AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BEHAVIOURAL IMPACT UPON THE PRESENCE AT SMALL ISLAND COMMUNITY EVENTS: A CASE STUDY FOR NORTH CYPRUS

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1 AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BEHAVIOURAL IMPACT UPON THE PRESENCE AT SMALL ISLAND COMMUNITY EVENTS: A CASE STUDY FOR NORTH CYPRUS Tayfun Turgay Professor Girne American University, University Drive, Faculty of Business and Economics Department (Director of Graduate School) North Cyprus via Mersin 10 Turkey Feriha Dikmen(Corresponding author) PhD Candidate Girne American University, University Drive, Faculty of Communication, North Cyprus via Mersin 10 Turkey Feriha Dikmen was born on 25th of July in 1986, Nicosia- North Cyprus. She had completed her BA degree in Faculty of Communication at Girne American University, Department of Public Relation (2007). Then, she completed her MSc in International Event Management at University of Surrey, UK In 2010 she started the PhD Program at Faculty of Communication in Girne American University, Department of Communication and Media Management. In 2010, Dikmen joined the faculty of Communication at Girne American Univerity as a senior lecturer in Public Relation Department. Her Research Interests included Cultural Studies, Gender, culture and communication, International festivals and community festivals, Event management public relation, Brand management,new media, mobility and fantasy. Abstract Events have been recognized by various studies as a significant motivator of tourism. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that behavioural upon people s presence community events. It is important to come up with the different influences that drive people to attend. In this way, the event organisers would plan ahead to target more people to attend by fulfilling their needs and demands, sometimes through customization, in order not only to satisfy but delight them because delighted people are more likely to attend in the following years finally becoming loyal visitors of such events. The current study assesses motivators to attend an event in a Citrus Festival setting. A convenience sample was conducted by means of a survey of 100 visitors to the event. The results were analysed using the Factor Analysis. Four most important components were derived from the Factor Analysis which are: family togetherness, interest in the performances and activities, relaxation and something for children to enjoy. The something for children to enjoy factor was the most significant. In addition, statistical tests conducted confirmed the reliability of the study. KEY WORDS: EVENT TOURISM, FESTIVALS, MOTIVATIONS, NORTH CYPRUS 1. Introduction and Scope Getz (1993), points out that festivals and special events play an important role in people s lives because they involve significant activities, provide spending outlets for locals and visitors, and enhances local community s image. Through the study of event literature, it is possible to understand that events have impacts on the area in which they are held. Events and festivals are provides an opportunity, during which people can celebrate and positively promote what a community represents. These events attract people from other communities, where a social event takes place, so people come and enjoy themselves. Such events range from the Olympic Games at the mega-event end of the scale to small regional festivals (Oxford University Press Dictionary, 2005). Events supply visitors the opportunity to observe how the home communities entertain themselves in their traditions, cultures and how this affects the society. By their nature, events are of short duration usually in a particular COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 368

