Visitor satisfaction at a local festival: An analysis of the Strawberry festival in George, South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this research was to assess visitor satisfaction at a local festival since it is crucial for festival management to monitor and evaluate visitor satisfaction in order to understand and identify the needs and perceptions of attendees, which in turn allows organisers to design and tailor the festival elements towards them, leading to higher visitor satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth advertising, and increased likelihood of repeat attendance. The main objective of the research was to evaluate levels of satisfaction of festival attendees based of festival attributes. The study followed a quantitative research methodology using questionnaires as a data collection instrument. Results reveal that all festival attributes items (quality of food, quality of entertainment, cleanliness of restrooms, and availability of parking, waiting times to be served and festival’s overall atmosphere) ranked higher in determining visitor satisfaction. These findings result in direction for management in where to place future resources regarding these festival’s attributes.

Keywords

• Consumer satisfaction
• marketing
• cultural manifestation
• festival attributes