Examining the Differential Impact of Human Crowding Versus Spatial Crowding on Visitor Satisfaction at a Festival

Human crowding at a festival can affect visitor satisfaction differently to spatial crowding. Festival visitors perceive human crowding as a situation in which the festival is full of people. Spatial crowding, on the other hand, is perceived as restricting movement. We hypothesized that human crowding affects visitor satisfaction in a positive way (by increasing positive affect and decreasing negative affect), whereas spatial crowding affects visitor satisfaction in a negative way (by decreasing positive affect and increasing negative affect). We tested these hypotheses using data collected through an on-site survey at the 2012 Seoul Lantern Festival in South Korea: 423 visitors attending the festival completed the survey. The survey results supported the hypotheses. Managerial implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Perceived crowding and festival experience: The moderating effect of visitor-to-visitor interaction

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of two types of perceived crowding (spatial crowding and human crowding) on festival experience as well as how the interactions among visitors moderate the relationship by introducing the variable ‘visitor-to-visitor interaction’. To this end, taking Chinese local cultural festivals as the research object, empirical tests with regression analysis are conducted on 555 questionnaires concerning people's festival experience and perception of spatial crowding and human crowding. The results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between perceived human crowding and festival experience, whereas perceived spatial crowding consistently negatively affects the festival experience. Furthermore, the moderating effect of interactions among visitors is confirmed: the quality of interaction has different moderating effects on the relationship between different types of crowding perception and festival experience, and the quantity of interaction positively moderates the relationship between perceived spatial crowding and festival experience.     

Perceived crowding in recreation settings: An urban case study

Abstract

Research on crowding in recreation areas has focused primarily on back‐country settings. This study tests some of the axioms developed from this research and from studies conducted in non‐recreation settings using data from a case study in an urban park. The actual number of visitors present was found to be the most important individual predictor of perceived crowding in this setting. Results suggest that more developed parks, in more urban contexts, may elicit different images and expectations about visitor density. The implications of these findings, as they relate both to studies of perceived crowding and the social definition of parks in general, are discussed.     

Visitor Profile Analysis:

Although market research is utilized by many short-term tourism events, little research has been published on American state fairs. This demographic pilot study of South Carolina State Fair visitors identified the location and size of the primary market area. Also examined were the upscale nature of visitors and the importance of the fair as a family event. Based on this data, marketing implications for fair management were developed.     

The moderating effect of place attachment on the relationship between festival quality and behavioral intentions

The main purpose of the study is to examine an impact of festival quality on behavioral intentions and investigate the role of place attachment (PA) as a moderator between festival quality and behavioral intentions. Data were collected from the visitors of the 2013 Seoul Lantern Festival in South Korea. Results show that festival quality has a significant direct impact on behavioral intentions to revisit, spread word of mouth (WOM), and engage in pro-environmental behavior. The study also reveals that PA moderates the effect of festival quality on behavioral intentions, suggesting the differential impact of festival quality based on the level of PA. The study suggests that festival organizers may want to focus on program and esthetics to promote visitors’ return and positive WOM. Festival organizers may also want to customize quality management strategies based on visitors’ level of PA.     

Tourist Perception of Crowding and Management Approaches at Tourism Sites in Xi'an

Tourism crowding management is an important part of sustainable development at tourist attractions. This study seeks to recognize visitors' perceptions of crowding and then identify tourism crowding management approaches for tourism sites in Xi'an, western China. Three kinds of study, which were designed using quantitative and qualitative techniques, were undertaken in Xi'an. In the first two studies the actual numbers of visitors at component parts of five tourist attractions were recorded. Next, visitor responses to these kinds of levels of crowding were assessed. In the third study senior managers were interviewed and asked to explain their approaches to crowding management. Taken together, the information collected from the three studies helped build a model that plots the driving forces shaping tourism crowding at tourism sites.     

Place attachment as a mediator of the relationship between nature-based recreation benefits and future visit intentions

This study examined the theoretical relationships between consumers’ perceived benefits, place attachment and future visit intentions (FVI) at nature-based recreation and tourism areas, utilizing importance and performance concepts. The desired benefits and perceived attained benefits of consumers were treated as an antecedent to place attachment and FVI in structural models. Results of two separate structural models tests using responses from 934 visitors at the Ocala National Forest in Florida, USA, confirmed that place attachment fully mediates the relationship between benefits desired and FVI, while place attachment partially mediates the relationship between benefits attained and FVI. The former verifies the significant role of place attachment, and the latter validates the importance of place attachment as well as recreation benefit attainment in predicting visitors’ FVI. These findings suggest that both benefits desired and benefits attained are important predictors of place attachment and behavioral intentions. Accordingly, tourism and recreation planners and managers need to provide visitors with recreation opportunities, which maximize visitors’ ability to attain recreation benefits, such as nature exploration, physical fitness and escape. These managerial initiatives would result in increasing visitors’ emotional attachments and intentions to revisit.     

