MOTIVATIONS OF EVENT TOURISM PARTICIPANTS AND BEHAVIOURAL INTENTIONS

Purpose - The aim of this study is to determine the factors that motivated people to participate in the Alacati Herb Festival, their satisfaction levels, revisit and recommend their intentions. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was prepared, drawing from the scales in literature and applied to the 8th Alacati Herb Festival, Turkey. Multiple regression analysis was applied to test the hypotheses on the data set of 455 completed questionnaires. Findings - The findings indicate that the factors that motivated people to participate in the Alacati Herb Festival were: (1) regional attractiveness, (2) festival attractiveness, (3) travel attractiveness and (4) entertainment attractiveness. These results indicated that although these four factors increased: the satisfaction of participants, only regional attractiveness, festival attractiveness, and entertainment attractiveness increased revisit intentions and recommendation intentions. Research limitation/implications - The findings of this paper solely reflect the motivational factors and behavioural intentions during the Alacati Herb Festival. Destination managers should focus more on: regional attractiveness, festival attractiveness, and entertainment attractiveness to increase festival participants' revisit intentions and recommendation intentions. Originality - Understanding the variables that predict event participation at a gastronomic festival provides useful data for practitioners. Additionally, this study establishes an empirical relation between motivational factors, satisfaction, revisit intentions, and recommendation intentions.