Factors influencing visitors motivations in attending food festival in Malaysia

The popularity of food festivals and events requires in-depth research on festival participants. Understanding festival goers and their spending habits is important for festival researchers and destination marketers given the growing socio-economic importance of this dynamic part of the global leisure industry. This study examines the characteristics of visitors at food festivals and what influences their total spending there. A conceptual model was specifically designed to explain the relationship between festival spending patterns and visitors' event-related motives, food-related motivations, and levels of food involvement. Visitors can enjoy a multi- sensory experience at a food festival while getting to know a place and its people. Both community builders and festival experts can benefit from knowing why visitors choose to attend a particular food festival when developing a marketing plan to advertise the event. To investigate the motivations behind food festivals, this study uses a festival motivation framework consisting of three interrelated components. Six clearly defined motivational characteristics of festival attendees at local food fairs were found by the results of factor analysis. The results show that visitors come to food festivals for general travel and leisure needs, event-specific experiences, and extrinsic motivations. The conclusion is explained along with its marketing implications.
Keywords: food festival, visitor motivation to come to food festival.