Event Visitors Research Articles

Regionalization and analysis of rally event visitors: A case study of Czech Rally Championship events

Regionalization and analysis of rally event visitors: A case study of Czech Rally Championship events

Economic impact analysis of developing the JR Haneda Airport Access Line

The East Japan Railway Company is planning a new access railway line to the Tokyo International (Haneda) Airport. This paper proposes an evaluation method for the development of the new airport access line considering the socioeconomic characteristics of the Greater Tokyo Area and indicates what is needed to increase its social value. As the evaluation method, we develop an econometric model that considers commuters’ trip behaviors across prefectures and the relationship between the increased number of Meeting, Incentive Travel, Convention, Exhibition and Event (MICE) visitors and the regional economy. We also conduct a simulation analysis using an empirical econometric model and a cost-effectiveness analysis based on multiple scenarios. The results indicate that a 50% increase in MICE visitors is needed to make the present discounted value of the total increase in the gross regional product larger than the construction cost of the line.

Unveiling the Experiences at Iranian Food Events: A Qualitative Approach and Conceptual Framework

This study aims to explore the experiences sought by visitors in Iranian food festivals, addressing a research gap in understanding successful food events from the customer's perspective, particularly in the Middle East. The research was conducted in Tehran, Iran, using focus groups as the research method, with the participation of twenty-eight food event visitors. This study reveals that visitors' experiences in food events encompass four components: food sensory, learning, culture, and entertainment. Built on the experience economy model, this study proposes a preliminary conceptual framework which categorizes the four components of food festival experience into two dimensions: the area of interest and the level of engagement. The findings of this research offer valuable insights for event planners to enhance visitors' experiences at food events hosted in Middle Eastern countries.

Visitor Emotional Solidarity and Planned Behavior Effects on Leisure and Tourism Development in Ghana

The study seeks to develop a relationship between Emotional Solidarity (ES) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in predicting visitors’ behavioral intentions to attend leisure events in Ghana. ES Scale (ESS) modified with Tourism Impact Attitude Scale was employed. The data used IBM SPSS 25.0 and SmartPLS 3.3.9 for analysis. The hypotheses were explored using PLS-SEM. ES factors significantly positively affect visitors’ attitudes towards tourism development. The TPB significantly predicted the behavioral intentions of leisure event visitors. The study specifically suggests the promotion of tourism development with high perceived behavioral control, individual attitude, and subjective norms.

Applying the Model of Event Portfolio Tourism Leverage: A Study of the Volvo Ocean Race in Cardiff, UK

This study contributes to the extant literature on the leveraging of event portfolios, by applying the Model of Event Portfolio Tourism Leverage to a case study of the Volvo Ocean Race in Cardiff, UK. Through an examination of the various components of the model, the research demonstrates the value of the strategies and tactics it proposes, including the amplification of visitor numbers, diversification of tourism offerings, extension of the tourism season, fostering of event tourism networks, consolidation of destination assets, and bolstering of destination authenticity. Empirical data collected from three separate surveys, strategy documents, and feedback from stakeholders are analyzed to support this argument. The study also acknowledges some challenges to strategic portfolio management, particularly due to the fragmented nature of events suppliers in destinations and the difficulty in assessing the impact of leveraging actions, in the absence of benchmark data related to event visitors.

THE DETERMINATION OF VISITS AS IMPORTANT CRITERION FOR EVENT MANAGEMENT IN THE FIELD OF SERVICES

The article considers the determination of visits as an important criterion for event management. Concepts, theoretical methods and bases of application of methods of determination of visits of events are often considered by domestic and foreign scientists that testify to necessity of the decision of various tasks in this context. It is important to determinate such criterions as average length of stay, average number of visitors, relative length of stay, coefficient of visitors, coefficient of variation, peak number of visitors, average number of visitors, space capacity. This allows event management units and business leaders to adjust the resources, procedures, indicators, standards, etc., necessary for more effective implementation of event activities. Criteria for forecasting the number of event visitors have been developed. Correctly determining the number of guests is important due to the fact that empty rooms are as critical to the perception of the event as long queues. A large number of participants are necessary for financial success, but exceeding the permissible capacity is fraught with various risks and problems. The importance of such attendance indicators was determined as: average length of stay, average number of visitors, relative length of stay, visitor rate, variation rate, peak occupancy, average occupancy and possession. This allows event management stakeholders and business managers to set up the resources, procedures, indicators, standards, etc., necessary for more effective implementation of events. In the case of a long or prolonged event, certain components of the event, days or places of their holding can be evaluated according to these criteria. Thanks to this, the main "centers of attraction" (areas with a high number of visitors) and "bottlenecks" (areas with a high degree of capacity utilization) are distinguished.

