Effects of Cultural and Tourist Connotations on the Overall Satisfaction of Tourists and Their Intentions to Revisit: A Case Study on Festival Tourism

Hosting festival activities have become a recent trend for industrial development; festival activities provide not only tourists with more diverse recreation opportunities but also local residents with various economic benefits. To promote the international status of and knowledge about Taiwan, the Tourism Bureau selected and promoted 12 major local festivals after 2001 (the year of Ecotourism in Taiwan) to develop Taiwan as an island of festivals. In addition, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications proposed the 2002 Taiwan Double projecting the administrative plan titled Challenge 2008: National Development Plan; the goal was to increase the number of tourists in Taiwan from 1 million to 5 million over 6 years. Festival tourism, which safeguards local cultural characteristics and facilitates the development of national tourism, has gradually become the preferred method for developing the tourism industry in Taiwan. Because short-term festival activities integrate local human resources and cultural assets, hosting these activities not only strengthens the allure of specific regions and generates a vital attraction for tourists, but also promotes local economic development through the consumer activities of tourists. According to the results of this study, if tourists consider that the festival activities they had experienced were satisfactory, they typically intend to participate in these activities again and recommend them to other people. Moreover, when tourists believe that their experienced festival activities featured various types of tourist activities, their satisfaction increases. Therefore, the degree of variety of festival activity connotations (e.g., religions, arts, and cultural industries) considerably influence the satisfaction of tourist participants. Decision-makers should consider the types of the festival activities that they host and promote the cultural characteristics of these activities. Additionally, festival activities provide diverse tourist attractions and thereby promote international exchange, integrate local and tourist resources, improve local cultural industries, and preserve and safeguard historical and cultural assets. These tourist approaches enable local residents and tourists to understand the cultures celebrated in festivals and deepen the public cognition of festival activities. Feng-Hsiang Chang 1 , Chih-Yung Tsai 2* 1 Department of Leisure, Recreation and Tourism Management, Tzu Hui Institute of Technology, Pingtung 926, Taiwan 2 Department of Education, University of Taipei, Taipei 100, Taiwan. Submission: 29 May 2016 Accepted: 7 June 2016 Published: 25 June 2016 www.ijsrm. humanjournals.com Citation: Chih-Yung Tsai et al. Ijsrm.Human, 2016; Vol. 3 (4): 1-22. 2 INTRODUCTION Festival activities have recently become understood as a means to market local industries. Hosting festival activities provide not only tourists with more diverse recreation opportunities but also local residents with various economic benefits. In 2002, the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications published the project Taiwan Double in the administrative plan Challenge 2008: National Development Plan; the goal was to increase the number of tourists in Taiwan from 1 million to 5 million over 6 years. Therefore, festival activities became a focal point of tourist recreation. The attraction of festival activities includes natural landscapes (including the meanings conveyed through the featured human activities), which motivates tourists to stay in a region for longer and increases the income of local residents [1]. The Taiwanese government has been promoting Taiwan to the world to bring Taiwan to the attention of international visitors and to enable the Taiwanese people to actively participate in festival activities every month. It has done this to demonstrate to the Taiwanese people that their inherent folk customs can generate considerable tourist benefits. After the Year of Ecotourism in Taiwan in 2001, the Tourism Bureau selected and promoted 12 major local festivals to develop Taiwan into an island of festivals. To promote national tourism in Taiwan, expand the international visibility of Taiwan, and attract international tourists to visit Taiwan, the Taiwanese government has hosted numerous festival activities and combined them with local characteristics to deepen their connotations. According to statistics compiled by the Tourism Bureau, the 12 major local festivals hosted in 2001 attracted approximately 10.95 million participants and generated approximately NT$3.2 billion in tourism revenue; in 2002, the 12 major local festivals attracted more than 10 million participants and generated approximately NT$2.3 billion in tourism revenue. Therefore, hosting festival activities attract international tourists to visit Taiwan and generate considerable tourism revenues [2]. Festival tourism, which preserves local characteristics and promotes tourism development, has gradually become the preferred method for developing the tourism industry in Taiwan. Because short-term festival activities integrate local human resources and cultural assets, they strengthen the allure of specific regions and are the primary attraction for tourists. Additionally, consumer www.ijsrm. humanjournals.com Citation: Chih-Yung Tsai et al. Ijsrm.Human, 2016; Vol. 3 (4): 1-22. 