Analyzing festival tourism : effects on place, people and identity

Abstract

Festivals are social and cultural phenomena that represent the living culture of a local community. However, existing literature on festival impacts studies emphasize on the cost-and-benefit approach for tourism development without much consideration of the implicit meanings of festivals as a potent force for place-making. This study primarily aims to determine the socio-cultural meanings of festivals, and to articulate those perceived meanings to explain the direct and indirect production of a sense of place and the perceived distinctiveness of a place. A comparative case study is made of two festive celebrations widely promoted by the government of Hong Kong: the Cheung Chau Bun Festival (CCBF) and the Wine and Dine Festival (HKWDF). The study employs a mixed-method research approach involving questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews with local residents and tourists to establish a festival-to-place model for assessing the extent of the effects of festivals on the notions of place in a multicultural urban environment.

Findings suggest that amidst knowledge on festival effects and place notions, the socio-cultural meanings of festivals are determined as crucial elements that contribute to the ontological construction of a place. Four underlying themes of festival meanings - cultural representation, recreation and entertainment, social capital, and imagined locality - are established via a two-phase research analysis. In the first phase of the study, both festivals share similar dimensions of socio-cultural meanings. However, the meanings created by the HKWDF are shaped towards the supranational dimension of place, whereas the CCBF is at the local level. The study substantiates the argument on existential situatedness, which confirms the role of festival tourism as a public platform to express the situated connectedness with place and people from an open sense of place perspective.

In the second phase of the study, the newly established festival-to-place model, incorporating the constructs of the meanings of festivals, sense of place and perceived place distinctiveness, confirms that the sense of place and the perceived place distinctiveness are directly influenced by the socio-cultural meanings of festivals for both cases. For the local residents of the HKWDF, the influence of the sense of place is not regarded as a determined element for materializing the perception of place distinctiveness; however, the tourists’ sense of place is viewed as a mediating factor in influencing the perception of place distinctiveness because of the successful production of city-staging. For the CCBF, the influence of the sense of place on consolidating the perceived place distinctiveness is not established for both types of attendant. Rather, the meanings of festivals have a direct relationship with the sense of place and the perceived place distinctiveness. Theoretically, this study bridges the conceptual link of festival studies to place by revealing the role of the socio-cultural meanings of festivals as a potential source of competing claims on place notions. Furthermore, it opens the agenda for tourism authorities to recognize the value of festival tourism in the expression of Hong Kong’s place distinctiveness, instead of solely focusing on boosting tourist numbers.