BUSINESS TRAVEL MOTIVATIONS AND OBJECTIVES OF TRADE FAIRS VISITORS: EXPERIENCE FROM THE TRADE FAIRS IN THESSALONIKI, GREECE (original) (raw)
Related papers
An Evaluation for Participation Motivations of Professional and Non-Professional Visitors: The Case of Travel Turkey İzmir Fair, 2019
One of the major factors that enable the maximization of the benefits of fairs the importance of which is increasing day by day is the determination of the motivations and satisfaction perceptions of the participants. In this context, the study has two main objectives. The first objective is to determine the differences between (1) visitors working in different sectors of the tourism industry as professionals who have come to the Travel Turkey Izmir Fair (2018) and (2) the motivations of visitors who have the potential to participate in tourism activities. The second aim is to examine the relationship between these two different visitor types' satisfaction perception, intention to recommend and intention to revisit. As a result of the survey conducted with 317 visitors participating in the Travel Turkey Fair (2018), it was determined that the main reasons for the participation of all the visitors in the fair were the elements of purchasing, socialization and tourism theme. When the results are examined separately in terms of professional and non-professional, it is noteworthy that the motivations differ. It has been determined that professional visitors participate the fair for seminars, purchasing, ongoing information search purposes while non-professional visitors participated for tourism theme, socialization and escape motivations. The overall satisfaction of the Travel Turkey Izmir Fair (2018) was very high when the relationship between overall satisfaction, intention to revisit and intention to recommend were examined, likewise it was also concluded that the intention to revisit and intention to recommend was also high. On the other hand, there was a moderate positive relationship between the overall satisfaction, intention to revisit and intention to recommend. Furthermore, a strong and positive relationship was determined between the intention to revisit and intention to recommend. The study concludes with suggestions for trade fair organizers to increase the number of visitors to fairs in future years. Öz: Önemi gün geçtikçe artan fuarlardan elde edilecek faydaların en üst düzeye çıkarılmasını sağlayan önemli unsurların biri fuara katılanların motivasyonlarının ve memnuniyet algılarının tespit edilmesidir. Bu kapsamda araştırmanın iki temel amacı bulunmaktadır. Birinci amaç; Travel Turkey İzmir Fuarı'na (2018) gelen (1) profesyonel olarak turizm endüstrisinin farklı sektörlerinde çalışan ziyaretçiler ile (2) turizm etkinliklerine katılma potansiyeli olan ziyaretçilerin motivasyonları arasındaki farkların tespit edilmesidir. İkinci amaç ise söz konusu iki farklı ziyaretçi tipinin fuara ilişkin memnuniyet algısı, tavsiye etme niyeti ve tekrar ziyaret niyeti arasındaki ilişkilerin incelenmesidir. Travel Turkey Fuarı'nda (2018) katılan 317 ziyaretçi ile yapılan anket sonucunda fuarı ziyaret edenlerin tamamının ana katılım nedenleri incelendiğinde satın alma, sosyalleşme ve fuar özellikleri unsurlarının ön plana çıktığı saptanmıştır. Sonuçlar, ticari katılımcılar ve tüketiciler nezdinde ayrı ayrı incelendiğinde ise motivasyonların farklılaştığı dikkat çekmektedir. Profesyonel turizm ve seyahat işletmecilerinin eğitim alma, satın alma, devam eden bilgi arayışı ve eğitim alma; tüketicilerin ise fuar özellikleri, sosyalleşme ve kaçış motivasyonları ile fuara katıldıkları tespit edilmiştir. Tüm ziyaretçilerin Travel Turkey İzmir Fuarı'na (2018) yönelik genel memnuniyet, tekrar ziyaret ve tavsiye etme niyetleri arasındaki ilişkileri incelendiğinde genel memnuniyetin oldukça yüksek olduğu; benzer biçimde ziyaretçilerin tekrar ziyaret etme ve tavsiye etme niyetlerinin de yüksek olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Öte yandan, fuardan genel memnuniyet ile tekrar ziyaret ve tavsiye etme arasında orta düzeyde pozitif bir ilişki saptanmıştır. Ayrıca, tekrar ziyaret etme niyeti ile tavsiye etme arasında da kuvvetli ve pozitif bir ilişki belirlenmiştir. Araştırma, gelecek yıllardaki fuarlara ziyaretçi katılım sayılarını artırmaya yönelik fuar organizatörlerine yönelik öneriler ile son bulmaktadır.
