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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-05-688 |
| Date | 16 January 2010 |
| Creators | Lee, Ji Yeon |
| Contributors | Kyle, Gerard |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
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