What Makes People Travel to Cultural Heritage Festival?

What Makes People Travel to Cultural Heritage Festival?

Heritage tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry and there is also a trend towards an increased specialization among travelers. More and more, well-educated and mature travelers seek interactive learning experiences. Festivals, a fast-growing tourism segments, can serve as a powerful tool to attract tourists during the off-season and create an image and awareness for an area. Therefore, to explore the relationship between visitor motivation and satisfaction with a local cultural heritage festival, this study investigated visitor motivation and satisfaction with Anseong Baudeogi Festival. Nineteen heritage festival motivation variables were organized and reduced to four dimensions by Factor analysis; the cultural learning, escape everyday life, desire authenticity and sought enjoyment/socialization. Also, these motivation factors were examined to identify statistical differences by visitor characteristics using ANOVA and t-tests. Next, Cluster analysis categorized festival visitors into four segments with the largest groups being ‘authenticity/history seekers’ (30%) and ‘enjoyment/socialization seekers’ (29.4%). Finally, regression analysis identified a positive relationship between visitor motivation factors and satisfaction. Among the four motivation factors, ‘Authenticity’ showed the most effective relationship with visitor’s satisfaction.