Search results

In this paper, the authors explore how Edinburgh's key Festivals have adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their response presents the emergence of more innovative festival delivery models and a different imagining of the festival space.

The authors use a qualitative mixed methods research design involving 13 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Edinburgh's Festival Directors and other cultural and policy stakeholders as part of a University-funded stand-alone research project. The interviews were supplemented with participant observation at festivals virtually and in-person to experience new and emerging formats of festival content delivery, adherence to Scottish Government guidelines on COVID-19 safety, and to experience attending festivals during a pandemic.

The authors present findings on how Edinburgh's Festivals have responded to Covid-19 and how they have adapted – and in some cases reimagined – their business models to survive.

The authors propose a new theoretical framework that establishes a model for how festivals can approach risk management within their business model, focused on the ‘3R's’ – respond, resilience and reimagine –with communication and support being central to this framework.

The events and festivals literature relies on theories and models borrowed from tourism studies which may insufficiently account for the unique characteristics of events and festivals. Using four case studies from Australia, United Arab Emirates and the UK, this paper aims to analyse events and festival life cycles using the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) framework (Butler, 1980).

The paper is conceptual in that it theorises the range of event and festival life cycle trajectories; however, four event case studies are also used to illustrate this approach.

Findings facilitate an extension of Butler’s model to include additional trajectories and accompanying underpinning critical factors that better explain and predict the nature of events and festivals.

The paper is based on four case studies from the cultural sector which is ideal for developing theory but limits the contexts examined in this paper. The findings are only applicable to recurring events and festivals.

In the new model, seven different pathways, ranging from continued growth to cancellation, suggest potential opportunities and risks for events and festivals. The results are of particular relevance for event managers, who can use the case studies and trajectories as reference points for event growth and consolidation.

The case studies reveal that successful events are seen to have strong ties to their local communities and are rooted in the destination.

The paper’s originality is in both the context of utilising diverse international cultural festival and events as case studies and the proposal of seven alternative pathways for events and festivals, which extend Butler’s TALC to the unique context of these temporal phenomena.

This editorial aims to provide a brief overview of recent developments in the events industry in general, and in Asia and the MENA region in particular. The discussion forms a prelude for the individual contributions of this special issue.

The papers cover a variety of different research methods and methodologies including both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Setting the stage for the selection of papers is a thought‐provoking introduction, followed by six papers that aim to provide insights into key issues by examining pertinent literature, addressing relevant research questions, and providing applied and theoretical outcomes relevant to both academics and practitioners in the event and festival fields. These papers cover the variety, scope and diversity of events in Asia and MENA region, with a mixture of papers that examine event‐specific aspects and those that approach the subject from a broader destination/policy perspective.

The selection of papers are unique as they provide a thorough and extensive insight into the opportunities and challenges facing emergent festival and event destinations in Asia and the MENA region.

Wine tourism is a growing segment of the tourism industry. Wine tourists are not a homogeneous group, but seek differing components of the overall wine tourism experience. This research evaluates their demand for an educational element in the overall process, within Australia. Personal surveys were carried out in two wine regions in Western Australia. Respondents were questioned on their previous experience of wine education, the possibilities for learning at the cellar door, the benefits of wine education, and how far their expectations for wine education had been met. The research yielded findings from which broad visitor profiles of the Western Australian wine tourist can be constructed, as well as general conclusions on the provision of wine education at the cellar door. Some variation between responses from the two regions are also reported.

Education is seen to be a key ingredient in today's wine marketing and an important tool for the winery in attracting and maintaining its consumer base in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Wine education therefore plays an important part in the health and future of the industry: ‘Wine education plays a key role in converting the occasional wine drinker into a dedicated wine appreciator.’ (The Australian Grapegrower and Winemaker, 1996). Until recently wine research has focused on the specialisms and technicalities associated with winemaking and neglected the importance of research activity into the motivations and behavioural patterns of the wine consumer. This paper will report on the findings from the initial qualitative research process. The exploratory stage involved identifying and conducting key informant interviews with owners or managers of wineries with an education focus in the Swan Valley and Margaret River wine regions. Focusing on the provision for consumer education within wineries in Western Australia, the research aims to identify current awareness levels amongst Australian winery owners into the value and importance of education to the wine tourist. Demandby wine tourists for educational provision within the winery setting was also examined.

The paper seeks to examine the concepts, types and implications of festival innovation and failure.

A review of extant literature is undertaken and examples of innovation and failure in three festivals are used to demonstrate the simultaneity and co‐dependency of innovation and failure in the process of festival management.

It is apparent that many forms of program, market, service, organisational and financial innovation are available to festival managers. Many involve risk of failure due to the resource dependency theory postulated in the literature, as well as more pragmatic reasons including bad weather and managerial incompetence.

Festival managers responses to the dual challenges of embracing innovation and avoiding failure will determine the future of festivals, so it is vital that knowledge is developed.

There is limited literature on festival management innovation and failure and limited information available to festival managers regarding the nature of festivals that facilitate innovation or failure. This paper makes an original contribution to these important issues in festival management.

This paper aims to briefly consider the socio‐political and economic ramifications of mega event hosting in emergent economies.

Conceptual.

The mega event landscape is undergoing significant change over the medium term. However, current trends suggest little of the dysfunction of prior mega event hosting will automatically disappear with a change of geographic focus to emergent economies. Indeed, whilst location may change, cultural content, organisation and, critically, uneven socio‐economic outcomes appear depressingly resistant to change. There is, therefore, an opportunity to refashion the hosting of mega events in ways which are more embedded, locally oriented, inclusive and diverse, but only if the objectives and metrics of success are wider than the purely financial or economic‐developmental.

The paper takes a historic overview of weaknesses in prior mega event hosting to suggest that a thoughtful consideration of the organisation and objectives of events held in emerging economies is necessary if wider benefits and a more diverse and sustainable event landscape are to be achieved.

The study has three objectives. The first objective of this paper is to investigate the underlying dimensions of motivation for attending an international festival in Turkey and whether motivation will vary across six different festival products (symphony, rock, world music, dance, ballet, and theater). The second purpose is to understand how festival attendees perceive the socio‐economic impacts of the festival and how these perceived impacts vary across different festival attendee groups. Finally, the study examines the overall satisfaction of festival attendees with respect to different festival products.

The empirical data was collected by way of self‐administered questionnaires to obtain perceptions and motivations of 523 attendees in Eskisehir International Festival.

The results showed that there were significant differences in motivation among attendees from six different festival products. Duncan's multiple‐range tests were performed to further examine differences in motivation among these attendees. The mean scores of different groups indicate that “rock event” attendees tended to have lower motivation scores than other groups and have the lowest ratings on the factor of “family togetherness”. However, attendees did not differ on the perceived importance of socio‐economic impacts and satisfaction with the festival, irrespective of the festival product attended.

Festivals and special events have increased worldwide because they provide significant economic, socio‐cultural, and political impacts on destinations. While a plethora of studies have examined tourists' motivation and socio‐economic impacts, little research has been conducted on the motivation and socio‐economic impact of festival attendees with regard to different product offerings.