Does loyalty pay? First-time versus repeat visitors at a national arts festival
Abstract
The aim of this research is to segment visitors to one of South Africa’s
biggest arts festivals based on the frequency of visits in order to
distinguish between
fi
rst-time and repeat festival attendees. Both
fi
rst-time and repeat visitor groups play a fundamental role in the
overall well-being and success of a festival, and festival organisers
must strive to achieve a balance between
fi
rst-time and repeat
visitors. Festival managers should therefore be aware of the festival
attributes that di
ff
erentiate between the
fi
rst-time visitor group
and repeat visitors attending the festival. These di
ff
erences include
socio-demographics, behavioural characteristics, destination
perception, perceived value and tr
avel motivations. This article
therefore compares
fi
rst-time and repeat visitors to the Klein Karoo
National Arts Festival based on these categories. A questionnaire
survey (N = 555) was conducted at the festival, and the
fi
ndings
indicate that there are signi
fi
cant di
ff
erences between
fi
rst-time and
repeat visitors at the festival. First-time visitors spend a signi
fi
cant
amount of money during the festival and are mainly motivated
by
Relaxation and socialisation
and
Festival shows/productions,
while repeat visitors are loyal visitors who stay longer and spend
more money, especially on tickets supporting the festival’s shows/
productions. Results reveal that both
fi
rst-time and repeat visitor
groups are important for the long-term sustainability of the festival.
T h is m e t h o d o f s e g m e n t a t i o n h a s p r o v e d t o b e su c c essf ul a n d is us e d
as the basis for proposing managerial and marketing implications
for the festival organisers
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/6115http://journals.co.za/content/sabr/14/1/EJC92901
http://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC92901