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The purpose of this study was first to examine how goal-oriented attendees and experiential-oriented attendees were related with their overall satisfaction and loyalty of the destination with respect to international food and wine festival. It also investigated how these relations are mediated by different dimension of experiential consumption values such as consumer return on investment (CROI, active value), escapism (active value) and service excellence (reactive value) and aesthetics (reactive value).

Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to and collected from attendees at the 2011 Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival in Miami, Florida. A total of 450 subjects were collected from attendees indicating a response rate of about 88 per cent. Total 13 hypotheses were tested using structural equation model (SEM) with AMOS, and the results were interpreted adapting Mathwick’s (2001) typology of experiential value.

The findings indicate that goal-oriented attendees had stronger relationship with reactive experiential values such as service excellence and aesthetics than active values, whereas experiential-oriented attendees had more significant relations with active experiential values such as CROI and escapism than reactive values. In addition, CROI, escapism and service excellence were found to have a positive influence on the overall satisfaction with the festival; in turn, the attendees’ satisfaction had a positive effect on their intention to revisit the destination. Further, the results demonstrated that all experiential values, including CROI and escapism (active values), and service excellence and aesthetics (reactive values), played a mediating role between goal-oriented/experientially oriented attendee and satisfaction with the festival.

The festival organizers and managers should understand what drives the attendees’ participation in the festival. Implementing experiential marketing through various dimensions of experiential value can attract more potential attendees, provide unique experiences and create favorable perception toward the destination.

The research is original in terms of conceptualizing and empirically testing the relation between experiential consumption values and behavior loyalty within the special events and festivals with a specific focus on international food and wine festival. A finding of particular importance here is verifying the unique characteristics of goal-/experiential-oriented attendees in festival settings and determining the linkages between these different attendees and active/reactive experiential values, not to mention the relation with the overall satisfaction and loyalty to the festival destination.

This study compares the applicability of the zone of tolerance and importance-performance analysis (IPA) techniques in the evaluation of convention delegates’ perceptions of products and services. Overall, 217 cases out of 400 were used for analysis, a response rate of 54 percent. The study results indicate that although an IPA technique is still useful in assessing the service performance of a convention facility, IPA should be employed with caution, concrete criteria, and clear goals. The study results also show that the zone of tolerance is practically applicable into business practice to assess service performance item by item.

This study compares the applicability of the zone of tolerance (ZOT) and importance performance analysis (IPA) techniques in the evaluation of convention delegates’ perceptions of products and services. Overall, 217 out of 400 were used for analysis, providing a response rate of 54%. The study results indicated that although an IPA technique is still useful in assessing the service performance of a convention facility, IPA should be employed with caution, concrete criteria, and clear goals. The study results also showed that the ZOT is practically applicable into business practice to assess service performance item by item.

This article aims to provide a critical review of the articles included in this special issue and highlight their findings and contribution to events, festivals and destination management research.

The article critically reviews methodologies, findings, themes and conclusions offered by each article included in this special issue.

The articles in the special issue identify the latest thematic trends in events, festivals and destination management research and propose conceptual frameworks for event and festival life cycle trajectories. They build on previous research confirming how accessible tourism and a balanced event portfolio can increase the sustainability and competitiveness of the destination. Based on sound methodologies, they offer specific theoretical and practical implication for the successful planning, marketing and management of events, festivals and destinations. They provide suggestions on how event innovation, participatory sport events, mega sport events, food and wine festivals and meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) can assist in the marketing and branding of the tourism destination.

The articles in this special issue lay the foundation for future research in events, festivals and destination management. Articles in this special issue apply various research methods and analysis, indicating the growth of event and festival research. Research methods and analysis techniques used in the special issue include content/theme analysis, case studies, qualitative studies and questionnaires. The research articles and methodologies used in this issue should help both researchers and industry practitioners.

This study highlights key findings, theoretical and practical implications and contributions of the articles included in this special issue. It provides a holistic view of events, festivals and destination management research and suggests areas for future research.

This primer defines and describes conscious and nonconscious perception and assessment processes by tourists. The primer links the field of tourism perception studies to the literature of experimental social psychology. The primer describes the important roles that metaphors play in connecting conscious and nonconscious thinking and how both tourism brand managers and tourists use metaphors to use stories to enable enactments and favorable outcomes of archetypal motivations. The primer introduces formal implementable models of the major tenet in Urry’s tourist gaze – visitors’ home culture automatically and mostly nonconsciously profoundly influences their perceptions, assessments, and interpretations of what they see when traveling and visiting away destinations. Model implementation includes applying Boolean algebra-based asymmetric tests instead of symmetric matrix algebra-based statistical tests – the asymmetric tests examine for the consistency of high scores in perceiving, assessing, and behaviors of complex configurations of antecedent conditions. A detailed empirical example of asymmetric testing includes consistent high scores for Americans, Brits, Canadians, and Germans for not shopping for gifts to take home during their visits to Australia. This primer also introduces the concept of the tourist meta-gaze – seeing and assessing outside the automatically activated culturally based tourist gaze.