How do event zones influence visitor behaviour and engagement with host destinations? A longitudinal study of the Cambridge half marathon (2017–2020)

This work identifies important influencing factors that affect event visitor behaviour in and beyond event zones, utilising a four-year, mixed-method, longitudinal study (n=6212) of the Cambridge Half Marathon (2017–2020). We counter a commonly held view that visitors naturally spill out into local cultural and business precincts, arguing that event zones represent cities within cities that spatially segregate visitors from the host destination; only 7% of the sample engaged in longer and deeper cultural stays. Quantitative data reveals statistically significant demographic and tripographic factors that increase the likelihood of visitors venturing beyond the event zone, whilst qualitative data reveals the behavioural and organisational factors that encourage or discourage engagement. Managerial tactics and strategies for encouraging visitors to venture beyond event zones, across host destinations, to optimise local economic benefits across the host destination are presented.

The Quality of Crowd Management and Its Impact on the Experience of Event Visitors in Riyadh Season

This research aims to measure visitors’ satisfaction and investigate how crowd management plans and service quality affects visitors’ satisfaction in the Riyadh Season mega-event, To understand how visitors’ experiences at the Riyadh Season affect their return intentions, To examine how health and safety practices affect visitors’ experience and satisfaction at the Riyadh Season. Whereas the events that attract many people necessitate the organizers to have a crowd management plan and robust safety procedures to minimize possible risks. Whether sporting events, celebrity events, or major festivals, many people gathered in one place can have fatal consequences if not properly planned and controlled. Crowd management is essential for tourist attraction sites, especially for destinations that attract many visitors. A cross sectional survey approach was used to gather information and achieve the study purpose. Survey questionnaire was distributed to 542 participants through Google survey. Quantitative analysis using SPSS was performed on the data collected. The findings showed that service quality positively impact customer satisfaction. Similarly, quality health and safety measures enhance customer experience and satisfaction. The result also found that satisfaction with Riyadh season events increased their return intentions.

Comparison of visitor motives for food & wine events in the Western Cape, South Africa

Purpose – his study analyses the motives of visitors to two food and wine events in the Western Cape, South Africa. Its purpose is to enhance the ongoing success, sustainability, and distinctiveness of these culinary events in comparison to alternative leisure and entertainment activities. Methodology/Design/Approach – A spatial systematic approach was used to survey 680 event visitors. Visitors self-completed the structured questionnaires with mostly closed-ended questions. Findings –Preliminary results suggest that visitors to food and wine events come for largely the same reasons. More detailed analyses revealed that food and wine event visitors place more importance on certain factors, suggesting that the visitors will have different leisure behaviours and needs in terms of event product requirements. Originality of the research – The findings help identify visitors to food and wine events in the Western Cape, allowing for targeted marketing and tailored event offerings. This increases the precision and effectiveness of marketing and supports the successful development of future events. The study provides valuable insights into the motivations for attending South African food and wine events, adding to the existing literature, which can also help to ensure the continued success, competitiveness and sustainability of these events in the region.

A Motive-based Segmentation of Special Event Visitors Interacting in Cultural Events

This study examined cultural event motivations from a market segmentation perspective to better understand why visitors engage in cultural event activity and their perceived quality of cultural event offerings. Motivational scales customized to the special event context were used. A total of 518 completed surveys were used for the analysis. The results of a cluster analysis clearly identified four clusters (segments) according to their motivations: mass visitors, enthusiast visitors, activities visitors, and inactive visitors. This study provides future academic research opportunities pertaining to the application of cultural event motivational scales. Event organizations can apply these results to the development of effective target market strategies.

Weather and Event Visitor Expenditures at a Professional Golf Tournament in the Netherlands

Most event organizers depend on visitor expenditures to generate revenue, yet the full economic potential of many events is not fully exploited. This unprecedented research examines if weather conditions contribute to greater visitor expenditures. Data were collected from 2,935 in-person administered surveys at a major golf tournament in the Netherlands over a period of 3 years and examined sociodemographic characteristics, behavior, motive variables, and weather conditions to determine their relationship with visitor expenditures. The results show that the amount of rain was related to visitor expenditures and not air temperature. To maximize the visitor expenditures for events like outdoor golf tournaments it is recommended to choose a dry over a warmer period.