2 month. This study will examine community festivals, based on deep examination of consumer behaviour in this particular area. Therefore, identifying and focusing on the motivational factors such as the internal and external influences, push-pull factors which are related to reasons why people attend community festivals and what motivates them to go there will be discussed in this study. Finally, according to Crompton and McKay (1997), research on behavioural impact is very important. The main reasons would include: it gives room to improve products and services in the future and it is related to the satisfaction level which is an important determinant of peoples attendance. These issues would become more significant as the competition in the event market increases. Unlike other kinds of events such as sporting events, music festivals, or Hallmark events, community festivals have not been studied so widely and therefore this study is necessary. Consequently, a case study approach will be used in this case and Citrus Events is the chosen one. This research provides a literature-review-based overview of community events. Different motivation components, their success factors and the associated impacts on communities in Morphou are examined in this report. 1.1 Limitations of the study This study is limited with the analysis the Citrus Event. Another limitation related to this, correlates with financial resources. Furthermore the study would benefit from the analysis of a variety of festival. Moving on, the second limitation is related to the structure of the study. This research project employed quantitative surveys that limited the number of questions used, and therefore the time that each attendee had to provide answers. Also, there were limitations related to the kind of data collected due to the lack of the variety of attendees present, hence the data gathered was not adequate and rich. Moreover, in the questionnaire, there were no open ended questions and therefore attendees were not able to express their free opinion and had to narrow down their answers to the available alternative choices. Furthermore, another limitation would be the honesty of attendees in their responses. Another limitation would be the sample size in which the surveys were distributed. For example, only 100 questionnaires were given out and that may not have been representative of the whole population due to some biases that existed in the sample. Had more surveys been filled out, a more general phenomenon may have been interpreted and hence a more understandable generalisation would be made. In spite of these limitations, the findings are considered to be relevant and open the way for further research in this field. 1.2 Hypothesis H1The positive impact upon the factors that affect the children to enjoy and family togetherness are the major components of the event. H2Different age groups of the community did not play a significant role in the festival. H3Event organisers should improve their marketing strategies in Citrus community festival. 2. Literature Review Events are mostly used to attract visitors or tourist to a destination to offer experiences that are unique to those that occur in everyday activities. Events bring positive benefits to their host community and increasingly becoming one of the fastest growing types of tourism attractions (Taylor and Shanka, 2002; Thrane, 2002; Crompton and McKay, 1997; Getz, 1997; Hall, 1992). Events also play a significant role in the lives of communities; enhance the local image of their host community (Getz, 1993). Motivation to attend events could be based on factors such as accessibility, entertainment, performance, attractiveness, emotion and individual preferences (Hall et al., 2010). Behavioural/motivation impact has been considered as an important subject in Event Management. Behaviour was described distinctly by different authors (Furnham, 1997; Mitchell 1982; Stephen 1986). In essence, an individual works towards goals because of an eagerness to fulfil their individual needs. Therefore, when managers have an understanding of the individual needs driving their attendee s behaviour, a wider audience would be motivated more and as a result, they can assist in motivating attendees to events. Motivation is considered to be a dual movement, internal and external (Michaelson, 2005: Steers et al., 2004). It has been shown that different aspects of motivation are deduced. Hence, the different perspectives include the individual behaviours and needs. Motivation is affected and influenced by various characteristics, such as, the individual, social, cultural and situational factors (Mullins, 1998; McClelland et al., 1953). Most of these motivational factors have extensively been described through Maslow s theory of motivation and the concept of hierarchy of needs. Beyond the factor of motivation of attendees the relevance of the marketing strategies of the organisers also needs to be addressed. Motivation to attend festivals is not the only force that influences peoples attitudes to attend festivals although it is the main aspect affecting their minds and behaviour (Getz, 1991). Event organizers use the help of various marketing mix (product, place, promotion, price, product, process, physical evidence) to attract visitors. Festival organizer must understand the reason why people attend and therefore by highlighting COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 369

3 such key components of the festival, a marketing campaign can be carried out to motivate more people to visit the place. Marketing is very essential in modern days time due to the competitive world where you find so many festivals taking place simultaneously at a given time within the close proximity of the area. Consequently, proper marketing techniques help in distinguishing a festival from the others. A clear marketing communication campaign helps the community festival visitor to plan what he/she wants to attend and gives him/her a proper guideline to what to expect from the event. This also helps in avoiding any dissatisfaction among visitors in terms of not meeting the desired expectations from the event because of improper communication through the campaign. Hence a proper study of the marketing mix before planning the campaign is very essential to see the motivational levels among the visitors is always maintained high. 2.1 Motivations for Presence at the Events The motivation of visitors to attend events has been one of the aspects that have attracted increasing attention (Taylor and Shanka, 2008; Formica and Uysal, 1998, 1996; Crompton and McKay 1997; Uysal and Gitelson, 1994; Mohr et al., 1993; Riley et al., 1993; Uysal and Wicks, 1993). Narrowing down from general tourism motivations, some research has been carried out to recognize what drives people to attend festivals (Refer to Table 1.1). Table 1.1 represents a few of the motivational forces according to some of the following researchers and the festival in different countries internationally. Table 1.1Review of Festival Motivation Research Researchers Site Motivational Factors (Ranked Highest to Lowest) Uysal, Gahan, & Martin (1993) Traveller s Rest County Corn Festival in South Carolina (USA) Escape, Excitement/Thrill, Event Novelty, Socialization, Family Togetherness Crompton & McKay (1997) Fiesta San Antonia (Texas, USA) Cultural Exploration, Novelty, Regression, Recover Equilibrium, Known-Group Socialization, External Interaction/Socialization, Gregariousness Formica & Uysal (1998) Spoleto Festival, Italy Socialization and Entertainment, Event Attraction and Excitement, Group Togetherness, Cultural/Historical, Family Togetherness, Site Novelty Nicholson & Pearce (2001) Four special events in South Island, New Zealand Visitors to all events cited: Socialization, Novelty, Escape, Family Kim, Uysal & Chen (2002) Commonwealth of Virginia event organizers (USA) Social/Leisure, Event Novelty, Escape, Family Togetherness, Curiosity van Zyl & Botha (2004) Aardklop National Arts Festival (South Africa) Family Togetherness, Event Novelty, Community Pride, Socialization, Escape, Self esteem; Information and Marketing, Food and Beverages, Entertainment, Transport Source: Adapted from Wooten and Norman (2008) COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 370

