Whose festival is it anyway? Analysis of festival stakeholder power,legitimacy, urgency,and the sustainability of local festivals

Abstract

The sustenance and institutionalization of local festivals hinge on the extent to which various stakeholders work together effectively. While all stakeholder relationships matter in this respect, research has often failed to focus on the various relationships between all stakeholders involved. This study uses the tenets of stakeholder theory (power, urgency, and legitimacy) to examine the differences between stakeholders in local festivals. It is based on a questionnaire survey of 1,092 festival stakeholders from eight groups in six local festivals in Ghana. The results indicate that festival organizers have the highest level of power, urgency, and legitimacy. The results also reveal varying levels of power, urgency, and legitimacy between government authorities, sponsors, vendors, volunteers, visitors, and the media. Given these differences, festival committees need to give the right priority each stakeholder group and properly respond to each based on their relationship with other stakeholders. Groups such as vendors with low legitimacy need to be actively included in planning committees and decision-making regarding the festivals. The involvement of the regional tourism offices, which is lacking, will help in providing training to festival organizers and other stakeholders in order to institutionalize the festivals.     

Examining the relationships among festivalscape,experiences, and identity: evidence from two Taiwanese aboriginal festivals

Despite an increase in the number of studies on aboriginal festivals, little empirical research has examined how the organisers of these festivals influence visitors’ sense of festival identity by promoting identifiable factors in their promotional materials. This study thus examines the relationship between the festivalscape, emotional and authenticity experiences, and festival identity among the attendees of two major aboriginal festivals held in July and December in Taiwan. A total of 901 usable questionnaires were collected. Our empirical results suggest that programme planning and the facilities of the festivalscapes positively and significantly affect the emotional experience at both festivals. Furthermore, the emotional experience and the authenticity experience positively and significantly affect festival identity at both festivals. Our findings contribute to efforts to understand the behaviour of festival attendees. Managerial implications and future research directions for aboriginal festival tourism are presented.     

“Give and take”: A social exchange perspective on festival stakeholder relations

Based on social exchange theory, this research seeks to establish the differences between festival stakeholder relations in terms of trust, control, dependence, and altruism. A total of 1105 participant surveys were collected at six festivals in Ghana across eight stakeholder groups including organizers, government authorities, visitors, volunteers, sponsors, and media. The results indicate that organizers have the highest level of trust for other stakeholders whereas media have the lowest. For other stakeholders trust levels are similar, suggesting that festival organizers capitalize on mutual stakeholder trust to broaden collaboration. Regarding dependence, volunteers showed the least level of dependence on other stakeholders, suggesting that organizers work to more deeply engage their volunteers to improve relationships. This multi-dimensional assessment of social exchange theory in the festival field contributes to our understanding of dynamics among festival stakeholders.     

Impact of government policy and environment quality on visitor loyalty to Taiwan music festivals: Moderating effects of revisit reason and occupation type

Tourists' repeat patronage is a prerequisite for sustainable festivals. Past studies have examined tourist cognition, affection, and conation to festivals. Government involvement in festivals has increased during the past decade; however, few studies have examined how government policy and environment quality influence visitor loyalty to festivals. Using sample data collected from 931 visitors during spring music festivals held in Southern Taiwan, this study used a structural equation model (SEM) with latent variables to examine these influences. The results suggest that government policy positively influences perceived environment quality, visitor satisfaction, and loyalty to festivals. Furthermore, the results from a multigroup SEM approach reveal that tourists' revisit reason (revisit festival versus other) and occupation type (student versus nonstudent) moderate the relationships between government policy and festival loyalty. Implications on festival planning and government policymaking are discussed.     

The greening of music festivals: motivations,barriers and outcomes. Applying the Mair and Jago model

Events are a growing sector, often attracting tourists to destinations. There is increased emphasis on achieving sustainability in event management; some festivals, particularly large outdoor music festivals, are leading in greening their events. This paper explores the drivers of, and barriers to, greening festivals and considers how events might be a vehicle for promoting sustainable behaviour. The application of the Mair and Jago model is tested. Long interviews were conducted with managers of six UK and Australian festivals that have won awards for their “green” performance and an organisation that encourages the greening of festivals. Findings suggest that managers of these festivals act both as a champion and a steward of greening and that the key drivers of festival greening are the personal values or ethos of the manager and/or the organisation, demand for greening from stakeholders and a desire to educate and act as an advocate of green issues. Barriers to greening festivals included the financial costs, lack of time and control over festival venues and the inability to source appropriate suppliers or supplies. Further research could explore these issues in other events contexts and examine whether events leave a lasting legacy in terms of influencing environmental behaviour.     

