Christine M. Van Winkle

Examining visitor mindfulness at a cultural event.

This study examined visitor mindfulness at a cultural festival. Mindfulness is considered a state of being that requires individuals to engage in active information processing, enabling them to be adaptive and responsive to information in their surroundings. Mindfulness is believed to result in more learning, high satisfaction, greater understanding, and greater feeling of control over behavior. Event managers must find ways to enhance visitor satisfaction as well as minimize negative impacts that result from events, and encouraging visitor mindfulness could contribute to these outcomes. This study took place over a 2-week period in July 2005 at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Results presented demonstrate that the more interested visitors were in the festival the higher they scored on the mindfulness scale. Visitor level of mindfulness was positively related to their satisfaction with the event and their feelings of control over their own contribution to impacts. Implications for event managers are discussed.

Sense of community and perceptions of festival social impacts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between psychological sense of community (SOC) and perceived social impacts of festival events. Design/methodology/approach – SOC was measured using the four-dimensional Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS) and the Festival Social Impact Attitudes Scale (FSIAS) was used to measure perceived impacts. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires provided to residents of Caldwell, Texas following the annual Kolache Festival. Findings – Results revealed a relation between two dimensions of the BSCS, needs fulfillment and influence, and the way in which impacts are perceived. Specifically, needs fulfillment was positively related to social benefits and individual benefits. Needs fulfillment was negatively related to social costs. Influence related to impacts in the same manner. Research limitations/implications – This research provides support for a four-dimensional conceptualization of SOC and highlights the importance of examining ...

Applying and expanding the theoretical framework of emotional solidarity in a festival context.

Festivals provide some of the best unscripted encounters between residents and visitors in a destination. Within this article, the theoretical framework of emotional solidarity is applied and expanded in an effort to explain the complex relationship that exists between community residents of and festival visitors to Caldwell, Texas. Results confirm the factor structure of the emotional solidarity scale (ESS), exhibiting sound psychometric properties in the way of numerous reliability and validity measures. Length of residence and number of years attending the festival were considered in explaining the variance in the three factors (i.e., welcoming nature, emotional closeness, and sympathetic understanding) of the ESS. Three of the six regression models were significant. Implications, limitations, and future research opportunities are discussed.

Social media activity in a festival context: temporal and content analysis

Purpose This study explores the multi-phasic experience of festivals to understand the nature, purpose and degree of social media (SM) use before, during and after festival occurrence and how this may inform better engagement of attendees. Design/methodology/approach A census of tweets and posts from four festivals’ Twitter handles and Facebook accounts were coded and analyzed across three time points: one week prior, during and one week after the festival. They were coded on nature (e.g. conversational, promotional, informational), purpose (e.g. information-seeking, friendship/relationship) and presence of links, photos, etc. Tests for platform influences on usage were conducted. Findings In total, 1,169 tweets and 483 posts were captured. Two-thirds of SM activity occurred during the festivals, one-third pre-festival and minimal activity post festival. Temporal analyses found that while the purpose and nature of the message content varied across festival time points, this was often dependent on SM platform. Research limitations/implications Festivals are not taking advantage of the multi-phase experience model and the utility of SM to maintain contact and encourage visitors to continue processing their experience after the festival. This lost opportunity has implications for re-patronizing behaviour and sponsor relationships. Originality value Leung et al. (2013a) call for sector specific research to elucidate SM use in tourism. Festivals provide a unique environment of co-created experience. Findings suggest differential usage of SM across festival time frames and platforms that can be used to guide festival organizations’ SM communication to better engage its patrons.

Personal meaning mapping at festivals: a useful tool for a challenging context.

Personal meaning mapping (PMM) has been used extensively to understand visitor meaning making in a range of free-choice contexts. This research note presents PMM as a useful tool for understanding festival visitor experiences in the complex and challenging context of festival events. While past research has explored the meaning of festivals from various perspectives, in-depth explorations of the holistic festival visitors experience has rarely been explored in situ from the attendees perspective. Considerations for implementing PMM in festival settings are explored.

The role of post-visit action resources in facilitating meaningful free-choice learning after a zoo visit

Abstract Places like zoos, where free-choice learning is encouraged, are important for conveying climate change and sustainability issues to the public. Free-choice learning that targets environmentally focused sustainable behavior changes must be meaningful in order to encourage actual behavior change post-visit. However, visitors often fail to translate their learning into behavior change after a visit. This research explores the role of post-visit action resources (PVARs) in facilitating long-term learning for individual environmental sustainability after a visit to the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo in Manitoba, Canada. An embedded mixed-methods research design used personal meaning maps and follow-up interviews to measure free-choice learning; data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings revealed that the PVARs positively affected free-choice learning after an on-site visit to the zoo. Recommendations and implications are discussed in relation to practical applications and implications for future research in environmental education.

