Compose effects of festivals and events on the choice of tourist destination and tourism industry in general in Jehu Island and Scotland……………………..
Contents page
3. 1.0 Introduction
3. 2.0 Phenomenon, Aims, Scope and Research Philosophy
5. 3.0 Scope of the Literature Review and Conceptual Framework
6. 4.0 Methodology, Findings and Conclusions
8. 5.0 Conclusions of research findings
10. 6.0 References
1.0 Introduction
This paper reviews the effects of festivals and events on the choice of tourist destination and tourism industry in general in Jehu Island and Scotland. It analyses the relationship between a particular event and tourist attraction in Scotland as well as the relationship between several festival activities on the choice of tourism destination in the Jehu Island of South Korea. The analysis will therefore capture both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of festivals and tourism.
i) 2.0 Phenomenon, Aims, Scope and Research Philosophy
The research phenomena contained in both articles are cultural events and festivals and tourism industry. The Scotland article analyses the impact of traditional musical events to tourism industry by examining the concept of cultural tourism in Scotland. However, cultural arts per se comprise several elements including music. Authors in this research therefore narrows to the role and impact of traditional music on tourism industry because previous studies concentrated on cultural arts in general.
Traditional music is a very important element of Scotland cultures and is increasingly becoming a priority for many tourism organizations. This study by MCMorland and Mactaggart seeks to examine factors that motivate visitors to attend music events in Scotland. Authors perceived that traditional music, as a specific component of Scotland culture and arts plays an important role in shaping tourism sector. They undertook to answer the following research questions:
a) What is the role of traditional music in tourism industry?
b) What factors motivate visitors to attend music festival and events?
The research questions in the study are clear and were clearly answered at the end of their study. This research concentrated on particular event, traditional music, and one country, Scotland and involved a community from one particular geographical location of the country. The study was exploratory and used quantitative methods of research were used with likert point rating which are appropriate in this type of study.
A study by Min-Jung and Jeonglyeol purposed to examine how festivals impacts on the tourism choice of Jeju island destinations and to determine the relationship between festivals and tourism in this destination. This study undertook to examine what determines the choice of tourist destination, specifically concentrating on a particular geographical location, Jehu Island, and during a certain period of time, the summer time and using a variety of cultural events that happens in this region.
The study questions were:
a) How does festival awareness affect festival attendance in Jehu Island?
b) How does festival satisfaction influence the choice of tourists’ destination?
c) What is the relationship between festivals and choice of tourist destination?
The three research questions were answered by the research at the end of their study and informed them to make recommendations that are useful to all stakeholders in the tourism industry of Jehu island of South Korea. The research however used qualitative statistics due to the nature of data in this study.
ii) 3.0 Scope of the Literature Review and Conceptual Framework
Literatures from social cultural discipline have been used in the study carried out by McMorland and Mactaggart. Studies on festival events and tourism industry have been reviewed in the study. Other studies on economic subject such as that conducted by (Bowdin et al., 2006; Brown & James, 2004 among others were reviewed to determine economic values of tourism and festival events to the society.
Previous research on tourism motivation theories has been reviewed in this study, (Cooper et al, 1993). Various studies on the motivation of event goers have been extensively reviewed in the research. Is summery, the reviewed literatures can be narrowed down to the discipline of social sciences and focuses on culture and tourism in Scotland which seems to be a recent field of study yet has attracted a substantial academic research which provided enough literatures for the Scotland research.
However, the concept of arts and tourism is wide and broad, with different components; music, opera, dance, fine arts and theater hence the need for research on a particular component was inevitable. This research analyses one particular element of cultural arts, music, and how it is related to tourism in Scotland. Scottish music, being a valuable form of country culture as it is, plays a big role in the tourism industry of the country. The study therefore undertook to assess what motivates music attendees and the effects of traditional music on tourism sector. Motivation was the independent variable with enjoyment, support of Scottish music and family togetherness being dependent variables in the research.
Literatures in Min-Jung and Jeonglyeol study were similar to those used in the Scotland research. Literatures on social and cultural events, tourism, economic and environmental disciplines were used in the study of Korean Jehu Island. The literatures used are recent but broad, focusing on the impact of culture on tourism industry. Authors identified specific component of culture, local festivals and undertook to examine how they influence the choice of tourist destination in the Jehu Island.
iii) 4.0 Methodology, Findings and Conclusions
The purpose of research conducted by McMorland and Mactaggart was to determine the impact of traditional music on tourism industry in Scotland; it is an exploratory research. Initially, the focus group was used to give their views on what motivates them to attend music festivals. Questionnaires were administered to the focus groups and consisted a 7 point likert scale rating for motivational attributes.
The sample size of 110 respondents was randomly selected from among the festival attendances, and the collected data was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Respondents were identified and grouped into four clusters according to the similarities of their dominant motivational characteristics, such as modernists group, thrill seekers group, social pleasure seekers group and family and inspirational seekers, breaking visitors into different motivational groups for further analysis.