The Festival in My Hometown: The Relationships Among Performance Quality,Satisfaction, and Behavioral Intentions

Despite the high volume of research on festivals in Western cultures and the incredible growth of festivals over recent decades, little empirical research has been conducted on festivals in Thailand, many of which have existed more than 100 years. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the motivations that drive people to attend the Tenth Month Merit-Making Festival (TMMF) in Nakhon Si Thammarat, a province in southern Thailand, what they thought of products and services provided at the festival, what their level of satisfaction was, and whether or not they would recommend the festival to others or attend it again in the future. There were 324 respondents participating in the study. Friend—family togetherness, festival novelty, excitement, and escape were the leading motivations for attending the festival. Respondents were most satisfied with arts and crafts, entertainment, ticket price, displays and exhibitions, and the festival's duration. The activity–culture factor was the best performer. Those who were satisfied with the festival would encourage others to attend the festival, but they might not attend again in the future themselves.     

Segmenting tourists to aboriginal cultural festivals: An example in the Rukai tribal area, Taiwan

Festivals are increasingly being used as instruments for promoting tourism and boosting the regional economy. Festivals are a type of cultural events and are travel attractions with unique features. Much research, undertaken from a variety of perspectives, exists on festivals. However, very few studies related to aboriginal cultures have been published. The main objective of this study is to profile tourists based upon their motives and demographic characteristics, as these traits are associated with attraction to aboriginal cultural festivals and other related activities. The research reveals that cultural exploration, among other motivational dimensions, is the most important factor attracting tourists to the aboriginal cultural festival. In addition, not all tourists have the same degree of interest in the festival cultural experience. Furthermore, motivational variables are found to be more important than demographic variables in explaining and segmenting visitors to an aboriginal festival.     

Festival visiting,voluntary risk and positive health

Many disciplines including geography, tourism and event management, anthropology, sociology, psychology, public health and medicine have a contribution to make to the study of festivals. Despite a growing body of tourism and event literature outlining the many motivations for and subjective benefits of attending festivals, the reporting of positive health outcomes remains underdeveloped. Researching festival visitors who take risks for pleasure (voluntary risk-taking or ‘edgework’), would make an important and illuminating contribution to the literature and could offer alternative and broader perspectives on what we define as ‘health’. Interdisciplinary research collaborations using universally accepted definitions, methodologies and measures offer great potential to further our understanding of positive health and voluntary risk-taking from the perspective of the festival visitor.     

Problematising ‘Festival Tourism’: Arts Festivals and Sustainable Development in Ireland

This paper problematises the term ‘festival tourism’. It conceptualises festivals as socially sustaining devices and argues that while they frequently function as tourist attractions, their social significance extends far beyond tourism. Using empirical material gathered in two case study arts festivals in Ireland, the paper demonstrates how festivals can contribute to arts development by inter alia creating demand for the arts, enhancing venue infrastructures, encouraging local creativity and animating local involvement. The paper contends that arts festivals, irrespective of their initial objectives almost inevitably develop tourist profiles over time and it proceeds to examine how changing tourism priorities in the two festivals studied impact upon sustainable festival practices. The findings suggest that tourism emerged as a key force promoting festival growth and expansion. It was found to be associated with increased revenue flows but also with increased arts activity on a year-round basis and with an improved venue infrastructure in both places. However, problems were identified with respect to the quality of the relationship forged between the festivals and local populations in the respective places. The paper concludes by arguing that festivals’ engagement with tourism needs to be carefully managed in the interests of promoting the socially sustaining function of festivals and of encouraging sustainable approaches to tourism development.     

Festival Tourism: A Contributor to Sustainable Local Economic Development?