4 2.2 Adaptations of Maslow s Theory People s needs and wants are unlimited. Therefore, people carry out different choices of needs depending on their priorities. There are external and internal drivers of festivals. According to Bowdin et al., (2006) external drivers are family and household influences, reference groups and opinion formers. Also Neal et al.i (2002) suggest another external influence is culture. On the other hand, Iso-Ahola (1980) suggests that internal influences affect consumer decision making about festivals. These influences include perception, learning and memory, motives, personality traits and consumer attitudes. (Bowdin et al., 2006 p.195). Some internal drivers of motivation include: escape from daily life routine, leaving a status behind as Botha, Crompton and Kim (1999) claimed. In addition, there is a set of general motives for attending festivals, as presented by Axelsem and Arcodia (2004); represented as external communication, family togetherness. Also Kim et al., (2006) found motivations related to family togetherness and socialization to be most influential in festival attendance. Other motives are run away from daily life, excitement or thrills. 3. Methodology 3.1 Research Design The purpose of this study is to investigate the different factors of motivation that people have towards attending festivals, a descriptive research is regarded as the most appropriate and suitable type of research for such a study (Sekaran, 2003). This research strategy is that of the case study because it provides the chance to analyse and observe phenomenon that few have considered before (Saunders et al., 2007). There are two main types of philosophies to be considered: positivism and interpretivism. The positivism approach reflects working and observing the social reality where replication is highly considered also this research would take the role of a natural scientist, collect data using the existing theory. Interpretivism, on the other hand, believes that it is required for the researcher to comprehend the difference in our roles as social actors. This is just a way to put emphasis on the fact that research is being carried out among people and not objects. It also includes the way which humans make sense of the world by interpreting the actions of people and how they interact with others, hence; subjective (Saunders et al., 2007). In this case, the positivist approach is selected since the researcher is independent and does not influence the subject of the study and that the quantitative techniques are to be undertaken. In addition, the interpretivist approach is not considered because the researcher will not enter the people s social life and try to understand from their point of view according to Saunders et al., (2007). Also, according to Esterby-Smith (1991), the interpretivist method considers small samples in depth, and that is not the case in this study. However, the quantitative measures was the most applicable to achieve the set objectives of this research study. 3.2 Data collection methods Choosing the most suitable data collection method is one of the most significant steps for a successful research study as Malhotra and Birks (2007) explained. The large variety of data collection techniques can be considered separately or in combination. There are various data collection methods used in combination in case studies (Saunders et al., 2007). Hence, the method of gathering the data is by distributing 100 questionnaires other than the 10 that were used as pilot questionnaires. 3.3 The Analysis of the Case Data Collection and Processing The data collected from the survey was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).The main techniques used for analysing the data were Factor Analysing, and ANOVA. It would be best to do the Factor Analysis first and then do the ANOVA test after. This was because the factor analysis would allow the study to break down the motivational factors into significant groupings after which it can be used ANOVA to determine the correlations between these groupings and the various independent variables such as age, educational and so on. COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 371

