Pull Factors for Away Game Attendance in the J. League: A Focus on the Away Game Experience

Recently, "away tourism," which involves travel behavior related to attending away games, has gained attention in Japan.The J. League has highlighted the league's attractiveness by promoting supplemental tourism activities before and after attending away games.However, most studies have focused on the behavior of home team fans, and little research has been conducted on away spectators in Japan.Understanding the motivations, or pull factors, related to destination characteristics is essential for understanding away spectators' behavior.This study aimed to examine pull factors for away game attendance between spectators with and without prior away game attendance experience.A questionnaire survey was conducted among Nagoya Grampus fans, resulting in 280 usable responses.For the analysis, respondents who had attended at least one away game in the 2023 season were classified as "spectators with experiences," while those who had not attended any away games in the 2023 season were classified as "spectators without experiences."Hotelling's T 2 test was then conducted to compare pull factors between these two groups.The results revealed that "popularity of away stadiums" and "attractiveness of destinations surrounding away stadiums" were significantly more important to spectators with experiences than their counterparts.Conversely, "complementary promotional goods for away spectators" and "events at away stadiums" were significantly more important to spectators without experiences than their counterparts.This study highlights the need for tailored management strategies for each type of spectators.For spectators with away game experiences, emphasizing the unique characteristics of stadiums and promoting supplemental tourism activities, in collaboration with the tourism industry, are crucial to further encourage away tourism behavior.On the other hand, for those without away game experiences, introducing events that offer complementary promotional goods for away spectators can be an effective promotion strategy to attract new away spectators.