Music festivals : a youth tourism motivator? : a study of the 'Isle of MTV' in Malta

Abstract

are a youth tourism motivator for destinations. More specifically, this research concerns the Isle of MTV Music Festival, which has been annually held in Malta since 2008. The main purpose of this research is to determine whether this festival is truly a youth tourism motivator for Malta. Additionally, the data collected explores what youth tourists find most appealing about the island of Malta. The relevance of this research is youth tourism becoming a booming market within the industry. One cannot calssify it as a niche anymore, due its increasing popularity worldwide. One may say that music festivals have helped the youth market grow over the years, offering young travellers thousands of options for summer music festivals in Europe and other countries every year. To name but a few possibilities of what is currently available, events in Ibiza, Croatia, Paris, Finland, Barcelona, Hungary, London, Copenhagen and the United States have helped increase tourist numbers for several destinations, acting as key motivators for youths to visit a country. Cases like Glastonbury festival in Somerset, England and the Sziget festival held in Budapest, Hungary also substantiate this point. The Isle of MTV is considered one of the most popular festivals in Europe, attracting 50,000 visitors every summer. Hence , the purpose of this research is to explore whether youths travel specifiaclly for this festival and furthermore, to understand what motivates them most to visit Malta. Qualitative methods were used to achieve the objectives of this research, these include questionnaires that were administered on site to respondents who fit the 'youth tourist‘ criteria. The conclusions drawn from such data indicates that the festival does not act as a motivator for youths to visit Malta, as respondents showed that even if the festival was not taking place or not, they would still choose Malta as a touristic destination. Further research and information regarding festivals, youths and motivations will be thoroughly discussed throughout this dissertation.