5 4. The Findings 4.1 Profile of Community Attended at Citrus Events To begin with, the demographic information of the respondents was gathered and studied to be able to provide the basic information that will support the findings. The demographic factor is divided into the following categories: gender, age, and marital status, level of education, occupational status and residency. Each division is analyzed in the following paragraphs Gender and Age Among the 100 attendees, 68% were female and 32% were male. The attendance of the event consisted of a larger percentage of female attendees compared to the percentage of male attendees. Concerning the age of the sample, 22% were between 18 and 24, 25% were between 25 and 29, 29% between 30 and 34, 17% were between 35 and 39 and 7% were above 40. Generally the audience were mostly young since the majority (76 %) were under 35 years old Marital Status and Level of Education Regarding the marital status of the sample, it can be seen that most of the attendees either attended married or with their partner, 42% of the sample being married and 33% being with their partner. Looking at the different levels of education of the sample, 30% were High School, 10% were of Associate Degrees, 30% obtained Bachelor Degrees, 20% of Masters Degrees and 2% with a Doctor s Degree. Generally speaking, the attendees of this festival most seem to be educated Occupation Status and Residency Regarding the occupation status of the attendees, it can be seen that most of the attendees were either employed (%40) or students (%30). Regarding the residence of the attendees, the percentages of local (%55) and outside (%45) attendees were nearly equal Outside Visitors Looking at the outside visitors (non-local Morphou visitors) only, the highest attendances of outside visitors were from Nicosia, Serhat Village, Kyrenia and Bostancı (Refer to Table 1.2) that are geographically close to Morphou. Table 1.2 Main areas of high outside visitor attendance Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Nicosia Serhat Village Kyrenia Bostancı Event Attendance Concerning the event attendees of the sample, the major part included the 30 % of the attendees visiting for the first time. This is logical since the majority of the attendees, as seen from above, were young. 4.3 Factor Analysis In this study there are different motivational factors and therefore, this is the reason why factor analysis is carried out. A list of 19 items was distributed to the attendees asking them to identify the degree of importance of attending the Morphou event on a Likert scale of 1 to 5, 1 being very important and 5 being not important at all. COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 372

6 After carrying out the factor analysis, two items (free tickets and reputation) did not load highly on one component therefore, they were excluded from the analysis since they were not theoretically compatible with other items. Therefore, 17 items were left. The four top ranked items were family togetherness, interest in the performances and activities, relaxation and something for children to enjoy. 4.4 KMO and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity To measure the suitability of the data collected and to be analyzed by factor analysis, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett s test were the first techniques employed. KMO measures the adequacy of the sample while Bartlett s test measures the sphericity. This ensures that strong relationship/inter-correlations exist among the items in the scale before factor analysis was carried out. KMO value of this survey was 0.85 which is higher than the minimum required value of 0.6 while the Bartlett s test which should be less than 0.05 to be significant is 0.0 for this survey (Pallant, 2005). The analysis shows that four underlying components explain 63% of the variance in the whole data (Table 1.3). Table 1.3 Summary of the Factor Analysis Results Total Variance Explained Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings a Component Total % of Variance Cumulative % Total % of Variance Cumulative % Total Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Looking back at the SPSS output, the Component Matrix is the final table that needs to be considered since it provides the un-rotated loadings of each of the items on the four components. By default, SPSS employs the COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 373

