacija za sportski turizamdruge klasifikacije
According to Hall (9), there are two types of participants in sports tourism: active participants, who consider their participation in a particular sport as a medium of self-expression, whereas competitors are driven by strong competitive motives to participate actively.On the other hand, passive participants do not take part in any sports activities, but merely follow major sports events, by browsing sports websites or following sports news.Gammon & Robinson (4) go a little further and differentiate two forms of sports tourism: if a person's main reason to travel is sport, they use the term "sports tourism", and if a person's main goal of travelling is not to participate in a sports activity, but it is a secondary reason, they use the term "tourism sport".Standeven & De Knop (22) state that there are different purposes for sports tourism.One purpose can be rest (it applies to those who travel to rest, or who do not consider it a purpose of their holidays), and the other purpose is to be actively or passively involved in sports activities, i.e. be active and passive sports tourists.Passive sports tourists have no interest in active participation in sports, they only visit sports events or sports museums.Active sports tourists take part in sports activities with the others (when sport is the main purpose of travel), or they choose destinations that offer sports activities (when sport is a subsidiary activity, which they may or may not take part in).Apart from this distinction of active and passive participants, there are also several other theories.Weed & Bull (26) distinguish five categories of sports tourism: sports training, sports events, luxury sports events, tourism with sports content and sport participation tourism.Reeves (10) identifies six different types of sports tourists: incidental, sporadic, occasional, regular, dedicated and driven.

PREVIOUS STUDIES / Prethodne studije
There has been a number of researches in this area, and Green & Chalip (8) studied the United States female soccer players, who participated in a tournament that takes place in Florida every year.The findings of this research showed that the players were not attracted by the fact that they played soccer at home or in their state (Florida), but by the fact that they could spend time with other athletes from the same sport, that come from other states.Kim & Chalip (12) did a study on 600 Americans who attended the FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan in 2002.Their findings showed that their interest in the World Cup was the main reason for their visit to South Korea and/or Japan.Financial constraints had a negative influence on people attending similar events.It is noteworthy to mention that the people themselves can create a sports center.A group of football fans who watch matches in public places on TV screens set temporarily for that purpose, e.g. during the World Cup in Germany in 2006 (10), are an example of such new 'sports center' .Such public gatherings attract people who are not interested in a particular sport, but just enjoy "spending time in a sports atmosphere".There are three important qualities of sports tourism: attachment to the place, the identity of the place and the dependence on a place (10).A study on the motivation for visiting Wimbledon tournament was conducted, and it showed that parties are the main motives for visiting this great sports event.The second motive is the attractiveness of the host-destination (15).Surprisingly, the competition was not as important as the parties for the spectators.Visiting this great sports event (unlike other forms of the tourism), was not seen as a "time for a break" (15).

THE PHENOMENON OF WILD LEAGUE / Fenomen Divlje lige
The City of Dubrovnik is an important destination for culture tourism and this can lead to new forms of presentation and promotion of this tourist center (20), while at the same time attempting to keep Dubrovnik's tradition and culture (24).Another contribution to the development of tourism in Dubrovnik are definitely the local traditional recreational sports events, which are either observed by tourists, or they actively participated in (23).The Wild League ("Divlja liga") is not only a sports event, but also a cultural event, and it offers a variety of impressive, formal cultural products.It is a lively and layered tradition at the same time, and it represents the spirit of the local atmosphere in Dubrovnik (23).The Wild League is a popular amateur water polo competition, which takes place on the beaches of Dubrovnik.Participants and organizers are all volunteers in this competition and it depends a lot on their enthusiasm, nevertheless, it has precisely defined and well-respected rules and regulations (23).Another feature of this competition is a strong local character -it is obligatory that the participants are local inhabitants (2).The Wild League takes place between end-July and mid-August, which means that it should be much better integrated into the tourist offer, because it shows cultural and economic potential of the City and the County (23).
Therefore, the Wild League ought to be more emphasized in Dubrovnik's tourist offer as a component of sports (recreational) and cultural tourism.This study deals with the challenges of affirming the Wild League as Dubrovnik's distinct brand, by looking into the differences and correlations between sports tourist motives, different socio-demographic variables, and the issue-related variables (interest in sports, Dubrovnik's heritage, etc.).
The overall objective of the study was to determine the factors related to sports tourism regarding the recreational water polo competition Wild League in Dubrovnik, among Croatian citizens, who could be potential tourists.The first goal was to determine the basic psychometric properties (construct validity and reliability) of the adjusted Questionnaire on sports events (QSE).The second goal was to determine the differences in motivational factors, according to several independent variables: gender, education level, engaging in sports, Dubrovnik's heritage and the number of visits to Dubrovnik.

