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Academic studies have sought to understand the motivations of festival and event attendees usually through single-event case studies. This approach has failed to generate a generalizable set of motivation items. In addition, there is increasing criticism in the literature of the common methodological framework used in festival motivation studies, due to a perceived over-reliance on motivations derived from the broader tourism and travel research, with too little attention to event-specific factors. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues by analyzing a sub-category of motivation studies, music festivals, in order to see if this approach can elicit a consistent set of motivation dimensions for the sub-category, which can in turn be compared and contrasted with the broader literature. A new case study of motivations to attend the 28th Macau International Music Festival (MIMF) is included to complement the existing music festival sub-category by adding a classical music and music festivals in Asia.

Motivation dimensions important to music festivals are compared to dimensions across the broader festival motivation literature to find similarities and differences. Factor analysis is used to identify the motivation dimensions of attendees at the MIMF and the results are compared to those of existing music festival studies.

Music festival goers are shown to be primarily motivated by the core festival offering, the music, in contrast to festival attendees in general, where socialization has emerged as the primary motivating element. The results of the additional case study support these findings.

In contrast to previous research, this study examines the possibility of identifying common motivations among festival attendees through studying festivals by sub-categories.

This paper aims to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing the performing arts as one element in changing the destination image of the Macau special administrative region from that of the Las Vegas of the East to a “World Centre of Tourism and Leisure”. The context is of particular interest as rebranding is typically associated with negative or outdated images, whereas Macau’s existing brand is strong and associated with positive tourism revenues.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews with frontline participants in Macau’s performing arts sector are utilized to evaluate the relevant re-branding strategies and goals of the city’s administration. In-depth interviews focus on understanding policies through the thoughts and experiences of respondents. They are particularly useful in cases where insiders are likely to be better informed than others with respect to policy issues.

Three main themes related to the use of the performing arts as a vehicle for destination rebranding are explored. Findings suggest that few elements common to successful branding campaigns are evident in the approach of the Macau administration. Shortcomings are evident, for example, in communication, infrastructure development, long-term planning and the allocation and monitoring of funding.

Although qualitative research relies on rich data from small numbers, the study focuses only on the views of informed insiders in the performing arts. Input from commercial stakeholders and higher-level policy makers would broaden the perspective.

The findings are relevant for any destination wishing to alter or update its image.

Cultural aspects are increasingly utilized in destination branding. This study is one of only a few which focuses on the performing arts sector.