What Makes People Travel to Cultural Heritage Festival?

Abstract

Heritage tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry and there is also a trend towards an increased specialization among travelers. More and more, well-educated and mature travelers seek interactive learning experiences. Festivals, a fast-growing tourism segments, can serve as a powerful tool to attract tourists during the off-season and create an image and awareness for an area. Therefore, to explore the relationship between visitor motivation and satisfaction with a local cultural heritage festival, this study investigated visitor motivation and satisfaction with Anseong Baudeogi Festival. Nineteen heritage festival motivation variables were organized and reduced to four dimensions by Factor analysis; the cultural learning, escape everyday life, desire authenticity and sought enjoyment/socialization. Also, these motivation factors were examined to identify statistical differences by visitor characteristics using ANOVA and t-tests. Next, Cluster analysis categorized festival visitors into four segments with the largest groups being ‘authenticity/history seekers’ (30%) and ‘enjoyment/socialization seekers’ (29.4%). Finally, regression analysis identified a positive relationship between visitor motivation factors and satisfaction. Among the four motivation factors, ‘Authenticity’ showed the most effective relationship with visitor’s satisfaction.