Understanding the role of culture and heritage in community festivals: An importance-performance analysis

Festivals can support local communities by bringing in unique visitors who will inject new revenue into the economy. Continued evaluation of festivals is necessary to ensure they are meeting customer expectations, which will generate positive word-of-mouth advertising and repeat visitation. The research reported here used an importance-performance analysis to evaluate a regional festival in South Carolina. Particular attention was paid to the importance of the cultural aspects of the festival. Based on a survey of 212 festival attendees, several recommendations are made to festival planners. Results indicate that cultural aspects of the festival were not very important to attendees.