Under-researched Areas of Event Management in the Past 15 Years

Abstract

This study identifies a gap in the research on quality, satisfaction and loyalty in events in Tourism and Hospitality journals over the last 15 years. Despite the blossoming of tourism studies in recent decades and the resulting development of new areas of enquiry, event tourism studies and related research are still in the early stages of development. Specifically, a total of 4,408 articles were reviewed across five impact journals selected. Our results indicate that, although tourism events generate substantial economic benefits, only 2% of the articles published have focused on topics related to quality, satisfaction or loyalty on events during the past 15 years. Therefore, event organizers need to better understand perceptions, quality and attendees' loyalty when developing effective strategies to increase attendees' intentions to repeat (revisits) and boost tourism income through the events industry.Considering these research topics according to the different event typologies, our results indicate that the majority of the studies are focused on MICE tourism (58%), and less on Festivals (31%), sport events (6.4%), and public sector events (4.4%). Therefore, the current study contributes to the literature on Event Tourism by focusing on three aspects or purposes:1. To identify most of the research in event tourism by the type of event (MICE, Festivals and special events, sport tourism and public sector events), related to the topics of quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty, in the past 15 years; 2. To contribute to the theoretical foundations of the study of events; and 3. To call for research on the topics of quality, satisfaction and loyalty in events tourism. Along with the study findings, implications for practitioners and researchers and suggestions for future research are discussed.