Event Title
Parallel Session 8, Impacts of Events and Festivals Track: Spending Behavior and Music Interest in SIDS: The Case of the Aruba Summer Music Festival
Location
Classroom 207
Start Date
13-12-2017 3:00 PM
End Date
13-12-2017 3:25 PM
Description
This study investigates the relationship between spending behavior and tourism motives to attend a music festival. In recent times, there has been a notable worldwide increase in the production of festival events. This increase has revealed new social realities and needs for tourism destination managers to address. Music festivals are unique special events of short duration and have been a key aspect of tourism to expand the tourist base of destinations. Richards and Wilson (2007) have provided a descriptor to characterize the process of introducing festivals as tourist attractions in a destination portfolio as the "festivalization" of tourism.
Studies have examined the utility, or economic benefits that result from music festivals. The most common assessment applied to determine the economic efficacy of music festivals is the impact approach. This approach ascertains the spending of tourists, organizers, and changes in businesses resulting from the festival production as estimated via the local economy (Thrane, 2002). However, literature has largely overlooked the examination of tourists' motivations to attend music festivals (Bowen and Daniels, 2005; Pegg and Patterson, 2010). Yet, the extant literature has identified several motivations to attend music festivals including - mainly the enjoyment of the music (Abreau-Novais and Arcodia, 2013). What is lacking in the literature is the investigation of the links between tourists' motivations and spending. Further, even a scant examination of this potential association in a small island destination (SID) context is conspicuously lacking.
The study pertains to the SID of Aruba and centers on four research questions:
- Are tourism expenditures related to music festival motives?
- How are tourism expenditures related to music festival motives?
- Is there a spending difference amongst different types of music festival tourists?
- Is there a difference in motives to attend a music festival amongst different festival tourists?
Parallel Session 8, Impacts of Events and Festivals Track: Spending Behavior and Music Interest in SIDS: The Case of the Aruba Summer Music Festival
Classroom 207
This study investigates the relationship between spending behavior and tourism motives to attend a music festival. In recent times, there has been a notable worldwide increase in the production of festival events. This increase has revealed new social realities and needs for tourism destination managers to address. Music festivals are unique special events of short duration and have been a key aspect of tourism to expand the tourist base of destinations. Richards and Wilson (2007) have provided a descriptor to characterize the process of introducing festivals as tourist attractions in a destination portfolio as the "festivalization" of tourism.
Studies have examined the utility, or economic benefits that result from music festivals. The most common assessment applied to determine the economic efficacy of music festivals is the impact approach. This approach ascertains the spending of tourists, organizers, and changes in businesses resulting from the festival production as estimated via the local economy (Thrane, 2002). However, literature has largely overlooked the examination of tourists' motivations to attend music festivals (Bowen and Daniels, 2005; Pegg and Patterson, 2010). Yet, the extant literature has identified several motivations to attend music festivals including - mainly the enjoyment of the music (Abreau-Novais and Arcodia, 2013). What is lacking in the literature is the investigation of the links between tourists' motivations and spending. Further, even a scant examination of this potential association in a small island destination (SID) context is conspicuously lacking.
The study pertains to the SID of Aruba and centers on four research questions:
- Are tourism expenditures related to music festival motives?
- How are tourism expenditures related to music festival motives?
- Is there a spending difference amongst different types of music festival tourists?
- Is there a difference in motives to attend a music festival amongst different festival tourists?
