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Event and festival research: a review and research directions
Events and festivals are key elements of the tourism product in many destinations (Getz and Page, 2016). The ability of festivals and events to attract visitors to a host region, and to contribute to its economic and social well-being explains the significance afforded to them in many tourism policies and strategies (Mair and Whitford, 2013). This contribution is a strong justification for public funding of events and festivals (Felsenstein and Fleischer, 2003; O’Hagan, 1992). Thus, in conjunction with tourism, they are becoming a realistic policy option for regional development (Moscardo, 2007; Robinson et al., 2004). However, the rapid growth of the events/festival industry in the past few decades has not always been matched with the level of research devoted to investigating it. Additionally, the fragmented nature of the research that exists poses challenges for researchers and practitioners trying to identify both the existing knowledge and any research gaps. Nonetheless, the interest of the academic community in event and festival research has increased significantly, particularly in the past decade. This has broadly aligned with the time that the International Journal of Event and Festival Management has been in existence. Here we look back on the general direction of research in our field and provide some potential avenues for future research to strengthen and enrich event and festival research.
To date, several reviews have examined the state of research relating to festivals and events. Getz (2010) reviewed the literature on festivals, identifying three major discourses – a classical discourse, concerning the roles, meanings and impacts of festivals in society and culture; an instrumentalist discourse, where festivals are viewed as tools to be used in economic development, particularly in relation to tourism and place marketing; and an event management discourse, which focuses on the production and marketing of festivals and the management of festival organisations (Getz, 2010). Getz and Page (2016) also reviewed the event tourism literature. According to Getz (2013), there are five core propositions of event tourism: events can attract visitors who may not otherwise visit the area; events can create a positive destination image and branding; events contribute to place marketing by making destinations more attractive; events animate cities, resorts and parks; and event tourism...