Competitiveness among destinations, the rising cost of marketing, and the need to maintain market share, inspire the event management of the Tenth-Month Merit-Making Festival (TMMF) to use the festival as a tourist destination and to focus on attendees’ wants and needs. The TMMF is a religious celebration which has existed in Nakhon Si Thammarat (NT), a province in southern Thailand for more than a hundred years. Despite the longevity and significance of the TMMF, there is no systematic record of the festival’s attendees. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare residents’ and non-residents’ information sources, motivations, performance evaluations, and overall satisfaction with the festival. There were 243 residents and 80 non-residents participating in the study. The results revealed that friends and family were their best information sources. Arts and crafts were top attractions for both groups. Factors affecting residents’ overall satisfaction were different from those of non-residents.
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