Date of Award
May 2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management
Committee Member
Sheila J. Backman
Committee Member
Kenneth F. Backman
Committee Member
Muzaffer Uysal
Committee Member
Brent L. Hawkins
Abstract
Festivals provide numerous benefits for societies. For instance, they enhance destinations’ images in visitors’ mind, therefore they are very useful marketing tools to promote the destinations and their attractions (Fredline & Faulkner, 2000; Yolal et al., 2016). They also have a great impact on boosting local economy through tax revenues, increased employment and business opportunities through increased visitor arrivals, expanded tourist season, and extended length of stay and expenditures (Yolal et al., 2009). Moreover, they have positive social impacts on local communities such as increasing the community attachment of residents (Lau & Li, 2015) and strengthening community ties with past or existing culture which help to preserve local culture (Bagiran & Kurgun, 2013). Beyond generating all the economic and social benefits and opportunities, festivals are likely to create positive significant impacts on both the residents’ and visitors’ subjective well-being (SWB) (Jepson & Stadler, 2017; Packer & Ballantyne, 2011; Yolal et al., 2016).
Despite the substantial literature on the association between leisure, recreation, tourism, travel and subjective well-being (SWB), until recently, there are only few studies concerning festivals’ positive impacts on SWB (Jepson & Stadler, 2017; Yolal, Gursoy, & Uysal, 2016). Therefore, this study aimed to contribute to the limited understanding of the possible impacts of festival participation on SBW of festival participants. Moreover, the study investigated the relationships between the following main constructs: festival motivations, festival satisfaction, perceived social impacts of festival, social well-being, subjective wellbeing (positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction), revisit intention and word of mouth.
The study used a face to face survey to obtain quantitative data. The data was collected from the attendees of the 6th International Orange Blossom Carnival, 2018 in Adana, Turkey. A total of 652 festival visitors were approached and invited to participate in the survey. Of the 652 visitors, 550 accepted to be in the study and filled out the survey (response rate: %84). The data was analyzed using SPSS 25 and EQS 6.3 with advanced Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA). To test the hypothetical relationships, the structural equation modeling (SEM) method was adopted.
Based on the results of final structural model, some hypotheses were rejected while most of the hypotheses failed to be rejected. While no significant relationship was found between festival motivation and wellbeing factors (positive affect, negative affect, life satisfaction and social wellbeing), significant association was found between festival satisfaction and wellbeing factors. The results also indicate that there is a significant relationship between the perceived social impacts of the festival and wellbeing of the festival attendees. Furthermore, the study also found that positive affect has a positive link to revisit intention and word of mouth, while negative affect has negative associations with both revisit intention and word of mouth. The findings suggest that moods during the festival impacts the participants intention to revisit the festival next year. Similar to affect, life satisfaction has also significant relationship with both revisit intention and word of mouth. This finding suggest that individuals who has higher life satisfaction has higher intention to revisit the festival. Finally, the study found a significant association link from social wellbeing to both revisit intention and word of mouth recommendations.
The study provided important practical implications for festival organizers and community leaders to maximize the positive social benefits of festivals and gain more support for their organizations. Identifying the factors affecting subjective well-being of attendees and understanding the relationships among the factors can help organizers to develop strategies to monitor and better manage these factors.
Recommended Citation
Yilmaz, Nese, "The Impact of Festival Participation on Social Well-Being and Subjective Well-Being: A Study of the International Orange Blossom Carnival Visitors in Turkey" (2020). All Dissertations. 2582.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/2582