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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

Events and Tourism Review                                     
 
December 2024                                                                                                                                          Volume 7 No. 1      

 

Segmentation of Local Agricultural Festivals  

for Collaborative Marketing 

 

 
Hyungsuk Choo 
 
 
 

Bowling Green State University 

Correspondence: hchoo@bgsu.edu (H. Choo) 

 

 
 

 

 

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Recommended Citation 

Choo, H. (2024). Segmentation of Local Agricultural Festivals for Collaborative 
Marketing. Events and Tourism Review, 7(1), 18-33.  

 

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Choo, H. (2024) / Events and Tourism Review, 7(1), 18-33. 
19 

Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Abstract 

 

This study aims to explore the heterogeneity of local agricultural festival attendees by adopting a 

collaborative marketing approach which enables cross-retention of festival attendees among 

multiple local agricultural festivals. Using the data collected from the on-site survey at three local 

agricultural festivals, this study conducted the cluster analysis. Findings indicate the viability of 

variety seeking and festival loyalty as segmentation criteria involving multiple local agricultural 

festivals together and suggested four clusters, Multi Festival Goers, One Festival Goers, Other 

Festival Goers, and No Returners. Each cluster demonstrates discrete behavioral and geographic 

characteristics about their local agricultural festival experience. 

 

Keywords: Variety Seeking, Festival Loyalty, Local Agricultural Festival, Segmentation, and 

Collaboration  
 

 

 

Introduction 

Local festivals are recognized for their contribution to the social and economic benefits of 

local communities and destinations. Scholars argue that local festivals can boost local tourism 

demand, improve the identity of a local community, and provide tourism opportunities during off-

peak seasons (Chang, W., 2011; Park, Reisinger, & Kang, 2008). As local festivals are increasingly 

viewed as tourism attractions attracting both tourists and residents, their number and diversity have 

grown significantly.  

In an increasingly competitive environment, it is not enough local festivals concentrate on 

identifying and satisfying the need of their own attendees. To compete, survive and thrive, they must 

identify new opportunities and niche, often through collaborations with other local festivals, while 

still catering to the need of their own attendees. Scholars suggest that local festivals within the same 

region can develop collaboration to jointly market their products, programs, brand images, or 

attendees for mutual benefit and local sustainability (Bramwell & Sharman, 1999; Choo & Park, 

2018; Clarke, 1999). Similar to the co-branding or brand alliance in marketing, such collaborating 

festivals can leverage a series of joint marketing activities to create the marketing synergy (Che, 

Veeck, & Veeck, 2005). Rural tourism scholars also emphasize the role of a collaborative approach 

for each unit of rural tourism operations where their marketing resources are often scarce (Clarke, 

1999; Helmig, Huber, & Leeflang, 2007; McComb, Boyd, & Boluk, 2017) However, research on 

the collaborative approach in rural tourism and local festivals, particularly in the segmentation 

studies remains scarce. While segmentation techniques have been developed over the past 40 years 

to assist local festival agencies in classifying distinct groups of attendees, they have primarily 

focused on individual festivals. There is a lack of segmentation studies focusing on the collaborative 

approach among local festivals, which would enable to share, extend, and cross-retain their 

attendees. Different from conventional segmentation approaches for single brands, services, or 

companies, segmentation for the collaborative approach among local festivals requires identifying 

markets not only from their own but also from their collaborative partners to expand their attendees 

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Choo, H. (2024) / Events and Tourism Review, 7(1), 18-33. 
20 

Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

base and cross-retain attendees across festivals.  

This study therefore sets out to develop a segmentation framework to assist a group of local 

festivals in implementing collaborative marketing activities to attract, satisfy, and retain their 

respective targeted attendees, while also cross-attracting/retaining some of their attendees from 

collaborating festivals. Specifically, the first part of the research explores the possibility of grouping 

local festival attendees into distinct sub-segments based on their similarities and differences in 

variety seeking and festival loyalty. The research then ascertains whether statistically significant 

differences exist between the resulting segments in terms of psychographic and demographic 

variables. To achieve this, the following section begins with a review of literature on market 

segmentation, followed by an outline of the research methodology and its findings. Finally, the 

study discusses the marketing implications of its findings.  