Participants/Sudionici
The purposive sample of 125 participants is examined.The wide inclusion criterion was Croatian citizenship, excluding those participants who are born, and currently live in Dubrovnik.By gender, of all participants, there were 44 males and 81 females.According to the interest in sports (Likert scale (LS) with the range from 1 -absolutely not interested to 5absolutely interested), the median is 4 (interested in sports).According to the interest in water polo (the same LS), the median is 3 (indifferent about water polo).For the question, "Have you ever heard about Wild League?" (LS in range from 1 -never heard about to 5 -very familiar with this event), the median is 3.Other relevant features of the participants are given in Table 1.

Measures/Mjerenja
For the purposes of this study, a questionnaire on sports tourism (Questionnaire on sports event -QSE) was adjusted.Ottevanger (15) based on (17), (19) used the original questionnaire QSE.The majority of demographic variables and previous sports experience are in the first set of items.Items 1-8 are about push factors (categories include: escape from the routines of everyday life, relaxation, self-exploration, fun and socializing).Items 9-16 deal with pull factors (categories include: news, selfdevelopment and destination).The final set of items, 17-20, are about restrictions (category includes: risks and threats).The Likert scale of five degrees is used for each item, its range being from 1strongly disagree to 5 -strongly agree.The dimensions of the questionnaire used in this study showed satisfying reliability type internal consistency.The results showed that Cronbach's alpha for push factors was 0.888, for pull factors 0.785 and for limitations 0.676.The questionnaire was translated into Croatian and given to the participants.The period when data was collected was from October to November 2015, by an online survey (Google Surveys tool).The scientific purpose of the study was explained to the participants and they were guaranteed their anonymity.

Statistical analysis / Statistička analiza
For the statistical analyses of the data, the software package IBM SPSS 23.0 is used.All statistical significances are commented on the significance level at p <0.05 and p <0.01.In the process of determining the main metric properties of the questionnaire QSE (the construct validity and the reliability), the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation is used, applying Scree Plot criterion, as well as Guttman-Kaiser's criterion.The reliability type of internal consistency for all components (factors) revealed was determined using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.The Spearman's rank-correlation coefficients were calculated, while the differences between two independent samples of subjects are tested with t-tests for independent samples, or Mann Whitney U-test, in cases when all pre-conditions for the use parametric methods were not satisfied.Kruskal Wallis tests are used for testing the differences among more than two independent sample of subjects.

