Search results

Changes to the economic and social fabric of rural communities in Australia have resulted in an outmigration of residents, shifting economies and disenfranchisement with rural life styles. As a result, events provide important social and recreational opportunities for residents. However, rural communities are constrained by limited resources, such as the number of individuals who are willing and able to participate in event organizations; therefore, it is essential for the sustainable organization of events that stakeholders are attracted and retained. This paper aims to apply a stakeholder theoretical approach to the organizing and planning of rural events to identify event stakeholders, monitor satisfaction and ensure stakeholder retention within rural events.

A qualitative research design using a multiple case study approach examined event stakeholders in three rural communities of Southwest Queensland, Australia. In total, 54 in‐depth interviews were undertaken with event stakeholders and analyzed using an iterative thematic content analysis.

The findings reveal that rural‐event stakeholders fulfill multiple roles, differentiated by risk, and fraught with competing or conflicting agendas. The paper identifies strategies that event organizers utilize to manage relationships, and that facilitate stakeholder satisfaction and continued involvement.

There is limited understanding of event stakeholders, particularly in rural communities. Involving rural residents in organizing and planning events develops individual skills, knowledge and capacity. Rural communities benefit from an ability to deal with adverse conditions based on improvements in capacity of individuals and the community.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. It seeks to explore the relationship between place branding in rural areas and community building. Furthermore, the paper advances the growing body of work, that examines the role of events in destination revitalisation and competitiveness.

The methodological approach stems from the Chicago School of Sociology, and visual methodologies. The ethnographic fieldwork consisted of purposeful conversations with event organisers, social interactions with members of the local community and other event attendees, field notes and photographs.

The Loch Fyne Food Fair in Argyll and Bute highlights a manifold disjuncture between place marketing and place branding, which, in turn, reflects the different approaches to how cities and rural areas seek to remain competitive. The authenticity of the brand, as signalled through image and language, is a key feature of the event’s success, as is the creation of a welcoming and inclusive “third place” environment. The interdependence between the aesthetic, escapist, educational and entertainment realms of the Fair experience have helped to secure the loyalty of visitors and locals, alike.

The paper offers practical insights into the ways in which place branding can be deployed to sustain a successful rural event and extends knowledge of the status of events and festivals as third places. The case study demonstrates how paying careful attention to the elements of the experience economy can enrich the distinctiveness of a rural event.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse quantitative and qualitative image aspects of destinations hosting a small‐scale sport event, as perceived by spectators and participants.

A survey was conducted at different sport events hosted by destinations in a rural setting. The data are analysed using confirmatory factor analyses and correspondence analyses.

The results suggest several differences between the image perception of participants and spectators. These can be attributed to different levels of involvement, which is very high for participants. The perception of the qualitative image aspects showed that unique features were associated with the destination, such as sport themes or organizational aspects of the sport event visited. Further, it is shown that the quantitatively measured indicators of affective destination image have a great influence on the image of rural sport event tourism destinations.

A research limitation could arise due to the sample, as almost all sport tourists were German. A more international sample might have shown different results. Future research should analyse samples of different sports, concluding whether the sport performed also influences behaviour.

For marketing communications it is essential to utilise emotions to promote the destination, as they are a very essential element of destinations hosting sport events.

This research contributes to the understanding of images held by spectators and participants of small‐scale sport events hosted in rural destinations. The value is the large sample, consisting of various rural destinations, which allows for general patterns of the perceived image to be drawn.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and illustrate a conceptual tool for the planning of rural sport events.

The proposed model is elaborated based on theoretical contributions from the tourism and event literature, and illustrated with an empirical case concerning a sport and cultural event arranged in the Chianti countryside in Italy.

The results suggest that a form of professionalization of the event design process, understood as the search of high-quality experience for the local population and the tourists, is feasible within the socialization style of model typical of small events.

This study is based on selected theoretical contributions, and on a limited empirical investigation. Further research is needed in order to better understand the event design process, and in particular the processes of communication and involvement among the different community members.

The practical implications are related to the possible use of the developed model.

The theoretical contribution of this study is relative to the use of the concept of tourism experience, and more specifically of the embodied tourism experience, within the context of event design.

Recent theorising about the globalising countryside highlights the processes of place making, sense of place and the construction of place-based identities in rural regions, where exogenous forces are utilised, negotiated and contested by local communities as they seek to represent their place. A longitudinal case study of Akaroa’s French Festival shows how this place-based identity has been constructed, promoted and animated over the past two decades at the nexus of globalising and local forces. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The research is based on qualitative methods utilising documentary analysis, participant observation and key stakeholder interviews undertaken in the township of Akaroa, New Zealand.

The form this festival has taken, and the version of the place identity represented therein, has shifted over the course of the last two decades. While this is in part due to the energy, personal heritage and agenda of local champions, the influence of the globalising forces, political, economic and cultural, have shaped the place image portrayed through this festival.

There are limited attempts to theorise rural festivals within a “global countryside” framework, and the detailed longitudinal research underpinning this paper provides a unique opportunity to explore the emergent issues in a rural community festival in qualitative detail. The study reinforces the understanding of the role of local agency in the making of places in a globalising world.

The study aims to understand the meaning of event-based and place-based community practices, as well as the resulting social impacts.

