Going beyond the economic impact of a regional folk festival for tourism

Renuka Mahadevan

Tourism Economics, 2017, vol. 23, issue 4, 744-755

Abstract: This article shows how the social worth of a regional festival can be measured for tourism purposes by including the valuation of the festival’s non-attendees, an aspect often ignored in the literature. The finding that the festival’s social worth was 1.46 times that of the economic impact provides practitioners with an important tool for consideration. In addition, evidence on the differences between visitors and potential future visitors sheds new light on regional festival marketing. The sense of well-being associated with attending the festival, the acknowledgement of the festival’s importance to the local community, and how it nurtures and supports new talent were also found to influence people’s valuation. These findings highlight the need for a policy rethink towards increased government funding to sustain regional festivals.

Keywords: contingent valuation; interval regression; social worth; willingness to pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:toueco:v:23:y:2017:i:4:p:744-755

DOI: 10.5367/te.2016.0542

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