This chapter examined the perceptions of local interest groups about the potential for regional, small scale festivals to make a positive contribution to regional development. The methodology adopted a ‘holistic’ approach to regional develop- ment, addressing the economic, natural, social and cultural environments and considering the contribution of regional cultural festivals to local economies from more than just a basic ‘income generation’ perspective.
Even though metropolitan cultural festivals usually create considerable eco- nomic benefits, regional cultural festivals, even with low employment and profits, in most cases prove to be important factors in a location’s portfolio of tourism products (Ryan 1998). Regional festivals promote the area more widely, while offering the possibility to a group of people to express and celebrate their love for art and culture (Gibson et al. 2010). These issue-oriented pressure groups (Getz 2007) are often the real champions of local development and event policy innovation (Whitford2009).
Tindall (2005) argues that cultural festivals are lively cells of activity, particu- larly in small local economies where their relative monetary impact is greater than in urban areas. The results of a survey by Gibson et al. (2010) about cultural festivals in nonmetropolitan Australia provide some depth to this argument. They also show how seemingly insignificant, in monetary terms, festivals can cumula- tively generate notable amounts of employment, and catalyze other qualitative benefits for a local economy. Furthermore, even in the most radical, non- commercial cultural festivals, culture and economics combine, since festivals require audiences, support services, staging and audio equipment, thus having both demand and supply-side economic impacts on localities.
The results of this research suggest that regional film festivals examined, though small and often not commercially oriented, have a significant cumulative develop- ment impact on host localities through tourism development, employment genera- tion and community networking. Our research results indicate that in most of the cases, film festivals cumulatively create substantial employment, even though often part-time, qualitatively improve local economies and encourage cooperation.
According to data made available by six festivals, it is estimated that 30 full-time jobs and 135 part-time jobs are created directly in the planning and operation of festivals: a mean score of 5 full-time jobs plus 22.5 part-time jobs per festival.
Furthermore, research findings suggest that while key interest groups do not see festivals as major contributors to the local economy, they strongly believe that local film festivals contribute to community cohesiveness and create social incentives for the local community.
This study aimed to provide useful insights for academia, local government and tourism industry into the debate on the role of cultural festivals as useful mechanisms for regional development. However, due to the small size of the sample, caution should be used in making generalizations based on the results of the empirical analysis. Therefore, further comparative research needs to be undertaken, by use of a larger scale survey that would yield to rather more
representative results and would also allow to identify the significant differences between the perceptions of the various stakeholders involved. Future work might also consider including the perceptions of citizens and looking at different spatial scale of analysis and levels of policy making to promote understanding of cultural festival policy and its utility to facilitate regional development.
Another subject worthy for further research is the economic geography of cultural festivals, questioning on the socio-economic links between festivals and host localities given their population and economy base. In our analysis, some host regional towns with high festival-per-population scores were located in declining agricultural or manufacture areas, with no significant comparative advantage in tourism (e.g. Drama). The investigation of whether these spatial patterns are based on transport accessibility, tourism perspectives or regional creative capacity is an issue that warrants future research.
References
Alves HB, Campon Cerro AC, Martins AF (2010) Impacts of small tourism events on rural places.
J Place Manage Devel 3:22–37
Boo S, Busser JA (2006) Impact analysis of a tourism festival on tourists’ destination images.
Event Manage 9:223–237
Brown BB (1968) Delphi process: a methodology used for the elicitation of opinions of experts.
RAND Corporation, Santa Monica/Calif
Carlsen J, Getz D, Soutar G (2000) Event evaluation research. Event Manage 6:247–257 Chhabra D, Sills E, Cubbage FW (2003) The significance of festivals to rural economies:
estimating the economic impacts of Scottish highland games in North Carolina. J Travel Res 41:421–427
Crompton JL, Lee S, Shuster TS (2001) A guide for undertaking economic impact studies: the Springfest example. J Travel Res 40:79–87
Dalkey N, Helmer O (1963) An experimental application of the Delphi method to the use of experts. Manage Sci 9:458–467
de Bres K, Davis J (2001) Celebrating group and place identity: a case study of a new regional festival. Tour Geogr 3:326–337
Dwyer L, Forsyth P, Spurr R (2005) Estimating the impacts of special events on an economy.
