In rural destinations, community festivals and events displaying agricultural and livestock exhibits with a combination of entertainment activities are one of the heritage attractions that draw large numbers of visitors. They have not only provided an economic stimulus along with social and cultural benefits to these small communities, but also played a role in increasing the tourism appeal to nonlocal visitors. Considering the significance of a rural community festival to its hosting local residents and out-of-town visitors, attracting and keeping a flow of visitors has been of great importance for both the festival organizers and destination marketing organizations. In this respect, identification with and retention of loyal visitors who are psychologically committed to the festival are a practical means for ensuring a consistent number of visitors to that festival and its hosting community. The present study examined how festival visitors' develop loyalty to festivals and hosting communities through the affective and psychological processes within the Mehrabian-Russell (M-R) model. Specifically, this study explored how emotions engendered through tourism product consumption influence visitors' psychological attachment, evaluations of their festival and place experiences, and loyalty in a festival context. The study further examined if festival visitors' positive experiences could have an influence on their preference of festival communities. Through an onsite and follow-up mixed-mode survey, data were collected during Spring/Summer 2008 from visitors to three community festivals in Texas. Data analysis was performed using structural question modeling (SEM). The study findings provided empirical evidence in support of the M-R model within the festival contexts. The study results revealed that festival atmospherics had a positive indirect effect on festival loyalty via positive emotions, festival commitment, and festival satisfaction, which in turn positively influenced place loyalty. Additionally, the findings in this study provided empirical support for the applicability of product consumption emotions to visitors' emotions generated from tourism product consumption situation specific to the festival contexts. The findings of the study have theoretical and practical implications. For theory, these findings offer support for the M-R model within festival context. The model's focus on emotional response to environmental stimuli is an important addition to established cognitive-based models of loyalty development processes. For practice, the study offers some guidance for festival organizers and destination marketing managers for developing effective marketing strategies that focus on the festival atmospherics that ultimately retain and attract new festival goers.

Cette thèse porte sur l’engagement psychologique optimal (Brault-Labbé et al., 2008, 2009, 2010), des adultes en formation continue au Burkina Faso. Il s’agit d’identifier les contributions des facteurs de motivations de formation (Fenouillet et al., 2015), de motivations de carrière (London, 1983), de soutiens sociaux perçus (Zimet et al.,1988), de soutiens organisationnels perçus (Eisenberger et al, 1986) et de perception d’autonomie (Vallerand et al., 1997), dans l’engagement psychologique en formation.La première étude qualitative est conduite à partir du verbatim de vingt-sept (27) entretiens semi-directif et un traitement automatique de contenu à l’aide du logiciel Alceste. L’hypothèse portant sur l’existence de « mondes lexicaux » différenciés relatifs à l’engagement psychologique et aux variables explicatives de cette recherche est invalidée. L’engagement psychologique optimal est unidimensionnel dans cette recherche, contrairement au modèle original tridimensionnel (Brault-Labbé et al., 2008, 2009, 2010).La deuxième étude quantitative s’appuie sur cinq des sept étapes de la méthodologie d’adaptation transculturelle des échelles préconisées par Vallerand (1989). Une première étape d’analyse exploratoire a permis l’épuration des six outils. La deuxième étape d’analyse confirmatoire s’appuie sur les données de trois-cent-soixante-onze (371) questionnaires. Les résultats confirment l’existence de corrélations positives et significatives entre l’engagement psychologique optimal en formation et les variables explicatives. Ce sont les motivations de carrière, les soutiens sociaux perçus, et la perception d'autonomie qui rendent compte de l’engagement psychologique unidimensionnel. Ce résultat indique, contrairement au modèle original tridimensionnel (Brault-Labbé et al., 2008, 2009, 2010), que l’engagement psychologique optimal est un construit unidimensionnel avec un contenu affectif, cognitif et comportemental.Mots-clés : Burkina-Faso, engagement psychologique, logiciel Alceste, motivations de carrière, perception d'autonomie, soutien social perçu. / This doctoral thesis base on the three-dimensional model of the optimal psychology commitment (Brault-Labbé et al., 2008, 2009, 2010), applied to adults in continuing education in Burkina Faso. It aims to explore the influence of training motivation (Fenouillet et al., 2015), carrer motivation (London, 1983), perceived social supports (Zimet et al.,1988), perceived organizational supports (Eisenberger et al., 1986), and the perception of autonomy (Vallerand et al., 1997).The first qualitative study is based on data from twenty-seven (27) semi-structured interviews whose corpus is subjected to automatic content processing using the Alceste software. The interview focused on the existence of differentiated classes of "lexical universes" relating to the psychological commitment and to the explanatory variables of this research. The hypothesis supporting the existence of differentiated lexical contents is invalidated. In this research, unlike the original three-dimensional model (Brault-Labbé et al., 2008, 2009, 2010), the construct of optimal psychological commitment is one-dimensional.The second quantitative study is conducted, in the final phase, using data from three hundred and seventy-one (371) questionnaires from the six scales of this research. Exploratory and confirmatory analyzes supported by cross-cultural adaptation of the tools were carried out according to five of the seven recommended steps of Vallerand (1989).The question was what training and career motivations motivate adults in their psychological commitment to training on the one hand? and on the other hand, what perceptions do they have of social and organizational supports, as well as their perception of autonomy in this commitment?The results confirm, on the one hand, the hypothesis of the existence of positive and significant correlations between the optimal psychological commitment to training and the explanatory variables. Likewise, it is the career motivations, perceived social supports, and the perception of autonomy that account for one-dimensional psychological commitment.This result shows, contrary to the original three-dimensional model (Brault-Labbé et al., 2008, 2009, 2010), that optimal psychological commitment is a one-dimensional construct with affective, cognitive and behavioural content.Keywords: Burkina Faso, psychological commitment, Alceste software, career motivations, training motivations, perception of autonomy, perceived support.