Title: A profile of community-based agricultural festival attendees in North America: a comparative study

Authors: Jenny Jiyeon Lee

Addresses: School of Marketing, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

Abstract: Recent research on visitor profiles of multiple festivals has revealed the limited generalisability of the findings across studies. This study systematically examined socio-demographic and trip-related characteristics of visitors to similar-themed festivals within the same region. Guided by the concept of a product/tourist area life, these characteristics were identified and compared among the three festivals and with other types of festivals reported in the literature. Data collected from visitors using an onsite survey at the three community-based agricultural festivals in North America. The study results demonstrated that differences in life cycle stages generally determined varying visitor characteristics across festivals. The findings provide insights into identifying right target markets and developing marketing strategies for festival managers with limited financial resources and marketing knowledge.

Keywords: community-based festivals; agricultural festivals; festival attendees; socio-demographic characteristics; trip patterns; comparative study; external validity; tourist area life cycle; USA; United States; tourist areas; visitor profiles; product life cycle; marketing strategies; festival management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHEM.2015.074720

International Journal of Hospitality and Event Management, 2015 Vol.1 No.3, pp.203 - 218

Accepted: 10 Mar 2015
Published online: 16 Feb 2016 *

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