MOTORCYCLISTS’ ACCOMMODATION PREFERENCES AND THE ORGANIZATION OF MOTORCYCLE TOURISM EVENTS: AN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON TRANSITALIA MARATHON PARTICIPANTS

Although motorcycling is not a new phenomenon, strategic studies aiming to link noncompetitive motorcycling events and sports tourism are rather limited in the literature on sport management and social science. In particular, no empirical studies have been realized with the aim of investigating the satisfaction determinants of active non-professional motorcyclists with the management of a sport tourism event. The “Mototurismo research” was inspired by this knowledge gap aiming to propose an explicative framework to fix several potential factors able to influence the satisfaction of participants towards the management of motorcycle events in sports tourism. A pilot study carried out in collaboration with Minoa Group, an Italian motorcycle touring event organizer, made it possible to investigate and identify the standards necessary to consider an hotel "motor bikers’ friendly” and the main characteristics that motorcycle tourists attribute to a good organizer of motorcycle tourism events.