Segmenting cultural event visitors using the latent class approach: the case of “Sensational Umbria” photo exhibition by Steve McCurry

Segmenting cultural event visitors using the latent class approach: the case of “Sensational Umbria” photo exhibition by Steve McCurry

How Sustainable Social Media Advertising Affect Visitors’ Decision to Attend a Festival Event?

This research aims to investigate the possibilities of event visitors being persuaded to purchase tickets by music festival advertising on social media. Music festival and social media in general were chosen to be analyzed in two major areas: advertising formats and persuasion. Moreover, general perception towards music festival advertising on social media and the relationship between social media advertising with tactics were examined. The main objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between the use of social media advertising and the purchase of music festival tickets. To investigate the analysis of how consumers perceived music festival advertising on social media and the possibilities of being persuaded to purchase the festival ticket, a quantitative offline questionnaire method was adopted and applied. It was identified that general perception toward music festival advertising on social media is positive. Furthermore, it was found that being persuaded by social media advertisement to purchase music festival ticket is positive as well. The findings of this study concluded that consumers might be persuaded to purchase the music festival ticket although different conditions were applied to the social media advertising.

State-space models reveal bursty movement behaviour of dance event visitors

Pedestrian movements during large crowded events naturally consist of different modes of movement behaviour. Despite its importance for understanding crowd dynamics, intermittent movement behaviour is an aspect missing in the existing crowd behaviour literature. Here we analyse movement data generated from nearly 600 Wi-Fi sensors during large entertainment events in the Johan Cruijff ArenA football stadium in Amsterdam. We use the state-space modeling framework to investigate intermittent motion patterns. Movement models from the field of movement ecology are used to analyse individual pedestrian movement. Joint estimation of multiple movement tracks allows us to investigate statistical properties of measured movement metrics. We show that behavioural switching is not independent of external events, and the probability of being in one of the behavioural states changes over time. In addition, we show that the distribution of waiting times deviates from the exponential and is best fit by a heavy-tailed distribution. The heavy-tailed waiting times are indicative of bursty movement dynamics, which are here for the first time shown to characterise pedestrian movements in dense crowds. Bursty crowd behaviour has important implications for various diffusion-related processes, such as the spreading of infectious diseases.

Contextual engagement in event visitors’ experience and satisfaction

ABSTRACT This paper aims to advance the understanding of the experience-satisfaction relationship and the impact of the event context on such a relationship. In particular, there is an interplay between four dimensions of experience (i.e. affective, cognitive, physical, and novel) and satisfaction. The current study builds upon a primary dataset consisting of 1599 responses obtained from visitors attending two leisure activities, namely, a sport event and a music festival in Norway. The results show that the four experience dimensions’ direct effects on satisfaction differ between the two types of activities. The impact of affective engagement on satisfaction is significantly higher at the music festival than at the sport event, and the impact of cognitive engagement on satisfaction is significant at the sport event but not at the music festival. This paper highlights the importance of carefully managing events and festival engagement profiles to improve visitor satisfaction. Furthermore, it contributes to the literature by showing that the values assigned by respondents to cognitive, physical, and novel engagement differ significantly between sport events and music festivals and are contextually dependent.

STAKEHOLDER AND VISITOR REFLECTIONS OF SPORT BRAND POSITIONING IN SOUTH AFRICA

The purpose of this paper was to identify stakeholder and visitor perceptions of brand images of the South African destination brand in order to examine how sport is utilised as a catalytic agent for achieving brand positioning. Following a mixed method approach, in-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 24 sport, tourism, and government stakeholders. Survey questionnaires were administered with 403 sport event visitors at major events across South Africa. The results show congruence between stakeholder and sport event visitor perceptions on the multi-layered brand images of South Africa. Uniquely defined city brand images raise challenges and opportunities for establishing a coherent national brand positioning. The utilisation of sport for brand positioning is greatly dependent on brand distinctive ness and dedicated stakeholder vision and policy. The study provides a framework of recommendations that practically guide key industry stakeholders on value propositions that underpin brand positioning strategies. This study also makes a contribution to existing brand positioning t heories and practice by exploring the value proposition construct to a unique sport environment while employing real-life destination brand scenarios.

