Abstract

Transportation is one of the main topics in the wide-ranging theme of event sustainability. The aim of this article is to make a contribution towards the evaluation of the sustainable transportation policies of hallmark events implemented by the organizers, to establish an accurate and objective methodology for a cross-comparison. The organizers, policy makers and the hosting community are the main stakeholders interested in an evaluation of the degree of sustainability implicit in the mobility policy of an event. Using a sample of periodical Italian hallmark events, a non-hierarchical modelbased clustering is performed, and then examined to determine whether there is a difference in the distribution of a selection of auxiliary variables among the clusters. The results show that neither the visitors' number, nor the inhabitants' number in the host city, is associated with the clustering membership. However, the theme of the event appears to be associated with the estimated partition.