7 Kaiser criterion that holds all the components that have eigenvalues larger than one. It can be shown from this table that most of the items loaded quite strongly (above.4) on the first components and three items load on the second and third component and two items loaded on the last component. The rotated four-factor solution that is provided in the Pattern Matrix table should be taken into account before finalising the decision about the number of factors. This shows the items loading on the four factors with seven items loading above.3 on Component 1, four items loading on Component 2, 3 and 4. According to Pallant (2007) it must be loading three or more items on each component and therefore this solution was the most favourable. As mentioned above, four components were found as a result of factor analysis. These were: family togetherness, interest in the performances and activities, relaxation and something for children to enjoy. Table 1.4 Descriptive Statistics Motivating factors for event attendance Mean something for children to enjoy 3.38 going out for a good day 1.95 to relax 3.30 it was something to do 2.61 it was a free ticket 2.64 interest in the performances and activities 3.41 group togetherness 2.38 to meet new people 2.84 to escape from daily life 2.43 experience and explore new things 1.99 family togetherness 4.17 to support the community 2.43 curiosity 2.72 excitement or thrills 2.48 past or previous experience 3.11 attendees always wanted to attend 3.17 the festival s reputation 3.08 The Cronbach s Alpha value for the reliability of this scale was The following section presents the descriptive statistics for each component. As stated before, the Likert scale had 1 as very important and 5 as not important at all. Therefore, looking at the table below, the lowest mean value is of most important factor and in this case it is the family togetherness. COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 374

8 Table 1.4 shows the details. Table 1.4 Descriptive Statistics for each component N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Family Togetherness Interest in the performances and activities Relaxation Something for children to enjoy Valid N (listwise) 100 Factor analysis was used to break down the motivational factors into significant groups. Later on, to investigate the effect of gender on different factors, a series of independent t-tests were conducted. In this case, the difference between males and females for each factor was found to be non-significant. Consequently, regarding the gender of the Citrus festival, no large gaps were spotted for the gender difference of the attendees. The gender differences are shown in Table 1.5. Table 1.5 Means and Standard Deviations of Male and Female participants for each component Gender N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Family Togetherness Female Male Interest in the performances and activities Female Male Relaxation Female Male Something for children to enjoy. Female Male Moreover, ANOVA tests were used to determine the effect of various independent variables such as age, marital status, educational level, occupation status and the residence on different components that were obtained as a result of the factor analysis. The age factor was found to be significant for the family togetherness (p<.05, F (4, 95) =3.21) whereas it was non-significant for the other three components. For the effect of marital status, this variable was significantly different for the family togetherness (p<.05, F(4, 95) = 2.75) and interest in the performances and activities components (p<.05, F(4, 95) =2.60). The statistics showed that for the married group, the family togetherness component is the most important factor. On the contrary, for the widow/widower group this component is of least importance. In addition, regarding the interest in the performances and activities component, this variable was the most important factor for the divorced people while it was the least important one for widow/widower group. One of the explanations regarding the above COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 375

9 findings is that the divorced people may want to explore the most because they want to get out and meet new people, socialise more and mainly forget about the phase they went through whether it was good or bad. On the other hand, the interest in the performances and activities factor was of least importance to widows/widowers and the reason behind this may be that they feel down and would not like to join such festivals. Table 1.7 will explain further. Table 1.7 Comparisons of different Marital Status groups for Family Togetherness and Interest in the performances and activities components Marital Status Family Interest in the performance s and activities Single Mean N Std. Deviation With partner Mean N Std. Deviation Married Mean N Std. Deviation Divorced Mean N 4 4 Std. Deviation Widow/Widower Mean N 6 6 Std. Deviation Total Mean N Std. Deviation For the education influence, this variable was significantly different for the interest in the performances and activities (p<.05, F (5, 94) = 2.56) and curiosity components (p<.05, F(5, 94) =3.21). The statistics showed that people who obtained their Master Degree were the attendees who were more eager to explore new experiences in festivals, whereas the Doctor Degree attendees were among the people who cared less about discovering new events. On the other hand, regarding the curiosity component, again the Master Degree attendees were the most curious to attend, similar to the exploration component, the Doctor Degree attendees were the least curious about the Citrus festival. Table 1.8 will explain further. COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 376