Towns, villages and cities are increasingly keen to share their culture, environment and spending opportunities with visitors by the promotion of festivals. The fact that income can be generated by such festivals is clear but the true value of visitor spend is more complex to calculate with accuracy. This paper considers the contribution of festival tourism to sustainable local economic development. A festival typology is created that broadly identifies three festival types termed 'home-grown', 'tourist-tempter' and 'big-bang'. Here three festivals matching the typology are analysed against the model of sustainable local economic development activity created by the environment charity Forum for the Future. Results suggest that although festivals may have the potential to provide opportunities for sustainable local economic development such opportunities frequently remain unexploited. Nevertheless, some festival scenarios do indicate a closer match to the model of sustainable local economic development activity than others. This paper analyses why this should be and suggests ways in which festival tourism's contribution to local economies might begin to be better understood, and consequently, improved.     

Tourism as a mixed industry: Differences between private, public and not-for-profit festivals

This paper discusses important policy and management implications of tourism as a mixed industry in which public, not-for-profit, and private organisations such as festivals both compete and collaborate in creating the tourist product. To illustrate, four samples of festivals from the UK, Australia, Norway and Sweden are systematically compared in terms of their ownership, governance, structure, and content. Although the festivals offered a similar product and had similar mandates, they differed considerably in terms of revenue sources, cost structure, use of volunteers, corporate sponsorship, and decision-making. These differences are potentially important to destinations that view festivals as attractions and use them in place marketing. Implications are drawn for festival management and tourism policy, and recommendations are made for extending this line of inquiry to the tourism industry as a whole.     

Local attendees' perceptions of festival impacts: A factor-cluster analysis approach to the Zanzibar International Film Festival

Appraising residents' perceptions of the impacts of festivals is imperative to festival success. Such residents can rightly claim ownership of the place where the festival is staged and the cultural aspects the festival showcases. This study aimed at elucidating local attendees' perceived festival impacts at the annual Zanzibar International Film Festival. Data for this study were collected using a structured questionnaire that yielded 263 responses conveniently drawn from festival-goers, which were then subjected to factor-cluster analysis. The results reveal the presence of three clusters (advocates, ambivalents, and cautious-advocates) that differ significantly on their perceived impacts of the festival with respect to its environmental, socio-cultural, and economic contributions. These results have both managerial and policy implications on the inclusion of the locals in planning and managing festivals.     

Measuring and managing the environmental impact of festivals: the contribution of the Ecological Footprint

This paper assesses the contribution of the Ecological Footprint as a method for estimating the environmental impact of festivals. It responds to calls for more rigorous methods to assess the environmental impacts of festivals, and contributes towards providing festival organisers and policy-makers with a more balanced evaluation of their outcomes. This paper focuses on the 2012 Hay Festival of Literature and Arts (Wales, United Kingdom), and describes how the Ecological Footprint was used to calculate the environmental impact of its visitors. It also considers the potential value of the Ecological Footprint as a method for evaluating alternative strategies designed to improve the environmental sustainability of festivals. The paper demonstrates that Ecological Footprint analysis can provide valuable information for festival organisers and policy-makers on factors influencing the scale of a festivals’ environmental impact, and the types of strategies needed to reduce the effect of visitor travel.     

Potential for collaboration among agricultural food festivals in Korea for cross-retention of visitors

Abstract

This study examines visitor intentions to attend different agricultural food festivals within the same region to explore whether they can collaborate to promote cross-visits. Building upon the literature on co-branding and satisfaction, this study proposes the direct effect as well as the mediating roles of involvement and variety seeking between visitor satisfaction with a current festival and behavioral intentions to visit similar festivals. The results found that all relationships appeared to be positive and significant as conceptualized and visitor intentions to attend similar festivals were as high as those to visit the festival that had been attended again. Furthermore, comparison of three models suggested that the partial mediation model (PMM) is a significant improvement over the direct effect (DEM) and full mediation (FMM) models. This study seeks to make both theoretical and practical contributions to agricultural food festivals and rural tourism, specifically to the cross-retention potential of visitors to relevant festivals.     

Evaluating the efficiency of Korean festival tourism and its determinants on efficiency change: Parametric and non-parametric approaches

Local festivals may leverage local specialties and various historical, cultural, and artistic resources throughout their respective regions to attract tourists, inducing positive economic impacts. In this study, this paper is a first attempt to analyze the relative efficiency of local festival tourism by using parametric and non-parametric approaches with the data from local festivals held in Korea from 2015 to 2018. We also deal with the efficiency determinants of each typology of festivals by employing a truncated regression with double bootstrapping. Results showed that the leading sources of inefficiency were primarily embedded in pure technology inefficiency, while the principal operational drivers posed different effects depending on the typology of festivals. These insights have important practical implications for the local festival organizing committees and operators in Korea and are helpful in developing tailored operational strategies to maximize the efficiency among different typologies of festivals.     

