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This paper seeks to examine the career patterns and labour mobility of managers in the convention and exhibition industry in Australia, an example of a new emerging industry within the service sector.

Through the use of the technique of life and work history analysis, career information was gathered from a sample of individuals employed within the various sectors of this industry in Australia. The information was then analysed using a range of descriptive and evaluative statistical tests.

Results indicated the emergence of a new career pattern – “butterfly” progress. This could be identified as an extension and development of the boundaryless career model, where the individual is clearly in charge of his/her career but where he/she “flutters” between sectors in order to build up human capital and progress his/her career.

Though the research was undertaken in a specific industry sector the results indicate that the concept of “butterfly” progress may be part of the developments in contemporary career patterns or a gender issue. Further research in other industries dominated by women is suggested.

Outcomes from this study have implications for management development in relation to a different pattern of job progression and subsequent staff development opportunities. This may require the development of alternative strategies for the successful recruitment and retention of managers within the convention and exhibition organisation.

This is the first time such a research study has been undertaken in the convention and exhibition industry. The paper provides practical outcomes for potential entrants and managers in this sector.

The Meetings, Incentive, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) industry has long been recognised as a sector that provides lucrative direct and indirect expenditure for host destinations. Within Australia, Federal and State governments have recognised the opportunity afforded by this sector and have put in place a number of marketing initiatives to attract MICE business to particular high profile destinations. The issue of how regional Australia might benefit from this highly attractive market is only now beginning to be addressed. This paper examines how an Australian regional university with an established reputation for the delivery of MICE‐related subjects introduced the issue of attracting MICE business to a regional area into its curriculum through the use of experiential learning. Students were given responsibility for the planning, management and delivery of a corporate‐style conference titled “Managing Conferences in Regional Areas”, while local MICE industry representatives participated in its delivery.

This paper reviews recent trends in major hospitality sectors in the Asia‐Pacific region. Observes that the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE), backpacker, and bed and breakfast sectors are growing, characterised by burgeoning market demand, proliferation of specialist infrastructure, sector‐specific education and training, and dedicated development and marketing strategies. The casino sector is facing major challenges, seeing declining demand in some areas. Competitive forces are evident in the licensed clubs sector, where a proliferation of gambling options has undermined traditional sources of revenue. Conversely, the hotel and restaurant sectors can be considered mature. There is increased attention to facilities development, asset management, market segmentation and use of new technologies, and the restaurant sector appears focused on product revitalisation. Concludes that the recent economic turmoil in Asia will no doubt produce new challenges, as well as opportunities, in the lead up to the next millennium.

India has a marvelous distinction of hosting religious and cultural extravaganzas on an enormous scale, keeping in with its rich lineage and civilizational assortment. The philosophical threads of such festivals are eventually subjective well-being and spiritual awakening. In this context, the authors examine how the visitors' festival motivation culminates in life satisfaction and subjective well-being.

The study follows a theory-driven deductive approach to test the construed relationships. The data were collected from the sites of religious fiesta when the participants were immersed in their cultural fervor. The study uses structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized model.

The study finds that place attachment and life satisfaction empirically mediate the relationship between festival motivation and subjective well-being. However, the relationship between place attachment and subjective well-being is not empirically strong when life satisfaction mediates their relationship.

The study is based on a convenience sample and is limited to the visitors of local religious festivals. Future research must verify the suitability of the model in other types of festivals of other religions and different locations. Also, this research deliberates on the relationship between only four variables. Future researchers could discuss other variables such as authenticity, emotional solidarity, festival images, festival values, religious faith, etc. to develop a more robust model to explain the relationship between festival motivation and subjective well-being.

In India regardless of social strata, people are religiously conscious and inclined toward attending publicly celebrated religious festivals. The scale of these festivals is significant and given the scenario, the local Government has to join hands with the temple administration, local people and visitors to reap the full benefits of the festival. These temple festivals not only foster coordination and involvement among various stakeholders, but also invoke the devotion of the people to jointly organize the celebrations.

As some of the religious festivals go beyond caste, creed and nationality, the celebrations should evolve as multi-cultural mass events uniting the societal cohesiveness, spirit and national culture. The variables chosen and results found in this study will surely support publicizing the significance of religious festivals in the region and provide an idea to the organizers and supporters to develop new strategies to promote similar events.

The results claim several implications for theory and practice. Theoretically, the study contributes to the literature on religious tourism and event management. Practically, the study discussions indicate the importance of disseminating the significance of religious festivals as a platform for local tourist attractions to generate social, cultural and economic benefits.

This paper aims to examine the event attendance motives and the underlying mechanism through which event attendance motives influence positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) and revisit intentions. It also investigates how event attendance motives differ by gender.

A self-completed survey administered in English among visitors to the 2016 Olympic Games generated 230 valid responses. Partial least squares-based structural equation modeling was applied to test research hypotheses.

Event attendance motives of esthetics and escape positively influence host city evaluation. Host city evaluation positively influences PWOM and revisit intentions. Host city evaluation mediates the relationship between event attendance motives (esthetics and escape) and behavioral intentions (PWOM and revisit intentions). Male Olympic tourists show significantly lower means in the motives of social bond and escape when compared with female Olympic tourists.

This study adds to the body of knowledge concerning Olympic tourists, their motives and behavioral intentions. Research findings indicate that event attendance motives influence PWOM and revisit intentions through the mediating effect of host city evaluation. Considering the noticeable paucity of gender analysis weakens the understanding of the Olympic tourist behavior, this study contributes to the literature by examining gender differences in Olympic attendance motives.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the priorities of event organisers (EOs) and venue managers (VM) in terms of evaluation criteria and avenues for advancing the development and implementation of banks of questions regarding customer satisfaction evaluation.

The results presented are based on a questionnaire distributed to a sample of EOs and VM which sought to identify their priorities with regard to customer satisfaction feedback.

The findings show that a significant proportion of respondents had never undertaken formal evaluation, citing time and resources as the key barriers. In addition, a wide range of satisfaction-related criteria were rated as important, with the most valued criteria often related to generalised areas, but failing to consider the motivations of individuals for event attendance, which also appears as a gap within evaluation literature. The research findings indicate that developing banks of evaluation questions is a complex task, due to the number of potential variables in terms of events and audiences.

In linking the priority areas identified by the respondents with evaluation literature and event attendee motivations, this paper proposes alternative ways of structuring and utilising banks of evaluation questions linked to attendee profiles and motivations. Its central premise is that evaluation of consumer satisfaction should be led by consumer motivations and expectations if it is to be viable, meaningful and aid future event development and enhancement. This raises many questions and avenues for future research, to progress the area of logistically feasible evaluation, which generates rich and meaningful data.

The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities in which the firms are engaged are outlined to provide background information for the reader.