Literature Review 

1. Local Agricultural Festivals  

Local festivals have always held significant importance in human culture and history, 

prevalent across diverse local regions. They serve a crucial role in uniting people, promoting social 

cohesion, and commemorating shared traditions and values. Typically centered around distinct 

aspects of a community, some festivals often trace their origins to agriculture, which sustains life by 

providing essential food resources. Agriculture thus forms a vital component of the economic, 

social, and environmental fabric of local communities.  

While food is indispensable to all festivals, local agricultural festivals specifically highlight 

and celebrate the local food systems. They provide opportunities for farming communities to 

showcase their agricultural products, creating awareness that can translate into both onsite and 

future purchases (Choo & Park, 2017). Attendees can sample and purchase fresh produce harvested 

from local farms, immerse themselves in culinary traditions and cultural heritage, and enjoy 

entertainment including you-pick and farming practice activities, cooking, petting zoos with various 

farm animals and displays of large farm machinery like tractors and plows (Barbieri, Cernusca, 

Gold, & Aguilar, 2009). Given the intimate connection between agriculture and the natural 

environment, these festivals also contribute to raising awareness about food security and the 

conservation of natural resources. 

2. Market Segmentation of Local Festivals: A Collaborative Approach 

A series of methods for segmenting markets in the tourism and festival research allow 

researchers and practitioners to identify groups of consumers and ultimately to formulate the 

marketing objectives and activities. These methods range from a priori segmentation to a data-

driven posteriori technique based upon identifying consumers’ lifestyle and psychographics using 

the constructs, such as involvement, motivation, expenditure, satisfaction, lifestyle, trip purpose and 

etc. In the last few decades, scholars have conducted a series of segmentation studies for various 

types of festivals at different regions to help guide individual festivals to segment their attendees 

(Formica & Uysal, 1995; Lee, Choong-Ki, Lee, & Wicks, 2004; Li, Huang, & Cai, 2009; Shi, Ji, 

Weaver, & Huang, 2022). However, segmentation can also be done to help a group of local festivals 

to jointly identify their market, not only attract and retain their own attendees but also to cross-

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Choo, H. (2024) / Events and Tourism Review, 7(1), 18-33. 
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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

attract and cross-retain their attendees, or cross-promote attending other local festivals.  

Many local festival attendees are known to be interested in other local festivals as well as 

one they attend (Choo & Park, 2018). Local festivals are held for a certain time frame periodically, 

seasonally, or annually. Attendees do not necessarily choose to attend one over the other as long as 

festival dates don’t overlap. Attendees who are loyal to one festival can also be interested in other 

festivals, especially when driven by their variety seeking. Therefore, local festivals held in different 

dates and those offering different programs or theme can work together to promote attending each 

other’s festivals. Regardless, most festival segmentation research focus on a single unit of an 

individual festival, implicitly assuming to compete each other to retain its own attendees. As many 

local regions have an increasing number of local festivals, it is common they implicitly and 

explicitly compete to attract their attendees, retaining them only for themselves for future (Fyall & 

Garrod, 2005).  

The fragmented nature of the multifaceted tourism industry creates a recognized need for 

collaborative marketing among different sectors as they carry out complementary activities for 

tourism - (Bramwell & Lane, 2000). In recent years, collaboration opportunities have been also 

recognized within the same sectors, e.g., strategic alliance between airlines. Similarly, local festivals 

can collaborate in many ways, including cross-retaining their attendees (Can, Ekinci, & Pino, 2021). 

To facilitate this, it is important to segment the local festival market, which can involve multiple 

local festivals sharing their attendees together through a collaborative approach.  

3. Local Festival Segmentation 

The local festival employs four typical segmentation criteria: demographic, psychographic, 

behavioral, and geographic variables. Initially, demographic and geographic variables were 

commonly used in festival and tourism segmentation research due to their direct observability and 

practicality. However, there is a growing trend among researchers to also incorporate psychographic 

and behavioral variables to predict decisions related to product and brand choices. 

This study focuses on two specific variables - variety-seeking and festival loyalty - to 

explore the segmentation potential across multiple local festivals and their attendees. Variety-

seeking reflects consumers' desire for excitement, uniqueness, novelty, and curiosity, influencing 

their propensity to switch products and brands (Jung & Yoon, 2012). Traditionally, it has been 

viewed as potentially detrimental to individual product or brand loyalty. 