A Segmentation of Volunteers at the 2013 Austin City Limits Music Festival: Insights and Future Directions

Volunteers at music festivals play a critical role in festival operation and success. As the music festival industry continues to grow, the ability for these large productions to effectively execute a large volunteer program is augmented. Volunteers from the 2013 Austin City Limits Music Festival were surveyed in regards to their self-image congruency, motivation, satisfaction, and intent to return as a volunteer at the festival. Analysis resulted in three distinct segments which has significant practical implications for festival management. Academic implications exist with the addition of self-image congruency and further discovery of volunteers in the festival and event industry.     

Behavioral intention of visitors to an Oriental medicine festival: An extended model of goal directed behavior

Despite the importance of Oriental medicine festivals to Oriental medical tourism, little research has been conducted to understand the behavioral intention of visitors to these festivals. Therefore, this study examines the behavioral intention of visitors to a Korean Oriental medicine festival. This study employs the extended model of goal-directed behavior (EMGB) that incorporates two constructs related to Oriental medicine festivals: the Oriental medicine image of festival site (image) and the perception of Oriental medicine (perception). An on-site survey was conducted with 423 visitors attending the Sancheong Herbal Festival in South Korea. Results reveal that attitude, subjective norm, and positive anticipated emotion influenced visitors' desire to attend the festival, which, in turn, influenced their behavioral intentions. Two constructs of image and perception formed positive and significant relationships with attitude toward attending the festival. Practical implications of the study results are discussed.     

The effects of festival impacts on support intentions based on residents’ ratings of festival performance and satisfaction: a new integrative approach

Festivals can provide an effective vehicle for sustainable tourism. It is therefore necessary to examine the impacts of festival tourism as well as their consequences in order to manage their relevance to the local community. The lack of a multiple mediation approach, however, has hampered research on the psycho-social process through which festival impacts (perceived benefits, costs, and affective impact) influence resident support. We propose a new integrative approach in which resident-rated festival performance and satisfaction are putative mediators that transmit the effects of the three festival impacts to support for future festivals. The theoretical foundations of this integrative approach or model are jointly built on social exchange theory, the affective theory of social exchange, and the theory of reasoned action. The integrative model was successfully validated using eight sample festivals within China, which included 353 observations with 10,000 bootstraps. The empirical findings reveal that 14 out of the 17 hypotheses received empirical support in this study, and it thereby contributes significantly to new understanding in the literature.     

Music Festivals and Social Inclusion – The Festival Organizers’ Perspective

There is growing interest in how festivals can help to build strong and cohesive communities, particularly whether they can reach a broad swathe of the population or operate as enclaves. This article explores ways in which festival organizers may contribute to social inclusion goals through a qualitative phenomenological study of music festivals. Findings suggest that these festival organizers may contribute to social inclusion across four areas of society—consumption, production, political engagement, and social interaction or communitas—through factors such as providing opportunities for local participation, learning new skills, and access to education about social justice. However, it appears that these festival organizers tended to direct their social inclusion efforts toward portable communities, focusing on attendees but failing to reach out to local residents. This limits their ability to embrace the local community in its broadest sense, and calls into question their likelihood of achieving inclusivity outcomes.     

Relationship between Perceived Risk,Evaluation, Satisfaction,and Behavioral Intention: A Case of Local-Festival Visitors

This study analyzes the relationship between perceived risk, evaluation, satisfaction, and behavioral intention of tourists attending a local festival. Based on a survey with a sample of 465 respondents attending a local festival in South Korea, a structural equation model (SEM) is proposed that involves festival-related perceived risk, perceptual evaluation, overall satisfaction, and behavioral intention for future attendance at this and other festivals. Firstly, the results show that while risk may lead to a negative perception of a festival, it has no effect on satisfaction or subsequent behavioral intention. Secondly, the results show that direct causality exists between perception, satisfaction and future intention. Thirdly, a demand for diversity in programs determines perceptions of risk, which in turn permits a segmentation of visitors based on these characteristics. The findings of this study contribute to successful planning and marketing strategies to meet the demands of psychologically segmented tourists, especially in festival studies.