An Empirical Study of Behavioral Intentions in the Food Festival: The Case of Macau

The behavioral intentions of visitors play an important role in predicting future profits in the food festival. The purpose of this study is to identify the dimensions of festival quality and examine the interrelationships between behavioral intentions and the other constructs related to behavioral intentions as perceived by visitors to the food festival using structural equation modeling (SEM). The dimensions of festival quality are built and a multi-dimensional and hierarchical model is used as a framework to synthesize the effects of festival quality and visitor satisfaction on behavioral intentions of visitors to the Macau Food Festival (MFF). The findings of this study are based on SEM analysis of a convenience sample of 428 respondents. The findings reveal that there are four primary dimensions and 11 sub-dimensions of festival quality in the MFF.     

Alone with others: The paradox of privacy in wilderness

Attitudinal studies of wilderness visitors have indicated that people seek opportunities to limit interaction with other visitors so as to achieve privacy and solitude. This conventional interpretation of wilderness recreation was evaluated by comparing measures of visitor attitudes and social behavior in the backcountry of Yosemite National Park. Results show no association between visitor attitudes toward crowding and observed social interaction or behavior to avoid such social interaction. These findings suggest that subjective responses of visitors measured by questionnaires and interviews are often of debatable validity. Greater validity can be achieved by avoiding reliance on common‐sense interpretations in theory formulation and by employing multiple measurement techniques.     

Caves,Cultures and Crowds: Carrying Capacity Meets Consumer Sovereignty

This paper draws on research at Waitomo Caves in New Zealand to argue that the re-emergenceofplace as apolitical perspective has some important implicationsforthe concept of consumer sovereignty in tourism. The Waitomo case study identifies that differences in perceptions of crowding between various nationality groups produces a displacement of visitors less tolerant to crowding, in this case domestic tourists. It is argued that a failure to address the issue of domestic visitor displacement in the wider policy arena results in thematerialisation of the issues at the local level. Here, demands for indigenous sovereignty over heritage sites complicates the otherwise uninterrupted flow of consumer sovereignty via the market-driven management model.     

Factors contributing to perceptions of recreational crowding

Abstract

This paper examines perceptions of crowding in a river recreation setting, using an alternative to the conventional crowding measure and a diverse set of potential predictor variables that have not been examined concurrently in previous studies. Analysis focuses on differences between three groups of respondents: crowded floaters, whose enjoyment was reduced by encounters with other people; neutral floaters; and those floaters whose enjoyment was increased by the visitor density they encountered. Findings support some previous arguments that crowding is related more to visitors’ expectations, preferences, and previous experience than to actual or perceived encounter levels. Further, perceptions of crowding were found to be related to encounter expectations and preferences at specific river locations (e.g., at put‐in and rapids) and to perceptions of other aspects of trip quality.     

The Role of Physical Environment in Leisure Service Consumption: Evidence From a Ski Resort Setting

Despite the importance of physical environment in hedonic service consumption, little is known about the extent to which physical environment influences ski resort visitors’ cognition, emotion, and behaviors. This study investigated the relationships among physical environmental stimuli (i.e., layout accessibility, aesthetics, cleanliness, and other visitors), perceived quality of physical environment, excitement, and behavioral intentions in ski resort. This study also attempted to test the moderating role of enduring involvement in the formation of behavioral intentions. Results showed that cleanliness and other visitors significantly and positively influenced visitors’ perceived quality of physical environment and excitement. The results suggest that physical environment is of great importance for the ski resort business. Perceived quality was indeed a significant predictor of excitement, which, in turn, positively influenced behavioral intentions. Finally, the study found that the effect of excitement on behavioral intentions was significant across high and low enduring involvement groups.     

Combining GPS & survey data improves understanding of visitor behaviour

Visitor tracking is frequently used in tourism planning for large sites, but is far less common at individual attractions, despite a body of literature examining the detrimental impact of crowding on visitor experience. This study used handheld geographic positioning system (GPS) units to track 931 groups of visitors around a single tourist attraction to determine where they went and how long they dwelt at particular locations. The tracking data were combined with survey data to discover whether different types of visitors behaved differently when exploring the attraction. The majority of visitors followed similar routes revealing a strong ‘main path inertia’ with over half missing exhibits away from the perceived main route. Different group types varied in how long they dwelt at different locations and in how long they spent at the attraction altogether.     

