The Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, Mexico: Tourist Profiles, Symbolic Anthropological Perceptions and Urban Presence

Abstract

The Festival Internacional Cervantino is one of the leading art and culture related events in Latin America, celebrated every year in the city of Guanajuato, Mexico. The objective of the present research is to analyze the impact of this event in number and profile of visitors, as well as how its celebration affects anthropologically the symbolic perception of the city for both locals and visitors. This research is part of the ATLAS Events Monitoring Project-Comparing Event Experiences, where experts from ten countries are developing a common methodology to produce a comparative analysis in major events worldwide. In all cases, the Events Experience Survey (EES) is being applied. It consists of a 18-item scale, comprised of 4 dimensions: affective engagement, cognitive engagement, physical engagement and experiencing newness. In this case, 230 surveys that incorporated EES were applied on 7-25 October 2015, coinciding with the celebration of the 43 rd edition of the Festival Internacional Cervatino. In the case of Guanajuato, the survey has been compared to official data from the festival and completed with interviews to civil officers related to tourism management, documentary sources and direct observation. Conclusions show a gap in how the event is perceived among residents and tourists, which ultimately highlights an overconcentration of activities and an increasing difficulty in granting high quality public services during the celebration of the event. Application of EES has proved successful in terms of offering information that is not reflected in official data and contrasting them. The Festival Internacional Cervantino is one of the largest cultural events in Latin America in number of visitors and media coverage. However, it is also perceived as a meeting point for young people mostly interested in leisure activities. Application of EES reinforces this idea.