10 Table 1.8 Comparisons of different Education Level groups for Exploration and Curiosity components Education Level Exploration Curiosity High school or less Mean N Std. Deviation Community college Mean N Std. Deviation Associate Degree Mean N Std. Deviation Bachelor Degree Mean N Std. Deviation Master Degree Mean N Std. Deviation Doctor Degree Mean N 4 4 Std. Deviation Total Mean N Std. Deviation For the occupation effect, this variable was significantly different for each groups for the family togetherness (p<.05, F (3, 96) = 3.088) and for a good day out component (p<.05, F (3, 96) =3.710). Regarding the, for a good day out the students were the keenest on the will to meet new people, to escape from daily life and to finally experience and explore new things while the group togetherness was of least importance for the retired people. On the contrary, regarding the family togetherness, the unemployed attendees preferred most to attend for the children to be entertained and a way to support the community; whereas the retired people did not care about family togetherness or supporting the community. Table 1.9 shows the details. COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 377

11 Table 1.9 Comparisons between different Occupation groups for Exploration and Family Togetherness components Occupation For a good day out Family Retired Mean N 9 9 Std. Deviation Student Mean N Std. Deviation Unemployed Mean N 8 8 Std. Deviation Employed Mean N Std. Deviation Total Mean N Std. Deviation For the residency variable, an independent t-test was carried out. Although this variable was of the most importance for both the local and outside visitors, the outside visitors scores were significantly different from the local visitors for the family togetherness component (p<.05. t (98) = -2.87), M=3.03, SD=1.35, M=2.33, SD=1.09, respectively. The results showed that local visitors gave more importance to family component compared to outside visitors. On the other hand, the something for children to enjoy component was also significantly different for local (M=2.14, SD=.74) and outside visitor groups (M=2.47, SD=.83) local visitors giving more importance to something for children to enjoy compared to outside visitors (p<.05, t (98) =-2.11). The mean scores for each of the components were shown in Table 2.9. In addition, the relaxation item was the least important to both the local and outside visitors. Table 2.0 will explain further. COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 378

12 Table 2.0 Means and Standard Deviations of Local and Outside Visitors for all Components Family Togetherness Interest in the performances and activities Residency N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Local outside visitor Local outside visitor Relaxation Local outside visitor Something for children to enjoy. Local outside visitor As additional information, the total of the four components were computed in order to indicate the total importance given to the festival. To explore the effect of residency on the total importance given to the festival, an independent t-test was carried out. The results yielded in this analysis showed that the total scores of the four components for local visitors (M=9.34, SD=2.30) were significantly higher than the scores for the outside visitors (M=10.90, SD=2.88). This implied that in general local visitors give more importance to these factors compared to outside visitors (p<.05, t(98)=-2.99). Finally the last item on the questionnaire was festival attendance. For this analysis an ANOVA test was conducted and the results showed that this factor had no effect in any of the components since all the p values exceeded the 0.05 limit. 5. General Discussions of the Findings In this study, the most important component was the something to do for children factor. However, lowest important components were the free tickets and the exploration factors. This is the area where the Citrus festival s organisers should improve to obtain better results in the future. Even though these two components were of least importance, they were identified as two of the top four significant factors influencing the Citrus festival attendance. The results found that attendees aged between 35 and 39 were the vast majority therefore, organisers should maintain the loyalty of these attendees and apply other efficient marketing strategies such as advertising more, providing promotional offers that would attract the other age groups to attend. Before the festival taking place, a small questionnaire may be distributed among the local residents of Morphou to know what type of event they would expect. Hence, the organisers would react according to the majority of respondents and that would increase the attendance level. In addition, the results showed that whether first time or repeat visitors, these attendees did not visit the festival relying on the four components of family togetherness, interest in the performances and activities, relaxation and something for children to enjoy. Therefore, the event organisers must find ways to at least continue attracting the repeat visitors according to the above four components because in that way there would exist a valid reason for their attendance every year in the future. For example, the AIDA organization was responsible this year about the family togetherness day of the festival. They tried to find out what drives these people to attend on that day in order to provide effective evaluation to the festival organisers in order to improve in the future. However, this should be done by the festival organisers or other volunteers for everyday of the festival to be able to identify the needs of the people attending in order to satisfy them more in the future. This technique would at least maintain most of the repeat visitors and that would be suitable since it is known that the cost of keeping the loyal repeat COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 379

