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.     

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.     

Celebration of heritage: linkages between historical re-enactment festival attributes and attendees’ value perception

ABSTRACT

Community-based festivals celebrate a sense of community and place. Communities across the United States (US) and elsewhere have turned to various community-based events to celebrate local heritage and culture. This study investigates the relationship between the attributes of a historical re-enactment festival and participants’ perceived value. Drawing on means–end theory and event experience literature, we examined event attributes, perceived benefits, and attendees’ perceived value in the context of a historical re-enactment festival in the Midwestern US. The results highlighted the importance of four attributes of historical re-enactment festivals, namely historical re-enactment, social interactions, event design, and physical facets. Each factor contributed differently to attendees’ perceived value of such a festival experience. In addition, perceived benefits of attending such an event mediated the relationships between event attributes and perceived value. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.     

Socio-spatial authenticity at co-created music festivals

From the early days of hippie counter-culture, music festivals have been an important part of the British summer. Today they are commercialised offerings without the counter-cultural discourse of earlier times. Drawing on participant observation, interviews and focus groups conducted at a rock festival and a smaller boutique festival, the paper examines how their design, organisation and management are co-created with participants to produce authentic experiences. The paper contributes to research on authenticity in tourism by examining how authenticity emerges and is experienced in such co-created commercial settings. It presents the importance that the socio-spatial plays in authenticity experiences and how socio-spatial experience and engagement can also be recognised as a form of aura.     

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2: understanding mobile device use at festivals

ABSTRACT

This research advances understanding of mobile device use in a leisure context by applying and expanding the Unified Theory of the Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) to festival settings. Through on-site surveys at three festivals the UTAUT2 model and an adapted version for mobile device use at a festival were examined using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Results reveal that the modified UTAUT2 demonstrates good fit, and the main factors affecting device use at festivals are performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, habit and age. The findings suggest that the festival context plays an important role in understanding use and should be included in future research. By knowing factors that affect use, practitioners can design experiences where technology enhances the festival and does not interfere with attendees’ experiences.     

Effect of Health and Wellness Values on Festival Visit Motivation

Understanding the motivation to visit particular tourist destinations and festivals is important for building effective tourism marketing strategies. This paper explores the effect of existing health and wellness values on the motivation to visit a festival using a field survey at the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival, a typical Australian festival which uses the natural environment, traditions and local produce to provide 21 events during the festival. The study focused on establishing the relationship between health and wellness values and festival attendees' motivation. Qualitative research with random sampling was selected to collect the data. The results revealed high levels of health and wellness values among the participants as well as social interaction, family togetherness, cultural exploration, novelty, natural environment, relaxation, previous food festival experience and food as motivations. Findings of this paper can contribute to festival tourism marketing especially to demonstrate that health-related interests can be significant catalysts for attracting festival attendees.     

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.     

Should there be more showers at the summer music festival? Studying the contextual dependence of resource consuming conventions and lessons for sustainable tourism

Summer music festivals that involve a few days of camping have often been linked to sustainability agendas. Yet relevant studies have so far overlooked how these events can themselves serve as experiments in less resource consumptive living. Building on a wider interest in the cultural evolution of cleanliness norms, this paper explores how attendees come to use water in personal washing at two UK festivals. Through survey, observation and interview research, it examines how current festival goers respond to the disruption of their usual washing regimes, paying particular attention to how a combination of social and infrastructural cues serves to encourage the emergence of a temporary new cleanliness culture. Doing so highlights the value of seeing human resource consumption as a matter of dynamic collective convention more than fixed personal preference since these respondents were seen to embrace a new relationship with washing that was otherwise deemed unthinkable. This leads to a broader discussion of how visitor needs and the social world are most usefully studied by both future festival organisers and the wider field of sustainable tourism research.     

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.     

App users’ emotional reactions and festival satisfaction: the mediating role of situational involvement

In the context of festivals, the proportion of mobile app users appears to be continuously rising. However, academia has not systematically researched festival-related apps. The few existing studies have primarily adopted the technology acceptance model to investigate the factors that influence the willingness of festival participants to use apps. By adopting situational involvement-related theories, the current study aims to explore the relationship between emotional reactions, the situational involvement of users of official festival apps, and users’ overall satisfaction with the festival, thus bridging the gap between the use of official apps and users’ experience satisfaction with the festival.     

