Sports tourism has become a primary catalyst for tourism activity with a range of researchers noting the growing recognition of the inherent relationship between sport and tourism over the last decade or so. Sports events are unique to other types of events in that they attract a particularly wide range of participants with each seeking to satisfy their motivations for engagement in slightly different ways. Importantly, sport tourism is a significant and growing global industry with notable economic implications for the specific sport and/or the event as well as there being a variety of flow-on tourism and travel benefits derived by the host destination by its staging. Despite this fact, sport tourism remains however largely an area of economic and social endeavour that has not been well researched. For example, even though previous research has suggested that the university student market constitutes a significant component of the international travel and tourism industry, there has to date been little research undertaken related specifically to this population with respect to their engagement in sporting events. The primary aim of this exploratory study therefore was to identify the underlying motivations for participants engaging in the Australian University Games. This study was based on a positivistic or quantitative approach to exploring a topic and involved a purposive sampling technique. Primary data was collected by way of a self-administered questionnaire with the study sample comprising students registered as participants at the 2005 Australian University Games. The data collection process took place over a two day period in October, 2005 and entailed completion of a self-administered survey. In all, over the scheduled two day period of registration, approximately 6,500 participants formally registered for the event. Of this number, just over 1,100 agreed to complete the survey with 1039 returning it to the researcher in a usable form.

Study results revealed that the primary reason participants chose to attend the Australian University Games was to socialise and be with their friends. Other motivations for attendance included the desire to compete with other athletics and to have a holiday away from home. Results also revealed that the majority of participants were more than satisfied with the event related services provided by the AUS staff in the lead up to the Games. Findings also revealed that a significant number of participants at the 2005 event had attended previously (41%) with a majority of study respondents (67%) indicating that they would attend the event again in the future. The implications of these findings with respect to event planning and event management practices are discussed, as are recommendations for future research.