The study by Min-Jung and Jeonglyeol was a questionnaire survey of domestic visitors to Jehu Island. A sample of seventeen festivals with a sample population of 223 subjects were selected using non probability sampling method from a total of thirty festivals held to address the two hypotheses which were pre-stated by the Authors.
Questionnaires were self administered to the respondents and 186 out 223 questionnaires were useful for this study giving a response rate of 83.4%. Both reliability and validity test were conducted and confirmed that data used in analysis was reliable and valid, (Ryan, 1995). The analysis of data was done using the SPSS and other methods of descriptive statistics. Hypothesis one and two were analyzed using regression analysis to determine the importance and role of festivals on the choice of tourist destination, with awareness and after visit being dependent variables and satisfaction being independent variable.
Findings: Research findings from the study indicate that enjoyment is main motivator for attending traditional music festivals according to primary research using the focus group, with a mean score of 6.6, consistent to study carried out by Uysal et al. (1993). However family togetherness scored the lowest rating among the reasons for attending music festivals in Scotland. Other reasons that motivate attendees are to support Scottish music with a rating score of 5.2 meaning that people attend music festivals to promote the music industry and the Scottish culture, indicating the country cultural events have a strong backing for the future.
Majority of the respondents agreed, at 89% that there exist a strong positive relationship between traditional Scottish music events and Scottish tourism hence music is an important part of tourism industry in Scotland, consistent with, Smith (2003) studies which termed arts as a sub-sector of cultural tourism. It also found that traditional music is an important component of Scottish culture.
The findings from Min-Jung and Jeonglyeol study also indicated that festivals motivates and attracts individuals to a given tourist destinations. However Only 30% of attendants were satisfied with festival events and satisfaction was positively related to the visit after satisfaction meaning that satisfaction determines the choice of tourist destination and leads to return visits while attracting new visitors at the same time. Therefore, it is satisfaction level and not the number of festivals that matters in attracting tourists.
Demographics results showed that only younger populations were more satisfied hence the need to develop programs that will satisfy other demographic groups. Awareness of event was found to influence people’s visitation of destination hence the need for event promotions; this also implies that festivals greatly impacts on tourism visitation and choice of a given destination.
Different reasons for visiting tourists’ destination were to spend leisure time with family, friends and relatives just like in the findings of McMorland and Mactaggart, ( 2007), education, interest in the festival and to understand culture. The reasons for not attending were given as lack of time and information.
5.0 Conclusions of research findings.
The study points to the importance of traditional music to tourism industry of Scotland hence event organizers and tourism organizations can use music to promote Scottish cultural values and tourism industry. Accordingly, in order to improve tourism industry, the views of tourists and event attendees need to be considered when formulating policies on tourism.
Similar studies are recommended which should cluster analysis consisting communities from different geographical locations. An extension study on enjoyment should also be done to determine the exact type of enjoyment, whether it’s enjoyment for music or dancing or both that motivates attendees. A more in-depth comparison study on the type of company the attendees keep, whether they attend with partners, family or friends. Nevertheless, the study, although exploratory, has given an insight into tourists’ motivating factors and is of enormous benefit to the tourism industry in Scotland.
Several recommendations can be derived from the study of Min-Jung and Jeonglyeol that can help to effectively manage festivals and attract tourists. The findings recommends for the systematization of festivals incorporating all key stakeholders and professionals a like rather than being left in the hands of a few people.
Festivals should be commercialized and offered as a product that satisfies the consumers as suggested by Tomljenovic, Larson, and Faulkner (2001). This calls for development of diverse programs that will satisfy all the demographic groups and undertake promotional activities including the use of travel agencies, media and tour operators to create awareness of festivals to consumers.
References
Bowdin, G., Allen, J, O’Toole, W., Harris, R., & McDonnell, I. (2006). Events management (2nd ed.). Oxford: Butterworth. Heinemann.
Brown, S., & James, J. (2004). Event design and management: Ritual sacrifice? In I. Yeoman, M. Robertson, J. Ali-Knight, S. Drummond, & U. McMahon-Beattie (Eds.), Festivals and events management—an international arts and culture perspective
(pp. 53–64). Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Cooper, C., Fletcher, J., Gilbert, D., & Wanhill, S. (1993). Tourism
Principles and practice. Essex: Longman.
Mcmorland. L and Mactaggart. D, (2007). Traditional Scottish music events: native scots attendance motivations. Aberdeen Business School, Aberdeen, Event Management, Vol. 11, pp. 57–69 1525-9951/07 $60.00 + .00 Printed in the USA.
Ryan, C. (1995). Researching tourist satisfaction: Issues concepts, problems. London: Routledge.
Tomljenovic. R, Larson, M., & Faulkner, B. (2001). Predictors of satisfaction with festival attendance: A case of Storsjoyran Rock Music Festival. Tourism, 49(2), 123–132.
Smith, M. K. (2003). Issues in cultural tourism studies. London: Routledge.
Uysal, M. Gahan. L, & Martin, B. (1993). An examination of event motivations: A case study. Festival Management & Event Tourism, 1(1), 5–10.
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