Conversely, a collaborative marketing approach involving multiple products or brands 

acknowledges that variety-seeking can actually foster cross-retention among customers of those 

products or brands (Choo & Park, 2018). This approach harnesses variety-seeking behavior to 

positively impact customer retention across diverse festivals which are similar in their themes or 

located nearby.  

3.1. Variety-Seeking 

Variety-seeking behavior in consumption refers to consumers switching among products, 

categories, or brands to avoid the decreasing utility due to repeat purchases or consumption of the 

same products (Ratner & Kahn, 2002). Consumers seek variety to manage satiation, to hedge 

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Choo, H. (2024) / Events and Tourism Review, 7(1), 18-33. 
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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

against uncertainty or to search for novelty (Sevilla, Lu, & Kahn, 2019). Consumers buy an array of 

diversified products even if they are satisfied with one particular product. For this reason, marketers 

have sought to find ways to reduce the amount of variety consumers incorporate to keep them loyal 

to their products and brands. On the contrary, some researchers have recently suggested that 

companies create variety, yet retaining the customers (Sheorey, Joshi, & Kulkarni, 2014). In the 

product category marketing, which is designed to increase the demand of products and brands 

within their general category, variety seeking among customers can help them stay loyal by trying 

different products and brands available within the same product category (Tuu & Olsen, 2013). This 

means, variety seeking can play a positive role in the product category loyalty, different from its 

typical negative role in the one brand or one product loyalty. Marketing of multiple products and 

brands with the same product category needs to allow customers to variety-seek and gain the utility 

derived from stimulation of something different, thus leading to loyalty toward the same category 

products and brands. For this, the importance of accessibility of products and brands in the same 

product category has been recognized. Product category marketing is important in the local festival 

as promoting and publicizing a group of local festivals together or a general category of local 

festivals occurring/staging in the local region is needed. One certain festival attendees can attend 

other festivals as well or switch over to other festivals if they don’t want to re-visit the festival 

attended. Local festivals are increasingly being used as instruments for promoting tourism and 

boosting the regional local economy. Promoting a single unit of each local festival is not always 

effective, particularly for variety seekers.  

Variety-seeking has been adopted to provide an effective market segmentation standard for 

enterprises (Trivedi, 1999) but most of those adopt it for one brand or one type of product. By 

applying variety seeking in the market segmentation involving multiple local festivals which can 

collaborate together, this study will contribute to local festival segmentation research where a single 

unit of one festival approach is predominant.  

3.2.  Festival Loyalty  

Most local festivals occur on a regular basis, monthly, seasonally, or annually, so festival 

loyalty indicating intentions to revisit and recommend those to others is important. Due to this 

importance, scholars have actively identified a series of antecedents of festival loyalty, and 

examples of those include authenticity (Akhoondnejad, 2016), festival quality (Wong, Wu, & 

Cheng, 2015), festival value  (Lee, Jin-Soo, Lee, & Choi, 2011), involvement  (Beckman, Shu, & 

Pan, 2020), place attachment  (Lee, Jenny, Kyle, & Scott, 2012), social identity  (Grappi & 

Montanari, 2011), and satisfaction  (Tanford & Jung, 2017). While these concepts have been found 

to positively influence festival loyalty in the diverse ranges of festivals, all of those studies have 

focused on loyalty to a single, individual festival, which reflects attendees’ intention to visit the 

same festival again.  

Although the loyalty concept to a single, individual unit of a brand and service is generally 

common in marketing, the multi-unit loyalty involving multiple tiers of tourism services or multiple 

destinations has been increasingly recognized in the tourism literature (Almeida-Santana & Moreno-

Gil, 2018; McKercher, Denizci-Guillet, & Ng, 2012a). Partly due to the variety (or novelty) seeking 

inherently embedded in the tourists’ mind, their loyalty is not always toward a single unit 

destination, brand and service. Given this, McKercher, Denizci-Guillet, and Ng (2012b) extended 

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Choo, H. (2024) / Events and Tourism Review, 7(1), 18-33. 
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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

the conceptualization of loyalty to three dimensions: vertical (loyalty to different tiers, i.e., to an 

airline and a travel agent), horizontal (loyalty to more than one provider in the same tier, i.e., to 

more than one hospitality brand), and experiential (loyalty to certain holiday styles). Based on in-

depth interviews, the authors confirmed vertical and experiential loyalty, but found less evidence for 

horizontal loyalty. In the marketing literature, the relevance of horizontal loyalty is still recognized 

in the concept of co-branding or co-marketing of multiple brand together.  

