Modelling Success: Incheon National University Researchers Analyze the Economic Efficiency of Korean Festivals

Tailoring festival organization and operations based on festival characteristics can boost chances of success, says new study from Incheon National University

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Incheon National University

Jan 05, 2022, 08:44 ET

INCHEON, South Korea, Jan. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Local festivals are not only important culturally, but economically as well. Local festivals can grow to become highly popular events, with some festivals drawing in millions of tourists and generating billions of dollars of economic benefits. A notable example is the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, which began as a regional event and went on to become the world's largest beer festival.

The Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival is one of the biggest live music events in South Korea that brings enormous economic benefits to the region every year.

But not every event brings in crowds. Sometimes an event that is supposed to bring in revenue for the region can turn into a huge expense instead. This brings into question the benefits of funding festivals with decreasing or low attendance. Against this backdrop, a team of researchers from Korea examined the regional festival scene in Korea to analyze why some festivals are more popular than others. Their study has was made available online on 13 may 2021 and has been published in the October 2021 issue of the journal Tourism Management.

The researchers began by dividing 35 regional festivals into 4 classes based on the festival theme and evaluated the performance of each group based on their contribution toward tourism. "Our work attempts to analyze the efficiency of local festival tourism in Korea using parametric and non-parametric approaches and determine what factors contribute to their success," says Professor Changhee Kim of Incheon National University, who was part of the study.

Using festival budget, festival duration, economic contribution and attendee count as data, the researchers evaluated the efficiency and the technology gap ratio between the various festival groups. Specifically, the festivals were rated on their optimal operating scale or festival size, and the efficiency at which the events allocated their resources.

The results showed that the popularity of the festivals is due to a variety of factors such as the food and activities offered, the infrastructure, guidance offered and even the extent of commercialization. Also, some festivals were found to have an inherent advantage over others in terms of recognition and relevance among attendees.

"The efficiencies of individual festival groups were affected by different operational factors. Festival organizers should choose tailored strategies based on the characteristics of their festivals. This will help provide them with a competitive edge," says Prof. Kim.

Overall, among the different groups, festivals that involved local cuisine and culture resonated well with attendees, while those within the nature and ecology subsets were found to perform poorly mainly due to technology inefficiencies. However, the study points out that each group has scope to improve. The authors hope that this study can be used to maximize the economic potential of regional festivals in Korea.

Reference
Title of original paper: Evaluating the efficiency of Korean festival tourism and its determinants on
efficiency change: Parametric and non-parametric approaches

Journal: Tourism Management
DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104348

*Corresponding author's email: [email protected] ; [email protected]

About Incheon National University
Website: http://www.inu.ac.kr/mbshome/mbs/inuengl/index.html

Media contact:
Changhee Kim
[email protected]
82 32 835 8467

SOURCE Incheon National University