3 activities associated with festival tourism induce local economic development [3]. In various Taiwanese cities and counties, extremely diverse festival activities such as religious activities, cultural festivals, tourist seasons, harvest festivals, and flower carnivals, have been hosted; particularly notable ones include the Yilan International Children’s Folklore and Folkgame Festival, the Taipei Film Festival, the Yingge Ceramics Carnival, the Firefly Event in the Township of Neiwan in Hsinchu, the Chuchian Glass Art Festival, the Pinghsi Lantern Festival, Taichung Tachia Jenn Lann Temple-related activities, the Tainan Paihe Lotus Festival, and the Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival in Tungkang. According to city and county government data, more than 90 tourist festivals were hosted by regional governments in Taiwan in 2002; the actual number of tourist festivals hosted over the year was estimated to be more than 100. Therefore, Taiwan has attained the status as the island of festivals. These diverse special events and festivals have been critical for developing the international tourism of Taiwan and have been one of the most rapidly developed tourist attractions [4]. Connotations are the basis for a culture to distinguish itself from other cultures. Connotations are expressed in the forms of cultures, arts, folk customs, handicrafts, and history. Connotations evolve through the integration of human factors, nature, materials, spirits, and daily living [5]. Chiang and Kuo (2008) [6]indicated that the integration of cultural resources of a region and the participation of its local residents strengthens the cultural characteristics of the region and the satisfaction of its visitors. In other words, cultural activities contribute toward the overall satisfaction of tourists through the integration of local characteristics and the development of tourists’ cultural cognition. Chiang, Li, and Chiang (2008) [7]claimed that consumers’ cognition toward the cultural characteristics of products affects their intentions to purchase the products again. Additionally, this cognition influences consumers’ intentions to purchase products as well as introduce them to other people. Chu (2008) [8] reported that tourists’ cognition toward the characteristics of military community cultures positively influences their intentions to revisit these communities. Therefore, this paper adopts the perspective of cultural connotations to discuss the effects of cultural characteristics of festival tourism and tourists’ cognition on the satisfaction of tourists and their intentions to revisit. Sun (1994) [9]defined tourism as a type of recreational activity in which people freely utilize their time and money for purposes other than work. In addition, tourism is considered a type of www.ijsrm. humanjournals.com Citation: Chih-Yung Tsai et al. Ijsrm.Human, 2016; Vol. 3 (4): 1-22. 4 material, cultural, spiritual, and social behavior, in which people voluntarily leave their habitual residence and temporarily reside in travel locations before returning to their habitual residence. Chen (2002) [10]indicated that the processes of tourist activities affect the satisfaction of tourists. Specifically, procedural designs of tourist activities influence the overall satisfaction of tourists. After investigating the procedural designs, information, and strategies of festival tourism in Taiwan, Wang (2007) [11]reported that the procedural designs of tourist activities influence the satisfaction of tourists most profoundly. After employing the perspective of experiential marketing to explore the effect of lodging experience on the future intentions of tourists to consume and recommend products, Lin, Tsai, and Chiu (2007) [12]indicated that emotional experience has the strongest influence on the intentions of tourists to consume products again, and relational experience has the strongest influence on the intentions of tourists to recommend products. Yang (2005) [13]reported that festival tourism is a short-term, concentrated, and highly variable form of tourist activities; therefore, festival tourism generates a greater extent of cultural and economic benefits than the other forms of tourist activities do and can improve the intentions of tourists to revisit a region. This paper explains the effects of the tourist experience, benefits, and procedural designs of festival tourism with the satisfaction of tourists and their intentions to revisit with a focus on tourist connotations. The topics examined in the current studies on festival activities include the types of festi