Although loyalty to a single unit of a brand and service is a common concept in marketing, 

the tourism literature increasingly acknowledges multi-unit loyalty, which involves multiple tiers of 

tourism services or destinations (Almeida-Santana & Moreno-Gil, 2018; McKercher, Denizci-

Guillet, & Ng, 2012). This trend is partly attributed to the inherent variety-seeking nature of tourists' 

preferences, which doesn't always align with loyalty to a single destination, brand, or service. In 

response, McKercher et al. (2012) expanded the concept of loyalty to include three dimensions: 

vertical (loyalty to different tiers, such as an airline and a travel agent), horizontal (loyalty to 

multiple providers within the same tier, like multiple hospitality brands), and experiential (loyalty to 

specific holiday styles). 

Through in-depth interviews, the authors validated vertical and experiential loyalty but found 

limited evidence for horizontal loyalty. However, in marketing literature, the importance of 

horizontal loyalty persists, evident in concepts such as co-branding or co-marketing multiple brands 

together. 

The horizontal multi-unit loyalty can also be applied in local festivals, which occur at 

various locations and in the various time frame. Attendees to one festival might be also interested in 

another, as well as the one they are attending (Tingchi Liu et al., 2012). Or, they don’t necessarily 

want to revisit the current festival, but would still like to explore other festivals, instead. Therefore, 

loyalty to one local festival can be extended into other local festivals in the local region, involving 

collaboration among some local festivals.  

Research Methodology 

1. Measurement 

Measurement of variables in this study was adopted from the previous study to establish the 

content validity. The self-administered intercept survey questionnaire was developed.  Five-point 

Likert-type scale (one = Not likely at all to five = Very much likely) was used for motivation 

(Maeng, Jang, & Li, 2016), variety seeking (Jung & Yoon, 2012), satisfaction, festival loyalty (Lee, 

Jin-Soo, Lee, & Choi, 2011), and intention to visit other festivals. The first section asked about the 

festival experience, the total spending at the festival, the number of local agricultural products 

purchased, etc. The second section was about festival perception involving festival motivation, 

variety seeking tendency, and satisfaction. The third section measured the festival loyalty (e.g., 

Intention to visit the festival, Intention to visit other agricultural festivals, and Willingness to 

recommend the festival to others). The final section asked the socio-demographic information on 

attendees. The questionnaire was written in English, and then translated into Korean by two 

researchers who are fluent in both English and Korean. Back translation following the 

recommendations of  (Hogg, Liao, & O'Gorman, 2014) ensured translation accuracy. Both Korean 

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Choo, H. (2024) / Events and Tourism Review, 7(1), 18-33. 
24 

Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

and English versions of survey were used for onsite survey.  

2. Data Collection and Analysis 

The data used in this study were drawn from a segment of a larger visitor profile study 

conducted during three local agricultural festivals held in August, September and October, 2019 in 

Chungchungnam-Do, the central region of South Korea, Chunahn Grape Festival, Goesan Pepper 

Festival, and Boun Dates Festival. On the first or the second day of each festival, three trained 

undergraduate students were sent to the site. Participants were informed that their participation was 

voluntary and confidentiality was ensured before they proceeded to fill out the questionnaire. Every 

5th attendees were approached and obtained a sample of 311 useful responses, with the response 

rate of 32%.  

3. Data Analysis 

Cluster analysis was adopted to identify the variation among festival attendees in their 

variety seeking tendency and festival loyalty. Subsequently, a series of Chi-square tests were 

conducted to compare the demographic characteristics, satisfaction and motivation in the segments 

identified in the previous step. Interpretability, cluster size, dendrogram structure and presence of 

statistically significant differences between the clusters were all considered when deciding the 

optimal cluster solution, suggested by Kaufman and Rousseeuw (2009).  

Results of Analysis 

1. Segmentation of Respondents 

A four-cluster solution was found to display significant inter-cluster differences in variety 

seeking tendency and festival loyalty of the respondents and their evident interpretability (Table 1). 

The four segments include Multi-festival goers (39.3% of the sample) who intend to revisit the 

current festival and also visit other local agricultural festivals; Other Festival Goers (28.7% of the 

sample) who do not intend to visit the current festival but would like to visit other local agricultural 

festivals; One Festival Goers (24.9% of the sample) who intend to revisit the current festival but do 

not intend to visit other festivals; and No Returners (7.1% of the sample) who do not intend to visit 

any festival in the future.  

