Differences in Perceived Destination Image and Event Satisfaction Among Cultural Visitors: The Case of the European Biennial of Contemporary Art “Manifesta 7”

Abstract

The destination image reflects the impressions and ideas tourists have of a holiday region and strongly influences visitors' behavior. Visitors to cultural events have differing images of destinations according to their interest in seeing the event itself. Destination managers can exploit the factors that influence the destination image and customer satisfaction with a cultural event in order to successfully position the destination and improve communication. Destination image, quality of event, and customer satisfaction are highly related, and this study analyzes these factors for three differently motivated groups of visitors. An empirical investigation of visitors at 2008 Manifesta 7, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, was conducted in order to ascertain differences among groups according to these variables. The results show that differentiation of promotion measures is needed depending on the single items that influence satisfaction with cultural event and tourist offerings.

Event Market Segmentation: A Review Update and Research Agenda

“…Further, although the accommodation option represents a moderately popular behavioral segmentation item (behind more frequently employed variables such as length of stay and expenditure), its industry relevance cannot be understated. Although event segmentation studies have focused extensively on tourists (Pechlaner et al, 2013;Peter & Anandkumar, 2016), event academics and practitioners may need to conduct future research with new innovative, accommodation options such as AirBnB and Flipkey potentially revolutionizing understanding of how and where event attendees stay during a performance and how this impacts a destination economically. Finally, although information sources such as digital media options (e.g., social media) have increased in prevalence (Liu et al, 2017;Wang & Cole, 2016), their importance as a segmentation variable remains inconclusive.…”

“…Lee & Kyle, 2014;Yeh, Hua, & Huang, 2016) had sample sizes smaller than 500. Similarly, five (e.g., Brida, Disegna, & Osti, 2013;Lim & Bendle, 2012;Pechlaner, Dal Bo, & Pichler, 2013) regression studies had a large sample size (n > 1,000) whereas seven studies (e.g., Croes & Lee, 2015;Savinoic, Kim, & Long, 2012;Tzetzis, Alexandris, & Kapsampeli, 2014) had a small sample size (n < 250).…”

User-Generated Social Media Events in Tourism

“…Mair et al [22] showed that "events and tourism" was the second most important theme of future research behind "event impacts and outcomes". Events generate tourism demand and several studies emphasize their importance for the developing of a destination [25], concluding that the perceived image of a destination and the quality of an event are strongly related to visitor satisfaction [26] and that both the image of the destination and of the event combined influence the decision to travel to that destination [27,28].…”

User Engagement in Festival Virtual Brand Communities: The Cases of Sónar and Primavera Sound (Barcelona)

“…In addition, their importance for leisure and tourism is undisputed. Festivals are currently one of the main draws for tourism destinations, and several authors (Pechlaner, Bò, & Pichler, 2013) have indicated that this combination of the destination and festival brand engagement influences the decisions made by tourists, as well as their level of satisfaction. Indeed, festivals have been considered to be one of the main tools for repositioning a range of destinations (Stipanovic, Rudan, & Peršin, 2015) and academics have analyzed the potential benefits of the associations of festival branding in these contexts (Dreyer & Slabbert, 2012).…”