An Empirical Study on Festival Activities and Regional Development – Focusing on Perceived Value

[[abstract]]觀光資源一般而言可以分成兩個層面。如基礎設施、自然景觀、歷史景觀等等的實體層面。另一個則為代表當地文化的無形層面，如慶典、節慶活動、事件活動。這兩個層面可以被視為觀光資源上的硬體面與軟體面。然而，當前的研究主要將焦點放在硬體面上。問題是對於地域觀光及地域振興而言，藉由建築物或景觀等等的硬體面來吸引遊客是不夠的。因此，本研究將焦點放在軟體面中的節慶活動，來探討如何有效提升遊客對於地域的忠誠。因為比起以景色為基礎的觀光，藉由節慶活動，來訪的遊客可以與當地居民進行互動，同時體驗到當地的文化，並獲得更深刻的印象。本研究回顧觀光行銷中的相關文獻，發現「地域忠誠」此一變數主要被用於衡量觀光活動的成果。同時整理出其前因─「地域形象」。此外，本研究從節慶活動的焦點來探討地域忠誠的形成模型，因此加入「節慶品質」於模型中。另外，行銷領域認為傳遞卓越的顧客認知價值是獲得競爭優勢及顧客忠誠的重要指標。因此本研究也加入「認知價值」觀點於模型中， 希望藉此喚起從事地域振興人員對於價值行銷導向戰略的注意。研究樣本為2014年5月18日神戶祭來訪的遊客。結果顯示，「地域形象」會直接且正向影響「地域忠誠」。而且也會透過中介變數─「認知價值」來影響「地域忠誠」。然而「節慶品質」僅會間接藉由中介變數─「認知價值」來對「地域忠誠」產生影響。最後本研究除了討論研究發現的管理涵意外，亦提出若干管理與未來研究建議。[[abstract]]In general tourism resources can be divided into two aspects One of the tourism resources is physical aspects such as infrastructure nature attractions and historical attractions And the other one is intangible aspects such as celebration festivals and event These two aspects can be considered as “hardware” and “software” on tourism resources However the main concern has been placed on the side of the “hardware” in the past research Especially attracting tourists by hardware such as buildings and landscape is insufficient for regional tourism and regional development Therefore we focused on “festival activity” which is included in the software of tourism resources in this study And how to effectively enhance tourist’s destination loyalty through festival activities Because by visiting festivals tourists can interact with local residents while they can experience the local culture and get even more impressed compared with scenery-based tourism Further the study reviewed the relevant literature in tourism marketing We found that "destination loyalty" is a key outcome variables which is used to measure tourism activities Therefore we adopted this concept as a dependent variables in the study Simultaneously we summarized that antecedents ─ "destination image" In addition the study discussed about destination loyalty model from the festivals point of view Therefore we added "festival quality" into the model In the marketing it is considered that firms can obtain a competitive advantage and customer loyalty by delivering superior customer perceived value Thus this study also added the view of "perceived value" into the model Hoping to evoke people who devote on implementing destination development to notice value-oriented marketing strategies The empirical data was collected from visitors who visited “Kobe Festivals” on 18 May 2014 The results indicated that destination image had direct and positive impact on destination loyalty and also indirectly impacted it through the mediation of perceived value Festival quality in turn only indirectly influenced destination loyalty through the mediation of perceived value The study discussed the managerial implications of the findings and provided some suggestions for researchers and practitioner