2. Demographic and Behavioral Characteristics of the Clusters 

There are more female attendees across festivals. One Festival Goers tend to be older and 

local residents who reside in the city where each festival is held. Both Multi Festival Goers and 

Other Festival Goers tend to be visitors who travel to the city to attend the festival. 

Table 1. Result of Cluster Analysis (N = 331) 

 Multi-festival 

goers 

(N=130; 39.3%) 

One-festival 

goers  

(N=95; 28.7%) 

Other-festival 

goers 

(N=90; 24.9%) 

No returners  

 

(N=16; 7.1%) 

Variety seeking 4.10 3.19 3.88 3.24 

 

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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

Festival Loyalty     

  I intend to visit the current festival again 4.20 4.11 2.67 2.50 

  I’ll recommend this festival to my friends 3.89 4.29 3.50 2.90 

  I’ll say positive things about the festival 3.91 4.11 3.61 2.69 

I intend to visit other local festivals 4.13 3.39 3.99 2.99 

 

No Returners comprise of both local residents and out-of-towners. Over one third of the 

Multi Festival Goers have visited more than three local festivals in the past and no difference of 

spending at the festival among three festival goers clusters (Table 2).  

3. Satisfaction and Festival Loyalty of the Four Clusters 

The data shows relatively high satisfaction with the festivals they attended as the mean 

satisfaction of the four clusters is 3.87 out of 5 scale. Among these four clusters, Multi Festival 

Goers show the highest level of satisfaction (meanMulti Sa = 3.99), while other-festival goers and one 

festival goers are similar in their satisfaction level (meanOther Sa = = 3.71, and meanOne Sa = 3.69) (Table 

3). Satisfaction of No Returners was significantly lower than other three clusters (mean= 3.00).   

Multi Festival Goers, showing the highest level of satisfaction among the four clusters, form 

the highest level of intention to visit the festival they attended (meanMulti Rev 4.20) (Table 1).   

Table 2. Demographic and Behavioral Profile of the Clusters (N = 331) 

 Multi-festival 

goers 

(N=130; 39.3%) 

One-festival 

goers  

(N=95; 28.7%) 

Other-festival 

goers 

(N=90; 24.9%) 

No returners  

 

(N=16; 7.1%) 

Demographic profile 

Gender (X2 = .75, p=.86) 

Female 

Male 

 

51.54 

48.46 

 

52.63 

47.37 

 

52.26 

47.74 

 

60.50 

37.50 

Age (X2 = 18.53, p<.00) 

  18-39 

  40-59 

  60+ 

 

30.77 

49.23 

20.00 

 

16.84 

40.00 

43.16 

 

26.67 

51.11 

22.22 

 

31.25 

50.00 

31.25 

Education (X2 = 43.00, p<.00) 

     High school or lower 

     College or lower 

     Post graduate work or above 

 

14.62 

67.69 

17.69 

 

49.47 

43.16 

7.37 

 

18.89 

73.33 

7.78 

 

18.75 

62.50 

18.75 

Residency (X2 = 66.95, p<.00) 

City where the festival is held 

Other 

 

23.85 

76.15 

 

61.05 

38.95 

 

21.11 

78.99 

 

50.00 

50.00 

Spending (X2 = 6.65, p=.35) 

50,000 Won or less 

50,000-150,000 Won 

150,000 or more 

 

6.15 

34.62 

59.23 

 

5.26 

43.16 

51.58 

 

2.22 

42.22 

55.56 

 

12.50 

50.00 

37.50 

Local agricultural festival experience % 

(X2 = 24.43, p<.05) 

Never 

1 time 

2 times 

 

 

6.15 

27.69 

27.69 

 

 

5.26 

31.58 

42.11 

 

 

4.44 

27.78 

43.33 

 

 

18.75 

25.00 

43.75 

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26 

Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

3 times 38.46 21.05 24.44 12.50 

 

Between One Festival Goers and Other Festival Goers who report the similar level of high 

satisfaction, the former intends to revisit the festival (meanOne Rev = = 4.11) while latter cluster does 

not do so (meanOther Rev = = 2.67). Intention to visit other local agricultural festivals was found to be 

highest between Multi Festival Goers and Other Festival Goers (meanMulti Oth = = 4.13, and meanOther Oth 

= 3.99), followed by One Festival Goers (meanOne Oth = 3.39). 