J Travel Res 43:351–359
Felsenstein D, Fleischer A (2003) Local festivals and tourism promotion: the role of public assistance and visitor expenditure. J Travel Res 41:385–392
Formica S, Uysal M (1996) A market segmentation of festival visitors: Umbria Jazz festival in Italy. Festival Manage Event Tour 3:175–182
Getz D (2007) Event studies: theory, research and policy for planned events. Elsevier, Oxford Getz D (2008) Event tourism: definition, evolution and research. Tour Manage 29:403–428 Gibson C, Kong L (2005) Cultural economy: a critical review. Prog Hum Geog 29:541–561 Gibson C, Waitt G, Walmsley J, Connell J (2010) Cultural festivals and economic development in
nonmetropolitan Australia. Local cultural development: tensions and opportunities. J Plann Educ Res 29:280–293
Gordon TJ (2010) The Delphi method. Futures research methodology, vol 3 Millennium project Gorman-Murray A, Darian-Smith K, Gibson C (2008) Scaling the rural: reflections on rural
cultural studies. Austr Human Rev 45:37–53
Gursoy D, Kim K, Uysal M (2004) Perceived impacts of festivals and special events by organizers:
an extension and validation. Tour Manage 25:171–181
Higham JS, Ritchie B (2001) The evolution of festivals and other events in rural southern New Zealand. Event Manage 7:39–49
Huang JZ, Li M, Cai LA (2010) A model of community-based festival image. Int J Hosp Manage 29:254–260
Kim C, Scott D, Thigpen J, Kim S (1998) Economic impacts of a birding festival. J Festival Manage Event Tour 5:51–58
Kim SS, Prideaux B, Chon K (2010) A comparison of results of three statistical methods to understand the determinants of festival participants’ expenditures. Int J Hosp Manage 29:297–307
Klaic D, Bacchella U, Bollo A, di Stefano E (2004) Festivals: Challenges of Growth, Distinction, Support Base and Internationalization. Tartu: Cultural Department, City of Tartu.http://www.
tartu.ee/festivalbook.Accessed 10 Feb 2011
Klaic D (2002) Challenges and strategies In: Festivals: challenges of growth, distinction, support base and internationalization, Department of Culture of the Tartu City Government
Kotler P, Haider DH, Rein I (1993) Marketing places: attracting investment, industry and tourism to cities, states and nations. Free Press, New York
Linstone HA, Turoff M (eds) (1975) The Delphi method: techniques and applications. Addison Wesley, Reading, MA
Maughan Ch, Bianchini F (2004) The economic and social impact of cultural festivals in the East Midlands of England. Final report, De Montfort University, Leicester.http://www.artscouncil.
org.uk/regions/index.php. Accessed 8 Feb 2011
McCann E (2002) The cultural politics of local economic development: meaning-making, place- making, and the urban policy process. Geoforum 33:385–398
Mehmetoglu M, Ellingsen KA (2005) Do small-scale festivals adopt “market orientation” as a management philosophy? Event Manage 9:119–132
Moscardo G (2007) Analyzing the role of festivals and events in regional development. Event Manage 11:23–32
O’Sullivan D, Jackson M (2002) Festival tourism: a contributor to sustainable local economic development? J Sustain Tour 10:325–342
O’Sullivan D, Pickernella D, Senyard J (2009) Public sector evaluation of festivals and special events. J Policy Res Tour Leisure Events 1:19–36
Pasanen K, Taskinen H, Mikkonen J (2009) Impacts of cultural events in Eastern Finland – development of a Finnish event evaluation tool. Scand J Hosp Tour 9:112–129
Preble JF (1984) The selection of Delphi panels for strategic planning purposes. Strateg Manage J 5:157–170
Rowe G, Wright G (1999) The Delphi technique as a forecasting tool: issues and analysis. Int J Forecast 15:353–375
Ryan C (1998) Economic impacts of small events: Estimates and determinants – a New Zealand example. Tour Econ 4(4):339–352
Small K, Edwards D, Sheridan L (2005) A flexible framework for evaluating the socio-cultural impacts of a small festival. Int J Event Manage Res 1:66–76
Thrane C (2002) Jazz festival visitors and their expenditures: linking spending patterns to musical interest. J Travel Res 40:281–286
Tindall P (2005) Economic impacts of a small scale youth sports event: a study of the Gromfest Surf Carnival. B.Sc. Thesis, University of New South Wales
Van de Wagen L (2005) Event management: for tourism, cultural, business and sporting events, 2nd edn. Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest
Waitt G (2008) Urban festivals: geographies of hype, helplessness, and hope. Geogr Compass 2:513–537
Whitford M (2009) A framework for the development of event public policy: facilitating regional development. Tour Manage 30:674–682