Trade Fairs as Services: A Look at Visitors' Objectives in Spain
1999
Trade fairs are an important element of the promotion strategy for industrial products. They are also a source of information about market trends for managers of those companies that attend these events. In this study, we consider trade fairs as services offered by trade fair organizations (TFOs), with visitors as clients. We present an empirical study developed in Spain to analyze the objectives of small and medium-sized companies who visit trade fairs.
Motivations of Event Tourism Participants and Behavioural Intentions
Tourism and hospitality management, 2018
Purpose-The aim of this study is to determine the factors that motivated people to participate in the Alaçatı 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 Alaçatı 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 Alaçatı 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 Alaçatı 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.
An Analysis of Participant Attitudes toward International Tourism Fairs
Journal of Tourism and Gastronomy Studies, 2018
The aim of this study is to determine participants' attitudes toward international tourism fairs by using statistical methods. A survey was used as the data collection method. 467 participants who participated in international tourism exhibitions held in Kiev / Ukraine, Minsk / Belarus, Tbilisi / Georgia, and Seoul / South Korea in 2017 were given a questionnaire related to the research subject. The statistical data were analyzed by means of the SPSS package program. The variables were described in terms of frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean and standard deviation statistics, and t test and variance analysis were performed. According to the results of the participant attitude analysis, participating in tourism fairs makes both organizationally and individually positive contribution to tourism businesses.
Festivals and special events are considered important motivators for tourism. Thus, event tourism has become one of the fastest growing types of tourism. In a competitive festival and event tourism market understanding visitor motivation is extremely important for tourism promotion and planning. Therefore, designing better products and services to meet the participants’ demands and motivations is vital to maintain high satisfaction levels and to determine return visits and this can be achieved only through a clear understanding of the motives to attend these events. While there is a solid literature on event tourism motivation, this is mainly based on studies of large-scale events and festivals from Western, developed countries. The present study investigated whether the existing motivation scale could be reliably used in a different cultural and economic setting and for small-scale events. Consequently, it focused on three small-scale festivals and events organized in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey with over 13 million inhabitants. The study found that, while there may be differences in the motivations (and the strength of the motivations) for attending different types ofevents, the event motivation scale, as designed by previous studies could be considered universally valid.
Motivations and Performance of Exhibitors: An Exploratory Study of a Destination Marketing Event
Asian Journal of Management, 2017
The tourism industry is going through challenging times. Innovative marketing tools are required to promote business for the firm and the destination. Trade shows have proved to be a successful destination promotion tool and is increasingly forming part of the marketing strategies in the tourism industry. The purpose of this empirical study is to identify the motivations and outcomes (trade show performance) of a destination trade show from the perspective of one of the main participants of a destination trade show i.e.exhibition attendees. Systematic sampling survey method was used during a destination trade show, Kerala Travel Mart, (KTM) 2012. Giving information on products emerged as the main motivation and developing and maintaining relationships as the second main motivation of exhibitors. Projecting an image of being a strong and solid company and fostering relationships are perceived as the most important outcomes for exhibitors. So it is evident that KTM has been a success as KTM has achieved one of the main motivations - building relationships. For quality of trade shows, quality of service and the competence of the organizers and staff were ranked the highest, followed by choice of venue.The managerial implications of these findings for destination managers, exhibition organizers and exhibitors are discussed in detail.