Segmenting Wine Tourists on the Basis of Involvement with Wine

As involvement with wine may vary significantly among wine consumers and wine tourists, segmentation based on product involvement seems to be a reasonable choice. A multinational sample of 517 winery visitors is divided into three groups of low, medium, and high involvement levels; similarities and differences are examined. Results confirm that it is meaningful to segment winery visitors on the basis of their involvement with wine, as important differences can be identified in terms of visitation motives and patterns, demographic characteristics, relationship with wine, pre-visit attitudes towards the winery, evaluation of the winery experience, post-visit attitudes, and future behavioral intentions. Management and marketing implications are discussed.     

Assessing the asymmetric impact of interpretation environment service quality on museum visitor experience and post-visit behavioral intentions: a case study of the National Palace Museum

This paper examines the asymmetric positive–negative relationship between interpretation environment service quality, museum visitor experience, and post-visit behavioral intentions. The researchers collected 406 valid questionnaires from visitors to the main exhibit building in the National Palace Museum. Results suggest that the asymmetric effect differs depending on the attribute being examined. When visitors reported their perceptions of personal and sociocultural interpretation environment services, negative perceptions had a larger impact on museum visitor experience than positive perceptions. Moreover, results suggest that museum visitor experience functions as a mediator between perceptions of interpretation environment service quality and post-visit behavioral intentions.     

An exploratory inquiry into destination risk perceptions and risk reduction strategies of first time vs. repeat visitors to a highly volatile destination

The paper examines the relationships between first-time vs. repeat visitors to a highly volatile destination in terms of destination risk perceptions, risk reduction strategies and motivation for the visit. The exploratory research question centers on possible differences in tourist behavioral profiles associated with their decision to visit a foreign destination again. Set in Israel, a highly volatile tourist destination, researchers interviewed 760 international tourists using a questionnaire classifying them as either first-time or repeat visitors. Discriminant analysis revealed that first-time visitors were characterized by human-induced risk, socio-psychological risk, food safety and weather risk. In contrast, repeat visitors were associated with the destination risk factors of financial risk, service quality risk, natural disasters and car accidents. First-time vs. repeat visitors were also compared and contrasted in terms of risk reduction strategies such as consulting with people who had previously visited specific destinations and gathering information from travel agents. Differences between first-time and repeat visitors were also found regarding motivations for the visit. Similar analyses were conducted on the three sub-groups of repeat visitors, classified in terms of number of visits.     

Beyond Better Wine: The Impact of Experiential and Monetary Value on Wine Tourists’ Loyalty Intentions

Research on the experiential aspects of wine tourism has been advocated but the evolution of this approach in this field is still in its infancy. This exploratory study proposes a behavioral model to simultaneously examine the role of hedonic and utilitarian shopping value as well as monetary value perceptions in predicting cellar door visitors’ overall satisfaction and loyalty intentions. The application of partial least squares path modeling indicates that cellar door visitors are oriented toward the experiential aspects of the visit itself as much as to pragmatic considerations in purchasing wine. The insights are, therefore, directed toward the creation of a total cellar door experience. These findings contribute to the understanding of a cellar door visitors’ decision-making process, providing managers and researchers with insights into how to effectively accommodate cellar door visitors’ needs.     

Examination of benefits sought by hiking tourists: a comparison of impact-range performance analysis and impact asymmetry analysis

This study assesses the benefits of hiking for visitors to the Jeju Olle Trail on Jeju Island in Korea, which has been designated as a World Heritage Site. Data were collected from a total of 318 tourists visiting the Jeju Olle Trail. The study focused on comparing the benefits sought by first-time visitors and those of repeat visitors. Analytical results found that first-time visitors and repeat visitors sought different benefits from their hiking experiences. First-time visitors sought to observe nature and interact with people. For first-time visitors, benefits that delighted them were buying unique souvenirs and enjoying educational experiences, whereas repeat visitors demonstrated a good assessment on interactions with new people and buying unique souvenirs.     

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.     

Tourist merchandise’ as a means of generating local benefits from ecotourism

Long term protection of national parks and nature reserves is very difficult unless economic benefits can be secured for local people. Ecotourism offers a possible income source, provided that there is a means of local revenue capture from the visitors. This article examines the sale of handicrafts and other ‘tourist merchandise’ as a possible means of generating local benefits. The article considers issues of supply and demand, new product development, marketing, and the sustainability of supply of materials used as inputs. It concludes that strong possibilities exist for market development and creation of new, sustainable, culturally acceptable products. Of particular interest are active linking of tourist merchandise production to agricultural or forestry projects that provide a sustainable supply of inputs, use of ‘craft as performance’ to promote product sale, and development of products that educate tourists about park resources and local cultures.