Service-dominant logic and the festival experience

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the process of value co-creation by examining festival attendees’ perspectives of their festival experiences. Service-dominant logic (SDL) is used as a framework to understand the how value is co-created in the festival setting. Design/methodology/approach Using a SDL approach and personal meaning mapping methods, this research offers insight into how value is co-created by the attendee, festival, and influential others. Findings This research found that personal, social, cultural, physical, place, and arts presentation domains come together to add value to the festival experience. Research limitations/implications This research adds insight into the value co-creation process if festival settings. SDL is examined in relation to findings and re-conceptualized based on findings. This research was not intended to generalize all performing arts festivals but instead provided a detailed descriptive account of the experiences offered by performing arts festivals examined. Practical implications These findings contribute to the understanding of how co-created experiences can be developed, marketed and managed and provide insight into areas of future research to better understand the co-creation process in event contexts. Originality/value By providing a framework for understanding the festival experience, employing SDL, and using of experiential assessment methods across festivals, this research fulfils an identified need for an in-depth understanding of the co-created meanings of festival experiences.

Exploring the effect of zoo post-visit action resources on sustainable behavior change

ABSTRACT Wildlife tourism experiences that convey environmental messages about climate change and sustainability to the public are considered to be important for conservation and promoting environmentally sustainable initiatives. Previous research demonstrates that learning and good intentions often fail to lead to actual sustainable behavior change. This research explores how post-visit action resources, such as printed handouts and email updates, may affect sustainable behavior change after a wildlife tourism experience at a zoo. This mixed-methods field experiment provided treatment group participants with post-visit action resources for a two-month period and examined pre- and post-treatment sustainable behavior differences between the control and treatment group participants using questionnaires and open-ended interviews. Results were conflicting, as treatment group participants felt that their behavior had changed yet there were no significant differences found between the treatment and control groups with regard to specific targeted sustainable behaviors. These findings contribute to our understanding of the contribution of post-visit action resources in learning for sustainable behavior change in free-choice environmental education contexts.

Mobile device use at festivals: opportunities for value creation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand mobile device (MD) use in a festival context. Festivals offer a range of opportunities and activities to use a MD making this context ideal for understanding digital experiences during leisure. The guiding research question asked how do festival attendees use MDs at festivals. The Typology of Human Capability (THC) provided a framework to enhance the understanding of digital experiences at festivals. Design/methodology/approach This research involved six festival case studies where semi-structured interviews were conducted with attendees on-site. Interview questions focused on how festival attendees used MDs during the festival. Data were analyzed using directed content analysis guided by the THC. Findings On-site interviews with 168 attendees revealed that data support the THC dimensions and constructs (sensing, linking, organizing and performing). This typology advances the understanding of the range of digital customer experiences currently available at festivals. Research limitations/implications The addition of context to the THC is recommended to enhance its utility in application. As a limited number of festivals were included, the specific findings may not apply to all festivals but the implications are relevant to a range of festivals. Practical implications Operational definitions of the THC constructs within the festival setting were identified and provide opportunities for developing digital experience offerings. Originality/value This study provided the first comprehensive examination of MD use in festival contexts and in so doing offered data in support of Korn and Pine’s (2011) THC. The findings reveal opportunities for modifying the THC to increase its applicability in a range of settings.

Explaining Festival Impacts on a Hosting Community Through Motivations to Attend

Extant literature on social-cultural impacts of festivals traditionally takes into consideration perspectives of the host community while neglecting those of visitors, who often times comprise a high percent of total number of attendees at such expositions. Additionally, motivations of these visitors to attend festivals have rarely been considered in explaining perceived impacts among festival attendees. This study examined the underlying structures of motivations to attend the annual Morden Corn and Apple Festival, Manitoba, Canada among area residents and visitors as well as their perceived sociocultural impacts of the festival on community through a newly developed festival-attending motivation scale and modified Festival Social Impact Attitude Scale (FSIAS). Exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression results suggested that at least one motivation factor ( i.e., social interaction and /or knowledge gain) significantly predicted three of the four modified FSIAS factors.