8.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION / Rezultati i diskusija
The results of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are presented in the Table 2.
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy (.79) and Bartlett's test of Sphericity ((χ 2 =909; df=171; p<0.001) showed that correlation matrix in the questionnaire about the sports tourism (Questionnaire on sports event) is good for factorization.Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is applied, using the Guttman-Kaiser's socializing).This component (scale)showed the very high reliability (α= 0.888).The second component is named pulling factors (news, self-development and destination), while five variables defined it.The reliability of this scale is moderately high and hence satisfying (α= 0.785).The third component relates to the limitations (the risks and threats) and its reliability is low but still satisfying (α= 0.676).
Table 3 presents the differences in the motives of sports tourism by participants' gender.Only significant difference is found in pushing factors (t=2.62,p=0.01), in the direction of higher value of mean for males, than in females.For pulling and limitations factors, no statistically significant gender differences in the motives of sports tourism were found.
On the other hand, the level of education was not appear as an independent variable that statistically significantly differ any of the motives of sport tourism (Table 4).
According to the personal engagement in sports, the differences in motives of sports tourism were statistically significant only for the pushing motives.The highest difference is found between "I played sports actively in the past" (highest mean) and "I played sports recreational in the past" (lowest mean) (Table 5).6).
In regards to the number of visits to Dubrovnik, there is no any statistically significant difference in the motives of sports tourism (Table 7).
The results revealed expected threecomponent principal components' structure, with reliable principal components that represent: pushing motives, pulling motives and the limitations.However, some items slightly deviate from original dimensions of the questionnaire, such as "The Wild League sport event is the only reason I travelled to this destination" (which is grouped into Limitations, instead into Pulling factors).Similarly, pushing motive "Competing on this Wild League event gives me an opportunity to meet new people" is grouped into Pulling factors, etc.In spite of these slight deviations, especially because we didn't use interpretability criterion during extracting factors in this study, it could be estimated that QSE version, used in this study, highly correspond to Ottevanger's (15) original instrument.
Therefore, it could be recommended for use in future studies of the Wild League's phenomenon.
The results obtained suggest that the Wild League is very specific sports (or/ and cultural) event, which could be attractive itself for specific profiles of tourists only.Besides this, the gender differences were found in pushing factors in the direction of higher means for males while for pulling and limitations factors there were no statistically significant gender differences in the motives of sports tourism.This finding could be expected, because males tend to be more frequent interested in sports in general ( 22), ( 26), (25).Namely, for active physical exercising, for example in the student population, male students are more motivated by intrinsic factors (need for power, competition and challenge), females are more often driven by extrinsic motives (body weight control and appearance) (3).The need to be relaxed through sports and physical activities could be stronger emphasized in men (3).According to the participant's personal engagement in sports, pushing motives appeared as a factor of differentiation of the participants about their sport tourism motives: the strongest pushing motives have those participants who played sports actively in the past.The level of education and the number of visits to Dubrovnik did not appear as important characteristics for the differentiation of the participants' sports tourism motives.Additionally the pushing motives of this specific type of sports (and cultural) tourism were more emphasized for the participants who have some relatives (or friends) in Dubrovnik, independently of gender and personal engagement in sports.We can assume that they have more positive experiences about staying in Dubrovnik, not (only) linked with sports or cultural events.It could be considered that pushing factors of positive motivation for sports tourism might overcome the constraints in our participants, who are probably giving stronger attention to the benefits of this sports tourism destination, more than on the restrictions ( 21), but only in people who are familiar with Dubrovnik inhabitants.This specific setting on  (15).The specific of this study is researching untypical type of sport tourism (sports recreational event, which is more cultural than typical sport event).Active participation is sport could be attractive for several types of motives: fun, enjoyment, improving skills, learning, being with friends, success, winning and health ( 5), ( 14), (25).Generally, it seems like that the attractiveness of the destination is at least similarly important as the sport Wild league event, while in the case of the Wimbledon tennis tournament (15) or the World Cup in South Korea and Japan in 2002 (12), the sports event itself were the dominant reason for visiting certain destination.It must be kept in mind that the Wild League is probably more cultural tourism event than sports recreational.Richards (18) suggests that an increase in cultural tourism stems from the growing supply of cultural attractions and a growing number of tourists.The growth of the cultural tourism market is accompanied by the segmentation of the market, but also by the increasing competition (16).Within this competition, new market opportunities could be seen through the development of creative tourism (18), (20).
The main limitation of the study is relatively small and insufficiently representative (purposeful) sample of participants.Regardless of this relatively small number of participants, applying the original measuring instrument showed satisfactory reliability and discriminability.The major advantage of this research is psychometrical validation of the new measuring instrument, in fact first use of QSE, adjusted for certain Croatian population and for certain recreational sports event.Moreover, till now, this is probably the only study that quantitatively studied Wild league as the "discrete touristic potential" (23).
Therefore, the practical implication of this study could be mainly related toward using these indicators and belonging measurement instrument (however, as well as these preliminary results) in estimation the Wild league as the "discrete touristic potential".The opportunities within the sport tourism field, by maximizing the potentials of some destination by understanding all elements integral to sport tourism (1) could be applied in this case, too.Specifically, the Wild League within, could be put into various touristic packages, linked with other sports and/ or cultural offer.

CONCLUSION/Zaključak
The findings from the study revealed expected three-component structure of the sports tourism motivation, while satisfactorily reliable principal components represent pushing motives, pulling motives and the limitations.However, some items slightly deviate from original dimensions of the questionnaire.However, it could be estimated that QSE version, used in this study, highly correspond to Ottevanger's (15) original instrument.The differences in sport motivational factors are determined by several independent variables.While the education level and number of visits Dubrovnik, as the destination, did not appear as relevant variables for the differentiation of the motives of sports tourism in these participants.On the other hand, pushing motives are more emphasized in males, participants with Dubrovnik's heritage and at the participants who were actively engaged in sports as well.According to the profiles of the characteristics of the tourists who can be attracted by the Wild league as the event, few interesting touristic packages could be created, linked with other sports and/ or cultural offer.

Table 2
Results of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation and the reliability of the Questionnaire on sports events (QSE) Tablica 2. Rezultati Analize glavnih komponenti (PCA) s Varimax rotacijom i pouzdanost Uputnika o sportskim događajima (QSE) big sport event is a form of self-exploration for me (for example: I can realize how interested in water pool I am or get to know the sport tourism culture of the destination).

Table 3
Gender differences in the motives of sports tourism Tablica 3. Rodne razlike u motivima za sportski turizam

Table 4
Differences in the motives of sports tourism by the level of education Tablica 4. Razlike u motivima sportskog turizma u odnosu na stupanj obrazovanja

Table 5
Differences in the motives of sports tourism, by personal engagement in sports Tablica 5. Razlike u motivima sportskog turizma u odnosu na osobnu uključenost u sportove

Table 6
Differences in the motives of sports tourism in terms of Dubrovnik heritage Tablica 6. Razlike u motivima sportskog turizma u odnosu na dubrovačko porijeklo

Table 7
Differences in the motives of sports tourism in regards to the number of visits to Dubrovnik Tablica 7. Razlike u motivima sportskog turizma u odnosu na broj posjeta Dubrovniku ** difference is significant at p<0.01; * difference is significant at p<0.