摘要:The aim of this research is to segment visitors to one of South Africa's biggest arts festivals based on the frequency of visits in order to distinguish between first-time and repeat festival attendees. Both first-time and repeat visitor groups play a fundamental role in the overall well-being and success of a festival, and festival organisers must strive to achieve a balance between first-time and repeat visitors. Festival managers should therefore be aware of the festival attributes that differentiate between the first-time visitor group and repeat visitors attending the festival. These differences include socio-demographics, behavioural characteristics, destination perception, perceived value and travel motivations. This article therefore compares first-time and repeat visitors to the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival based on these categories. A questionnaire survey (N = 555) was conducted at the festival, and the findings indicate that there are significant differences between first-time and repeat visitors at the festival. First-time visitors spend a significant amount of money during the festival and are mainly motivated by Relaxation and socialisation and Festival shows / productions, while repeat visitors are loyal visitors who stay longer and spend more money, especially on tickets supporting the festival's shows / productions. Results reveal that both first-time and repeat visitor groups are important for the long-term sustainability of the festival. This method of segmentation has proved to be successful and is used as the basis for proposing managerial and marketing implications for the festival organisers.