Sociodemographic and Behavioral Determinants of Visitor Spending at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival

Abstract

The Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK) is one of the most popular arts festivals in South Africa. However, the festival is already in the decline phase of its product life cycle. This leads to serious concerns for its future profitability and sustainability. Given the economic value of the festival, an understanding of expenditure patterns and the determinants influencing spending behavior is vital to the festival marketers/organizers. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate the sociodemographic and behavioral determinants that influence visitor expenditure at the KKNK, based on visitor surveys conducted at the festival from 2005 to 2008. Regression analysis was applied to establish the most significant determinants in each year. Results indicate that occupation, distance traveled, length of stay, the reason for attending the festival, and preferred type of shows/productions are significant determinants influencing the amount of money visitors spent at the festival. Not only will these findings generate strategic insights on marketing for the festival, but knowledge of these determinants can also lead to a greater economic impact, as well as a competitive advantage.

Expenditure-based Segmentation of Visitors to the Wacky Wine Festival

“…In terms of demographic differences between highspending and low-spending clusters, this research confirms the findings by Kruger (2009) andLetha et al (2004) that females spend more than males. In context of the wine tourism market this is good news, since South African wine tourists are predominantly female.…”

“…Older visitors also displayed a higher expenditure thereby confirming research results by Cai et al (1995); Kruger (2009);Kruger (2010). In the wine tourism literature, age plays a central role, which was recently summarized by and confirm that older people tend to be greater wine consumers.…”

“…Places of residence indicated that high-spenders stem from Gauteng Province which supports findings by and Kruger (2009) with regard to other festivals in South Africa. Length of stay was also identified as a variable contributing to higher spending, thereby confirming research conducted by Seiler et al (2002) and Thrane (2002).…”

Segmentation by motivation of tourists to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

“…The questionnaire that was used to conduct the survey remained similar throughout the period (2010 to 2012) of data collection and was divided into five sections and based on research conducted by Van der Merwe and Saayman (2008) and Kruger, Saayman and Saayman (2009). Section A asked for information on socio-demographic variables, for example, gender, age, marital status, level of education and province of origin.…”

Expenditure-based segmentation of visitors to Aardklop National Arts Festival

“…It is more advantageous to draw ticket purchasing visitors to the festival (thereby increasing ticket sales and visitor spending), as opposed to merely increasing the number of visitors attending the festival (since these visitors do not necessarily spend money at the festival); since this approach could alleviate overcrowding associated with the festival; and limit the impact on the environment and the host community. Therefore, in order to preserve the nature of the festival and positive attitudes of the community, it is important to identify and attract visitors who attend ticketed shows/productions (Kruger 2009). Research by Thrane (2002), Saayman and Saayman (2006b) and Kruger (2009) indicates that visitors attending festival shows/productions stay longer and spend more than those who are not interested in shows/productions.…”