Among the clusters, One Festival Goers intend to recommend the festival to others (meanOne 

Rec = = 4.29) higher than Multi Festival Goers (meanMulti Rec = = 3.89) and Other Festival Goers 

(meanOther Rec = = 3.50).  No Returners are not likely to recommend the festival to others.  

4. Festival Motivation  

Average scores for the multi-dimensional factors of festival motivation were computed for 

subsequent ANOVA tests, which revealed significant differences among the four segments (Table 

3). In particular, Multi Festival Goers are more motivated by Food; Other Festival Goers are more 

likely to attend the agricultural food festival for Escape/Novelty; while One Festival Goers tend to 

visit the festival to socialize with people sharing similar interests.  

Table 3. Satisfaction and Motivation of the Clusters (N = 331) 

 Multi-festival 

goers 

(N=130; 39.3%) 

One-festival 

goers  

(N=95; 28.7%) 

Other-festival 

goers 

(N=90; 24.9%) 

No returners  

 

(N=16; 7.1%) 

Satisfaction 3.99 3.69 3.71 3.00 

Motivation 

Local food (F = 8.92; p<.05) 3.71 3.34 3.40 3.24 

Escape/Novelty (F = 7.11; p<.04) 3.50 3.46 3.81 3.29 

Socialization (F = 10.09; p<.00) 3.49 3.74 3.59 3.33 

Learning (F = 1.02; p=.14) 3.33 3.24 3.21 3.24 

 

Discussion and Implications  

This study analyzes the heterogeneity of local agricultural food festival attendees by 

adopting a collaborative marketing approach which enables cross-retention of festival attendees 

between multiple festivals. Findings indicates the viability of variety seeking and festival loyalty as 

segmentation criteria of multiple local agricultural festivals. Each of the four clusters identified 

demonstrate discrete behavioral and geographic characteristics of local agricultural festivals.  

Result of analysis suggests that individual local agricultural festivals need to primarily target 

One Festival Goers and Multi Festival Goers to retain them for their own future festivals. A group of 

local agricultural festivals combined can also cross-target Other Festivals Goers and Multi Festival 

Goers to cross-retain them and develop a collaborative marketing activity. For Other Festival Goers, 

local agricultural festivals can promote attending other collaborating local agricultural festivals, as 

they would like to explore other local agricultural festivals, instead of attending the current one 

again. Multi Festival Goers can be mutually targeted between the collaborating local agricultural 

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Choo, H. (2024) / Events and Tourism Review, 7(1), 18-33. 
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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

festivals. It is important to convince them not only to revisit the festivals in the future but also to 

explore other local festivals which are located around and/or offer similar programs and activities. 

By engaging in this collaborative approach shared by some agricultural local festivals, they can 

broaden their attendee market and cross-retain some of their attendees.  

In the marketing, this type of collaborating activity among independent entities are well 

recognized in various terms, co-branding, brand alliance, brand partnership or strategic alliance 

(Helmig, Huber, & Leeflang, 2007). Characteristics and forms of each activity listed are not always 

similar, but all of these seek to have spillover effects and increase the market share by capitalizing 

and sharing unique resources of each partner (Pinello, Picone, & Mocciaro Li Destri, 2022). For 

local agricultural festivals, where their marketing resource is not sufficiently available, the 

collaboration activity can help use and share their marketing resource efficiently and effectively (Da 

Liang, Nie, Chen, & Chen, 2020). Furthermore, a type of collaboration activity among local 

agricultural festivals can help avoid unnecessary competition among them, if any. In the last few 

decades, the number of local festivals has increased locally and globally, thus increasing 

competition implicitly and explicitly among them to attract and retain their attendees (Maeng, Jang, 

& Li, 2016). Different from commercial market where competition is a common, accepted 

paradigm, local agricultural festivals perform more of a public function in the local community, 

which seeks to co-exist and support for each other. They communicate and reinforce their distinct 

value while leveraging aspects of other collaborating festivals’ value—often referred to as positive 

spillover (Kim, Lee, & Lee, 2007).  