An ethnomethodological approach was followed (participant observation and interviews were supplemented by secondary data), with the analysis being exploratory and interpretative.

The festival and the place reinforce the community’s social practices, which have impacts beyond the festival, benefiting individuals, the community and the place, becoming a means for valorisation and diffusion of the rural way of life, and placemaking.

In this study the authors focus on social practices in the context of an event and of a place (the village where the event occurs). The authors connect to theories of practice, which they apply in the analysis. The value of the study lies on the underlying mechanisms (how communities exercise social practices in the context of festivals, and what social impacts may lead to) rather than its context-dependent specific results.

National and regional authorities can play a role in providing local communities with adequate tools to overcome the challenges they encounter. This can be done by issuing appropriate (events) plans and policies while giving room for the locals to voice their opinions.

Community-based festivals are key social practices that can strategically impact placemaking, strengthening community bonding, forging connections with outsiders and promoting well-being practices that discourage rural depopulation.

There is a scarcity of research that deepens the understanding of the role of festivals in placemaking and their social impacts, particularly in the rural context. This study contributes to closing this gap by focussing on the social practices of a community-based festival in a village in the interior of Portugal.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theory concerning visitor motivations, consumer experience and behavioural intentions at rural events; more specifically, it focusses on agricultural shows, which have hitherto been neglected in the events management literature. These events have successfully broadened their visitor base, but not without the attendant challenges for agricultural events’ designers.

The research adopts a quantitative design using a questionnaire survey. The analysis, using a range of statistical procedures, centres on consumer motivation, experience and behaviour in relation to show features and their influence on future behaviour.

The findings of this paper demonstrates the relative importance to the consumer of the show’s various components and their influence on revisitation, which reflect the significance of social, cultural and personal meanings attached to their experiences. This highlights key motivational variables such as appreciating the shows’ traditions and intellectual enrichment.

The study takes a cross-sectional approach, using a non-probability sample at four multi-day royal shows. Future research should establish the external validity of the findings and their applicability to smaller one-day agricultural shows.

The research provides a managerial contribution by informing show designers about the motivations of an increasingly diverse range of visitors. This will facilitate decisions around the engagement of contemporary design while preserving the traditional elements of agricultural shows.

Few studies have looked at rural events and, in particular, agricultural shows. Moreover, previous research in this area has focussed on rural tourism and place making, while consumer behaviour and experience at rural events has been neglected. This paper provides an insight into the consumer experience and perceived importance of various aspects of contemporary agricultural shows.

Sports events are tourist attractions and their image components can relate to the destination image concept and structure. This study examined sports event images held by active and passive sports tourists at four marathon races in Germany. Some differences in the perception of event images were found for active and passive sports tourists as well as for different types of destinations. For active sports tourists, emotional, physical and organisational image associations were clustered closer. For passive sports tourists, social and historical image associations were clustered closer. The type of destination elicited different event images among active and passive sports tourists.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact that an event such as the Cherry Festival, organized by the municipality of Fundão (Portugal), can have in a rural area.

To obtain a complete picture of the impact of the Cherry Festival on Fundão, the perspectives of the organizers, suppliers, and the local residents are combined. The impact is evaluated through qualitative economic and social impacts and quantitative economic impact. The information is obtained through primary and secondary data with personal interviews and questionnaires.

The results suggest that for these kind of small events, there are economic and social impacts, but the social impacts extend beyond the economic benefits.

The main limitation of this paper is the impossibility of using input‐output tables and multipliers of expenditures in a small area such as the one studied.

The paper shows that even in small events important impacts may occur that justify the investments made on them.

The paper presents a combination of methodologies to measure the impact an event can have in small areas that do not have suitable input‐output tables and multipliers of expenditures.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate sports participants’ choice behaviour and draw useful conclusions about the ideal features of small-scale sporting events that maximize attractiveness and desirability among potential competitors to attend and compete.

Conjoint analysis was used to determine how participants value different elements and features of two small-scale cycling events, one in Taiwan and the other in Greece. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 195 cyclists during the event in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and to 169 competitors of a similar competition in Sfendami, Greece. It consisted of two basic parts. The first presented 19 alternative scenarios that have been associated with such sporting events while the second assessed the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of participant’s in order to provide an average profile of the participants in each location. The conjoint data collected was analysed using the SPSS “Conjoint Module” at the aggregate level (i.e. pooled data).

Based on the preferences of these amateur cyclists the most important factors for Taiwanese events are “preferred season to organizing the event”, “registration cost”, and “preferred time period”, while those participating in the Greek event emphasized “registration cost” and “scenery”. Overall, the analysis highlights five differences and five similarities that exist between these two countries.

The study is small-scale and although sample sizes are sufficient to be representative of the participants in each event there are limitations in generalizing these results to larger sports meetings and other countries.

The findings of this study provide event coordinators and sport marketers practical insights into small-scale event planning and the development of effective marketing strategies designed to appeal to a greater range of participants. Furthermore, the comparative nature of the study can facilitate a transfer of know-how which can be used for development of sport events in Mediterranean area, whose sport events’ organizers can, in the future, more effectively approach potential East Asian participants.

This is the first study to use a combination of seven parameters in conjoint analysis to examine amateur cyclists’ preferences and is one on the few studies to examine the differences between Asian and European participants.