TOURISMOS: An International Multidisciplinary Refereed Journal of Tourism, Volume 14, Issue 2 , ISSN: 1790-8418 (Print Version), 2018
This paper presents an analysis of two renowned international arts festivals visitors’ motives and profile characteristics, in two medium sized Greek cities: the Kalamata International Dance Festival and the Drama International Short Film Festival. The purpose of the study was to determine the reasons visitors attend these festivals, necessary for building more concise marketing strategies and, therefore, more successful and sustainable events, with long-term benefits, ranging from the local to the national levels. The research addresses international arts festivals that share four main characteristics: a) they host international professional artists, 2) they feature explicitly-stated artistic visions and objectives, 3) they are publicly funded, and 4) they have achieved a consecutive 23 years of successful presence in each city. These two case studies represent two cultural events which have managed to maintain their popularity and high status, on the European festival map, as well as to raise their host cities’ cultural and tourism standards, despite the serious economic cutback they have both faced. Due to limited available funds, the festivals lack marketing resources and specifically data collection on visitor motivation, a gap which this study aims to remedy. Primary data were collected with the aid of online structured questionnaires, distributed and collected during autumn 2016. 130 questionnaires were answered by visitors of the Drama International Short Film Festival and 186 questionnaires were answered by visitors of the Kalamata International Dance Festival. Even though both festivals share similar characteristics regarding their organization and their aims, our analysis emphasized the heterogeneity of the motives of attendance in connection with the visitors’ profile characteristics, for each event. While some similarities were found, especially between demographic sample characteristics and visitors’ profiles, the general picture to emerge from the findings indicates significant differences between the two cases. Arts festivals-goers do not appear to constitute a single homogeneous market; rather, each event appears to attract different audiences for different reasons. The implications of these findings, deriving from statistical analysis, are discussed and suggestions for further research are outlined. This research aims to contribute to knowledge concerning the marketing strategies of International Arts Festivals in medium-sized cities, useful for research and academic purposes, as well as to local and national authorities and other agencies and bodies, responsible for urban tourism and cultural city/town planning and management.
Events as a Source of Competitive Advantage for Destinations
European Scientific Journal, 2014
World tourism is going towards cultural tourism in the few last years. Today, tourists are looking especially for different cultures and living styles. Event tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry. The growing interest for special events may provide profitable activities in the community. Events are a unique form of tourism attraction and are an important motivator of tourism. The programming of events in tourist destinations normally presupposes two objectives: to increase the number of visitors during the period when the events are taking place, and to increase exposure of the region through publicity and media coverage. Event tourism can contribute positively to a locality, but not automatically secure local economic development. The aim of this paper is to determine the role and impacts of events in the image of Korca 's region and as an important source to generate incomes to the host area. The Korca Beer fest, already a festival well-known throughout all of Albania and the region, has been honored with the Albanian tourism prize, awarded by the Minister of Tourism, Youth and Sports and the Albanian Tourism Association. This paper supports those of other authors who have found that events are catalyzing phenomena for attracting and satisfying visitors, and as such, that they are an important vehicle for the formation of the image of a destination.
Visitors' Objectives for Attending a Regional Trade Fair in Ghana
This study investigates visitors' objectives for attending the second Volta Trade and Investment Fair (VTIF) in Ho in Ghana. The study explored the latent dimensions underlying visitor objectives and ascertained whether visitor objectives will vary by their profile. Data were collected from 459 respondents at the trade fair grounds in November 2010. Exploratory factor analysis results indicated that visitors' objectives had three dimensions, which were product-oriented, networking/information and entertainment-based objectives. Product-oriented objectives were the most important reasons motivating visits to the trade fair. Visitors aged 20 and younger were influenced more by entertainment objectives than other age groups.
Opinions of Business Representatives on International Tourism Fairs: A Qualitative Research Study
2019
The aim of this study is to reveal the opinions of tourism business associates about international tourism fairs. In this study, the unstructured interview technique was used as the data collection method. The research group included participants from businesses operating in the accommodation, airlines, catering, travel, and health tourism sectors who attended the international tourism exhibitions in Kiev/Ukraine, Minsk/Belarus, Tbilisi/Georgia and Seoul/South Korea in 2017. An interview on the subject was conducted with 32 participants and their opinions were recorded in a written form. According to the interview results, the exhibitors reported that taking part in international tourism fairs is generally useful for tourism businesses in terms of improving image, increasing knowledge of the international markets, better recognition of competitors, and being informed about the latest technology and managerial practices.