Event tourism as a tool for sustainable local economic development

Villages and cities are increasingly keen to share their culture and nature with visitors by the promotion of festivals. Income can be generated by such festivals. This paper considers the contribution of event tourism to sustainable local economic development. Cultural events cause ethnic solidarity and strengthening the intercultural communications. By examining Golghaltan Festival in Amirie city of Damghan, shows that more than half of the visitors satisfy, eager to revisit and recommend it to their friends. On the other hand, tourism can improve local economy. In this case, the cash flow generated by the half of the tourists and day visitors are more than the average cost of per Iranian household’s domestic travels. So, for the first step to keep loyal customers and to use event tourism as a tool for diversifying the urban economy,the event motivational factors should identify to detail marketing programs and to develop tourism facilities tailored to the needs of target market. As results of factor analysis of 37 motivational items on 287 visitors as a sample, 6 factors include Golghaltan& family, cultural exploration, socialization, local, novelty and escape were determined.