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Introduction
Fierce competition among destinations has forced them to revisit the means by which they are managed and marketed with more integrated and professional approaches to destination development increasingly necessary. New product, service and experience developments are eagerly being sought to achieve economic gain and enhance destinations’ longer-term sustainability in the wider destination marketplace. One of the most significant trends for destinations seeking differentiation has been through the organization of events and festivals. For the most part, these have not, however, been part of integrated destination development strategies. Rather, they have been short-term opportunistic strategies with many destinations merely reacting to competitive pressures rather than evaluating what events are truly best for their own destinations and that best fit the existing infrastructure, markets and products. Given the fierce competition among tourism destinations to differentiate themselves from others, this special issue aims to challenge those old thought patterns, models, research methods and ideas. It also aims to identify contemporary issues in event and festival research and the means by which it can contribute more effectively to the future planning, marketing and management of tourism destinations.
Emerging themes
The articles in the special issue contribute to the successful planning, marketing and management of destinations through events and festivals. It identifies the latest thematic trends in event management research as well as evaluates consumer satisfaction and community perceptions of events and festivals for destination sustainability. Event and festival research is often criticized for the lack of rigorous research methods being used and the generalizability of the results. The articles included in this special issue apply various research methods and analysis, indicating the growth and increase in rigor of event and festival research. These research themes, methods and analysis are highlighted below in the 11 articles of the special issue.
Evolution of event management research
In their article, Seunghyun Park and Kwangsoo Park provide a content analysis of 698 articles published between 1998 and 2013 in hospitality and tourism and event management journals. Their article differentiates itself from other review articles in the field (Getz and Page, 2016; Kim et al., 2013; Lee and Back, 2005; Mair, 2012; Mair and Whitford, 2013; Yoo and Weber, 2005) by presenting different index measures, using time series to compare the research...