ognizant Communication Corporation

Event Management, Vol. 9, pp. 111-118
1525-9951/04 $20.00 + .00
Copyright © 2005 Cognizant Comm. Corp.
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.

¹Department of Hotel Management, William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA
²Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Community-based festivals have become an increasingly popular method of generating economic benefit to communities. Pitfalls in making estimates of economic benefit are discussed and a detailed example describes how to generate reasonably accurate estimates at an open-gate festival. Tantamount is accurate estimates of attendance, methods for which are discussed.

Key words: Economic impact; Open-gate festival; Estimating attendance

Address correspondence to Brian J. Tyrrell, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Department of Hotel Management, William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, 4505 Maryland Parkway Box 456021, Las Vegas, NV 89154-6021, USA. Tel: (702) 895-4843; Fax: (702) 895-4872; E-mail: brian.tyrrell@ccmail.nevada.edu

Department of Tourism, Finnmark University College, 9509 Alta, Norway

During the course of the past two decades, special events have proliferated and diversified. However, the rapid growth in the supply of such events is threatened by a diminishing consumer demand for this type of recreational activity. Thus, for festivals that wish to survive, there is a need to improve their products constantly and to market them successfully to their visitors. Paradoxically, relatively little research has focused on special events from a marketing perspective. One notable exception to this observation is a study by Mayfield and Crompton that examined how a sample of event organizers embraces the marketing concept. Likewise, the current investigation aims to make a modest contribution to this issue. Its aim is twofold: first, to operationalize the concept of "market orientation" and, second, to discover whether small-scale community-run festivals adopt this concept. For the purposes of this inquiry, qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with 13 festival organizers in Norway, selected according to a purposeful sampling strategy. The information obtained from the transcripts was then computer analyzed. The interpretation of the data indicates that none of the festivals has been able to adopt the concept of market orientation as their management philosophy. The most common and main reason for this is that the festivals lack a sufficient budget necessary to provide skilled personnel and time needed to carry out market orientation activities (e.g., visitor research).

Key words: Special events; Festivals; Marketing; Market orientation; Attractions

Address correspondence to Mehmet Mehmetoglu, Ph.D., Department of Tourism, Finnmark University College, 9509 Alta, Norway. E-mail: mehmet@hifm.no

¹European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR), Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden
²Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration/Bentley College, Bergen, Norway
³Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, Norway

In this study, we focus on the use of a mobile coordination service used to manage Storsjöyran, a music festival held yearly in Östersund in Sweden. A description of the mobile service is given, and an empirical study focusing on user motives for utilizing the mobile coordination service is reported. The results point out the importance of developing mobile coordination services that are perceived as enjoyable and useful to motivate usage among festival staff.

Key words: Festival; Mobile coordination service; Technology acceptance

Address correspondence to Maria Lexhagen, Ph.D. student/Project Manager, European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR), Mid Sweden University, SE-831 25 Östersund, Sweden. Tel: +46 (63) 19 58 39; Fax: +46 (63) 19 58 10; E-mail: maria.lexhagen@etour.se

Center for Tourism and Service Economics, Department of General and Tourism Management, Innsbruck University School of Management, Innsbruck, Austria

Events have become an important instrument for city managers and marketers. The case of the "New Year's Eve" event in the Alpine city of Innsbruck (Austria) illustrates important success factors and risks in the management of city events. A framework for analyzing events is presented and used to highlight the contribution of events to comprehensive city development. It can be shown that this event has become a stable success factor of city development that has survived a number of political life cycles. However, within the process of city event management a proper customer quality evaluation is missing. In addition, stakeholder management seems to be a major driving force of the event's strategy formulation and planning.

Key words: City marketing events; Success factors; Alpine tourism

Address correspondence to Mike Peters, Center for Tourism and Service Economics, Department of General and Tourism Management, Innsbruck University School of Management, Universitätsstrasse 15, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria. Tel: (0)512-507-7081; Fax: (0)512-507-2845; E-mail: mike.peters@uibk.ac.at

¹Department of Recreation Management and Policy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
²School of Recreation, Health and Tourism, George Mason University, Manassas, VA, USA

Music festivals are unique special events that attract audiences for a variety of reasons; however, research exploring the motivations of music festival visitors is sparse. Recognizing the potential for music festivals to contribute to host communities, this study aims to explore motivations for attending a large, multi-day music festival. On-site visitor interviews were conducted at Celebrate Fairfax!, an annual music festival held in Virginia (USA). Cluster analysis of attendance motivations revealed four groupings of visitors, which were given the following names based on their patterns of motivations: "Just Being Social," "Enrichment Over Music," "The Music Matters," and "Love It All." These groups differed based on race, marital status, and household income. Marginal sex differences were also found. The results of this study suggest that music festival planners can use different marketing tactics to broaden a festival's appeal and that it is risky for event managers to rely on the music itself or a specific artist to draw large festival crowds. Equally important is creating a fun and festive atmosphere that offers ample opportunity to socialize and have new and nonmusical experiences.

Key words: Music festivals; Visitor motivations

Address correspondence to Margaret J. Daniels, Ph.D., School of Recreation, Health and Tourism, 10900 University Blvd, MS 4E5, George Mason University, Manassas, VA 20110-2203, USA. Tel: (703) 993-4279; Fax: (703) 993-2025; E-mail: mdaniels@gmu.edu