Tourist loyalty to a local cultural event: The case of Turkmen handicrafts festival

The purpose of this research was to examine a comprehensive model of attendee loyalty at a local festival. More specifically, the research tested a model linking festival authenticity to festival quality, value, satisfaction, trust and loyalty to a given festival. Using convenience sampling method, empirical data was collected at the Turkmen handicrafts festival in Gonbad-e-Kavoos, the most important city in the Turkmen Sahra region, Iran. A sample of 301 domestic tourists who attended the festival was surveyed. Applying structural equation modeling, the findings showed that perceived authenticity influenced perceived quality, value and satisfaction. Perceived quality was found to have the direct effect on perceived value, satisfaction and trust. Perceived value affected satisfaction, trust and loyalty. Satisfaction had the direct effect on loyalty and so did trust.     

Liminality and festivals—Insights from the East

This research extends our knowledge of liminality through investigating how the liminal experiences of festival-goers are constructed in a Chinese music festival context. The research employs a multi-site data collection approach undertaking field observations and 68 in-depth semi-structured interviews at seven music festivals across three years. The study contributes to the theoretical development of a liminality framework by providing empirical evidence of the nature of liminality. It extends our understanding of event tourist experiences by highlighting the development and role of three types of communitas and identifying six stages within a rite of passage. The resulting multifaceted coexistence of liminal behaviours and identity with everyday routine life provides a new approach to the critical understanding of the role of liminality.     

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.     

Impacts of festivals and events on residents’ well-being

This study investigated how residents’ participation in local festivals may influence their subjective-well-being and their quality of life. Using data collected from local attendees of a film festival, this study examined the relationship between socio-cultural impacts of a festival and subjective well-being of local residents. Findings revealed that while community benefits and cultural/educational benefits are positive predictors of subjective well-being of residents, quality life concerns were found to have negative impact on the well-being of residents. Findings also revealed no significant relationship between community resource concerns and subjective well-being of residents.     

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.     

节事价值共创的非对称性及影响因素——基于观众和演职人员主体

主体间的价值共创是节事活动创新与发展的重要推力,既有研究指出价值共创机制受参与主体和多种因素的共同影响,但是各因素聚类特征、充要条件及共创路径稳健性之间的影响机理尚存争议。文章基于观众和演职人员价值共创的主体间性,调研了720份有效样本,基于三因素理论和结构模型定量研究节事价值共创参与度、原真性和地方依恋因素的非对称性及影响机理,得到如下结论:(1)因素聚类的非对称性是导致主体内行为策略非对称性的主因;(2)因素聚类的非对称性又是导致价值共创充要条件非对称性的主因;(3)主体间价值共创的充要条件影响共创路径的稳健性;(4)应重视研究价值共创机制中因素聚类、充要条件及共创路径稳健性之间的理论关系。     

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.     

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.     

Green events,value perceptions,and the role of consumer involvement in festival design and performance

This study explores the dimensionality of event attendees’ “green” involvement in festival settings. Given growing interest in environmental issues, it explores relationships between eco-friendly services, and visitor perceptions, intentions, or choices, using the theory of involvement, and involvement–value relationship studies. Special attention is given to comparative advantages attained by events having green policies and practices, and to assessing how much attendees will pay for those practices through event spending. A green involvement scale was developed, tested, validated and refined, before being used at the major Macau Food Festival, obtaining a 406 person data set, which was analyzed by factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results had both theoretical and managerial implications. There is a strong linkage between green involvement and perceived value. To obtain maximum comparative advantage, however, marketing efforts must focus on promoting green initiatives. For example, attendees who take an interest in and feel connected to environmental issues in their life will spend significantly more. Green design and waste management were the most important drivers of perceived green value, followed by green food and green environment and activities. Our findings show that festival attendees will pay 28% more for green food if they perceive the event offers them green values.     

Clustering attendees at the Philharmonic Orchestra’s Summer Festival

There has been an increase in the number of arts and music festivals held annually in South Africa. These festivals range from wide all-encompassing arts festivals, such as the National Arts Festival, to specific festivals that cater for very specific audiences, such as the Jazz Festival and the Philharmonic Orchestra Festival. It may therefore be expected that the attendees of the various types of festivals would differ quite substantially. While much research has been conducted to understand visitor behaviour at general arts festivals and the economic contributions of these festivals, attendees of these more specialised events have been neglected. However, understanding who the attendees are and their behaviour is paramount to the sustainability of these festivals. Therefore, this paper aims to address this void and set the following objectives: (1) to compile a profile of attendees at the Philharmonic Orchestra Festival; (2) to cluster attendees of the Festival into distinct groups; and (3) to compare the various clusters with one another. Data were obtained by administrating 500 visitor questionnaires during January 2010. Using cluster analysis, visitors are grouped based on various characteristics and the differences between the clusters are explored using factor analysis and analysis of variance. Main results indicate that most visitors are mature in age and well educated, from which three clusters were identified with differences evident between the clusters.