Speech as Noise Interference During a Mass Event

Participants of mass events are noise sources for surrounding area and perception of information. To rate the intelligibility of the signals of sound amplification systems and to design the instruments of the noise insolation, the methods of calculating the propagation of sound energy from distributed noise sources such as people are developed. Methods take into account features of the emission of sound energy by such sources. The features include time-varying acoustic and spatial characteristics of noise sources. They are associated with the random nature of the position and direction of noise emission from event visitors. The method of calculating the energy parameters of direct sound depends on the parameters of the noise source. The low density of people location implies to use the method of mathematical modeling, including the random position, orientation and duration of speech of noise sources. The increase in the mass character of events and the increase in the density of point noise sources are rational to use the integral calculation method. The numerical solution of the integral equation is implemented in a computer program and used for calculating the noise from fans of a football match at the stadium and adjacent urban development. The methods for calculating direct sound from distributed sources in the form of a circle, a circular sector and a rectangle are suggested on the basis of an analytical solution of integral expressions. Comparison of calculation results by developed methods and experimental data is performed. The discrepancy between the results in the most difficult situations doesn’t exceed ± 3 dB.

Analyzing and Building an Advertising Image of the Library through User Interviews

Over the past decades, advertising for the library has become a mandatory part of the activity, but the approach to its creation is largely based on accepted stereotypes that express the most common ideas about the properties of such a complex phenomenon as the target audience of the library. Advertising can be expressed through an advertising image that contains not only objective but also subjective information; it uses associations, metaphors, emotions, visualization of something that has a generalizing character, i. e. a layer of implicit information is added to the exact data and read automatically. One of the problems of creating an advertising image may be that there are contradictions between the perception of the person who creates an advertising based on a stereotype and its recipient. The article reflects the experience of the State Public Scientific Technological Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPSTL SB RAS) in the study of two groups — “Event visitors” and “Readers”. The study involved 326 people (254 visitors to mass events and 72 readers of the SPSTL SB RAS). The author tested the method of semi-formalized interview to get relevant information for better understanding the audience’s motivation and desires. It is assumed to use pre-made plan with a list of mandatory questions, while using general wording and their variations, “close to the text”, and observing the general logic in their sequence.The author analyses the data on distribution of users in both groups (“Event visitors” and “Readers”) by the age categories and employment areas; frequency of library visits; frequency of references to forms of work that are called in demand and found interesting in both groups; frequency of references to preferred information channels. The article presents the main positions for creating an advertising image of the library. The author shows the expediency of using the semi-formalized interview method to adjust the advertising image of the library and the campaign to promote events, resources and services based on it, both for individual groups and for several segments in parallel, if the library’s event or service does not have a specific addressee. The article reveals the method of work that can be applied in the analysis of the advertising image for other libraries.

The role of events in local development: An analysis of residents’ perspectives and visitor satisfaction

Tourism is arguably one of the most promising options for economic prosperity in rural areas. Effective strategies aiming at tourism development, however, should be based on a thorough analysis of residents' preferences as well as visitors' expectations and satisfaction. Hence, the aim of this paper is to investigate residents' views on tourism development and the contribution of various productive sectors to local development as well as to examine event visitors’ views and satisfaction level in a rural area in Greece. Results based on quantitative data collected via questionnaires showed that the residents perceived that nature-based types of tourism should be developed and preferred Greek rather than foreign investors to be involved in tourism development. Moreover, the majorities of visitors attending events regarded the study area as a value-for-money destination and experienced positive emotions during their stay. In addition, half of visitors attending a Christmas event expressed their willingness to attend the event again in the future whereas most film festival visitors were significantly less willing to do so. Moreover, the visitors of all events were highly satisfied with the natural environment in the destination. Finally, it may be concluded that events are able to establish areas as value-for-money destinations and to contribute to local development. The results presented in this paper may be particularly useful to local authorities and stakeholders involved in the development of tourism in rural areas both in Greece and elsewhere.

An Exploratory Analysis of Visitor Spending at a Cultural Event in Eswatini

Tourism is seen as a crucial part of the economy of eSwatini. eSwatini now focuses on marketing itself as a cultural tourism destination where tourists are able to experience ancient Swazi ceremonies such as the Umhlanga (Reed Dance) ceremony. Research into traditional rural, cultural events such as the Umhlanga ceremony has not received significant attention. This study presents an exploratory spending profile of visitors to the Umhlanga ceremony. A quantitative research method was utilised for the study. Data was analysed to determine general spending by event visitors on spending associated with the event. Lastly, data was analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) comparisons with Tukey's multiple comparisons and t-tests in order to determine if there were any significant associations between the demographic variables and the spending patterns. Findings indicated that place of residence, employment status, level of education, age, travel party size, local residential location, gender, transportation and number of visits had a significant influence on the average expenditure within the destination. This was the first study of its kind on a cultural event in eSwatini and it provides an insight into the complex nature of such events which may assist event stakeholders in enhancing the sustainability of these types of events in future.