Year: 2016 Volume: 23 Issue: a

Abstract:The marathon on Fruška Gora is a two day sports-tourist event that has been taking place for 37 years annually in national park near Novi Sad, Serbia. In the year when the study was conducted, 10177 participants have been registered. From this basic set, a sample of 1192 examinees has been extracted (604 male and 588 female), age between 17 and 78 years. The aim was to quantify the motives significant for the participation in this event, as well as to evaluate certain aspects of the event quality based on the evaluation of the participants. Research shows that entertainment, pastime, relaxation, forgetting of everyday concerns and the need for good mood are the strongest motives. The significance of health as a motive increases with age. Factor analysis which was applied to the quality items resulted in a stable two-component structure. The greatest influences on the first component (named Self Experience of Development Resources) were the items: convenience of the destination for active tourism, contribution of the events to the development of tourism and natural environment. The second component (Tangible Indicators) was defined by: quality of the accompanying contents, quality of transportation, tidiness of the tracks and media promotion.