Events and Festivals

Current Trends and Issues

Martin Robertson, Elspeth Frew

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781317995999
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Events and festivals have an increasingly vital role in our leisure lifestyles. We recognize them as part of our lives. For some, they are a very significant part of our lives.

The network of festivals and events that either adorn the world now, or are planned for the future, can both serve to motivate new visits as well as enhance the lives of the people who live in – or near – the host area. They are also dynamos of cultural development, of sport knowledge and excellence and sophisticated consumption. Such dynamic outputs require dynamic inputs. This book looks at different event and festival cases and forwards separate and current managerial implications and responses to these, with reference to the UK, America and Australia.

Both up-to-date and forward thinking, the managerial themes addressed are: Creative Management, Festival and Event audience development, Culture and Community, Event and Festival evaluation. Festival and event types include sport events, art festivals, community events, live music and culinary extravaganza.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Managing Leisure: An International Journal.

Local food festivals in Northeast Iowa communities: A visitor and economic impact study

Ariana Çela, Jill Knowles-Lankford and Sam Lankford

INTRODUCTION

Tourism, as the largest growing industry, is usually promoted by a country for its ability to spread economic development and reduce inequalities in income distribution. It can generate sales and output, labor earnings and employment, exchange earnings, improvement of balance of payments, important infrastructure development that benefit locals and tourists alike and it can contribute to diversifying the economic base (Durbarry, 2004; Frechtling and Horvath, 1999; Glasson et al., 1995; Lankford and Howard, 1994; Narayan, 2004; Reid, 2003; Oh, 2005). Therefore, efforts to maximise the economic benefits derived from tourism in destination areas have focused on marketing and management strategies to increase the number of tourists, their length of stay and their overall expenditures.

A complimentary way to enhance the benefits of tourism is to expand the economic linkages by increasing the amount of local food used in the industry (Hall, 2005; Telfer and Wall, 1996). The very nature of the food industry lends itself to a marriage with tourism. Food is associated with relaxation, communicating with others, learning about new things, and hospitality (modified from Bruwer, 2003). Food has become an increasingly important element in the tourism industry and up to 25% of total tourist expenditures is accounted for by foods (Hudman, 1986 as cited in Quan and Wang, 2004). Destinations are trying to incorporate local food and beverages in the tourism product, because the consumption of local food and beverages brings the tourists closer to the host culture (Plummer et al., 2005).

Rural communities, in particular, use food festivals to promote local commodities and differentiate themselves from urban community festivals (adapted from Emmons, 2001). Competition for visitors has compelled festival organizers to explore ways and means to increase attendance levels and self-generated revenues. Doing so has required them to look very carefully at their practices and focus on issues such as foods, crafts and customer service. However, very little is known about the characteristics, motivations and satisfaction of visitors to food tourism festivals.

The discretionary nature of expenditures at food festivals necessitates an understanding of visitor's spending behaviours and the underlying factors affecting such behaviour. Understanding expenditure patterns and activities of visitors during their visit to a specific destination is crucial for the strategic planning of events. Community developers and festival professionals can benefit from economic modeling to reveal the impact of tourist spending on the community. This information can help decision makers formulate plans that will help achieve development goals in the community, in particular, for seeking sponsorship for the festivals.

FOOD-BASED TOURISM FESTIVALS

Food and beverage tourism is increasingly being recognized as an important part of the cultural tourism market and particularly a major area of interest for rural regions (Hall and Mitchell, 2001; Hjalager and Richards, 2002). According to Santich (2004), the definition of food tourism includes gastronomic tourism, culinary tourism and cuisine tourism. Wine routes in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Australia, New Zealand and California, beer trails in Canada, aboriginal feasts, agritourism activities, cooking schools, farm vacations, farmers' markets, cheese and chocolate factories in Belgium, Switzerland and France are some of the examples of the food and beverage tourism development around the world.

Much research has been conducted on wine tourism (Hall et al., 2000; Hall, 2005; Getz, 2002; Poitras and Getz, 2006; Telfer, 2001) addressing different aspects on demand and supply sides of wine tourism. McBoyle (1996) examined visitor centers at Scottish malt whisky distilleries from the perspective of green tourism. Joliffe (2003) argues, in a discussion about tea attractions, tea tours and tea destinations, that tea tourism can encourage both consumption and the development of relationships with customers. Knowd (2006) explored a different dimension, that of the linkages between tourism and sustainable agriculture, where the primary motivation of the Hawkesbury community in Australia in engaging with harvest tourism was economic sustainability. Telfer and Wall (1996) discussed the complexity of the relationship between food and tourism, where food can be considered as an input as well as an attraction.

Tourists are seeking authentic and unique experiences by consuming local food and beverages (Plummer et al., 2005; Joliffe, 2003). The tourists' interest in local produce may serve to stimulate local awareness and interest and assist not only in diversification and the maintenance of plant and animal variety, but may also encourage community pride and reinforcement of local identity and culture (Hall, 2005; Joliffe, 2003; Quan and Wang, 2004; Sanders, 2005; Szivas, 1999).

Hall and Sharples (2003) presented a framework to understand food tourism as special interest tourism. The travel motivation for this special interest tourism ranges from high interest or gourmet tourism, where the primary motivation is to visit a specific restaurant or winery and the tourism activities are nearly all food related, to low or no interest in food, where tourists visit just a familiar dining establishment because of the need to eat.

Hall (2005), Hall and Sharples (2003), McBoyle (1996) suggested that the relationship between food and tourism represent significant opportunities for rural diversification and regional development. Therefore, many communities see food tourism as an important component in local economic development strategies because of the potential relationships between different industrial sectors, thereby providing not only for a longer circulation of money wit...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Events and festivals: Current trends and issues
• Audience development in the arts: A case study of chamber music
• ‘Never Let Me Down Again’: Loyal customer attitudes towards ticket distribution channels for live music events: a netnographic exploration of the US leg of the Depeche Mode 2005–2006 World Tour
• Glasgow's Winter Festival: Can cultural leadership serve the common good?
• Mentoring volunteer festival managers: Evaluation of a pilot scheme in regional Australia
• Local food festivals in Northeast Iowa communities: A visitor and economic impact study
• Festival evaluation: An exploration of seven UK arts festivals
• Conceptual paper: An exploration of time and its management for sport event managers
• The dynamics of successful events – the experts' perspective
• Index