13 visitors is much less than attracting new ones in general. The next final section will end this study with some ideas for future research. Finally, the marketing strategies were explained starting with the famous marketing mix that included the four P s as well as the addition of the last three. The importance of marketing was discussed and its relationship regarding the attendance at the events. This issue was mentioned because marketing is important in every business because the organizers can understand the needs and demands of the people in order to improve in the future. Event organisers use the marketing strategies and demographic factors in order to segment and target their attendees. After the event organisers look at the evaluation, they can try to improve accordingly. For example, when the were the most attended segment, organisers should try to attract different age groups in the coming years by carrying out events that other age groups would be attracted to attend but at the same time maintain these current attendees. Also, they should try to make other components important as well and not only the family togetherness, interest in the performances and activities, relaxation and something for children to enjoy. This was included to be able for the event organisers to improve in the future years satisfying the last objective of this study. 6. Conclusion and Areas for Further Research In conclusion, the fact that multiple motivations exist supports Mohr et al. s (1993) suggestion that different motivational elements are important to visitors when they attend different events. After carrying out ANOVA and t-tests, the profile of attendees was deduced according to gender, age, marital status, level of education, occupational status, and the residence of employees were provided. However, the demographic factors did not play any significant role on attendees. According to the Factor Analysis, four main components were derived including family togetherness, interest in the performances and activities, relaxation and something for children to enjoy. The something for children to enjoy factor was the most important component. Within the relaxation component, going out for a good day was the most significant. Now, this opens doors to several researchers who are interested in the same area. Motivation is the main driver that influences people to attend festivals. Many theories of motivation were deduced by famous researchers such as Maslow and also adaptations were taken by others such as Iso-Ahola (1989), Dann (1981), Getz (1991) and McDonnell (1999). The study started with focusing on the general motivations as these are the most important in everyday life and then narrowed down to the motivational drivers in the tourism field and finally the two were combined to come up with the motives that force people to attend events. There are internal and external motivational factors that have affected the attendees to visit Citrus festival. In addition to that, there may be positive and negative motivational influences that either drives people to or away from a specific event. Moreover, Iso-Ahola (1989) explained the escape- seeking dichotomy that influences people as well as Dann (1981) and Crompton s (1979) discussion of the push and pull factors. Motivation is the prerequisite key in order to achieve one s aims and objectives. This is due to the fact that people s needs and wants are unlimited and therefore, different motivations would satisfy different people. It is important to organizers to be able to segment, target and position themselves successfully in the people s minds in order to gain full attendance. Other adaptations presented by McDonnell (1999) as well as Getz (1991) included the social motives, organisational motives, physiological motives and personal motives. Although many researchers have suggested their own theories of motivation, they all go back to Maslow s theory and are stated in a different manner. Finally, a few general motivational theories have been offered by Axelsem and Arcodia (2004) that mainly include the family togetherness and running away from daily life which was supported in the results achieved. In other words, all the above motivational theories were studied to determine the motivational factors that drive people to attend festivals being the first objective and in this case attending the Citrus festival. The following section will present the second objective and how it was achieved. Now, this opens doors to several researchers who are interested in the same area. This was carried out to achieve the second objective which was comparing the demographic factors in order to be able to carry out comparisons among the attendees. Regarding the third objective, impacts and importance of festivals on people s lives were considered. As mentioned above, Factor Analysis, ANOVA and t-tests helped to derive the demographic factors in relation with the four most important components. In other words, identifying which groups placed more importance on each of the four components. This satisfied the third objective. This research, due to the small sample size and the focus on a single case study cannot be generalised to other community festivals. There are therefore several areas in which further research would be useful. Further research should be conducted on a number of other community festivals so that wider range of results can be COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 380

14 obtained. Having a wider knowledge in a field like this one can help the event organisers to drastically improve in the future on one hand maintaining the loyal attendees and on the other hand, always attracting new ones. Finally, despite the existence of a list of limitations, this study turned out to be a successful one. The reason behind this is that the results were supported by the literature given and matched what other researchers have found. Therefore, the general findings of the research seem to be contributing to the motivational literature in this field. COPY RIGHT 2013 Institute of Interdisciplinary Business Research 381

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