The finding of this study is consistent with previous studies (Almeida-Santana & Moreno-

Gil, 2018; McKercher, Denizci-Guillet, & Ng, 2012a), which suggested the relevance of multi-unit 

or horizontal loyalty manifesting that tourists can show loyalty to multiple destinations and different 

suppliers at the same level within the tourism system. Many satisfying tourists do not necessarily to 

go back to the same destination for their next vacation, but instead they choose to explore different 

destinations specially for the short period of time within a few years (Almeida-Santana & Moreno-

Gil, 2018). Search for something new or novel is often considered to be inherent among tourists 

(Jang & Feng, 2007), so a single unit loyalty to one single destination won’t always work.  

While having a satisfied attendees is a commendable goal that is not to be questioned 

(Melian-Gonzalez, Moreno-Gil, & Arana, 2011), its impact on loyalty needs to be re-examined in 

the local festival context. Some festival studies have reported a weak relationship between 

satisfaction and loyalty, their relationship is not universally strong for all segments (Chang, S., 

Gibson, & Sisson, 2014), or the actual revisit is often significantly lower than their intention to 

revisit (Chaney and Martin, 2017). Therefore, festivals can’t just blindly seek satisfaction in the 

hopes achieving festival loyalty and revisit. Some scholars offer strategic insights for practitioners to 

identify the difference of customer segments and the varying impact of satisfaction on loyalty 

(Melian-Gonzalez, Moreno-Gil, & Arana, 2011; Petrick, 2005).  It is important to recognize one of 

segments identified, attendees who do not intend to revisit the festival, although satisfied. Most of 

them are interested in visiting other local festivals instead, so promoting other local agricultural 

festivals aiming at this segment of attendees is practically useful. 

 

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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

Variety seeking is a popular choice strategy in varying levels of tourists’ decision making. 

Variety seeking occurs when people switch between options over time (Kahn, Kalwani, & Morrison, 

1986) or select different options within a given choice set in the same product category (Ratner & 

Kahn, 2002). By focusing on the latter, this study found variety seeking can help define a new 

attendee segment which can be shared with collaborating local agricultural festivals. They work 

together to provide a given choice set of more options of festivals that some of their attendees can 

explore. Product category marketing (Tuu & Olsen, 2013) recognizes that the increased accessibility 

of options in the shared category is important for consumers to opt out to choose similar options 

within the same category over dissimilar options in other product categories (Woolley & Sharif, 

2022). Variety seekers are known to be more responsive to promotional cues and displays than non-

variety seekers. When options within a category are more accessible, variety seekers anticipate that 

future options within that category will be more enjoyable (Woolley & Sharif, 2022). Different from 

the traditional view identifying the negative role of variety seeking in the tourist loyalty, this study 

recognizes its positive contribution by adopting the collaborative marketing approach involving 

multiple local agricultural festivals.  

The tourism literature has emphasized the need to incorporate collaboration into the 

management mainly due to the fragmented nature of this sector, but researchers have not considered 

how local festivals can collaborate to promote those together, particularly for segmentation and 

targeting. Market segmentation is now widely utilized in the festival study, using a variety of 

variables, geographical, behavioral, demographic, and psychographic segmentation variables. By 

adopting the collaborative approach of multiple festivals together in the segmentation and targeting, 

local agricultural festivals can expand the scope of their loyal attendees.  

Practical Implications 

In order to promote the collaborative marketing among local agricultural festivals, this study 

describes the development of festival attendees’ segmentation embracing multiple neighboring local 

agricultural festivals together and provides implications to two parties, local agricultural festival 

agencies and local government. Local agricultural festival agencies primarily target to retain 

attendees who intend to visit their festival again. They also can work with other local agricultural 

festivals to cross-retain some of their attendees, other festival goers and Multi Festival Goers who 

like to visit other festivals. After forming a group of neighboring local agricultural festivals, they 

can launch a co-promotion program by offering the list of other festivals, placing the promotional 

materials of other festivals at the festival site, or offering a coupon that can be used at other local 

festivals. This collaborative marketing program will help attract variety seeking attendees (i.e., other 

festival goers and Multi festival goers) while retaining their own loyal attendees.  

It is also important to design festival programs and promotional messages according to the 

motivation factor of the market segments to which they are targeted, because different segments are 

motivated by different factors. In order to attract Multi festival goers, each local festival agency 

needs to use its own local food products that each festival focuses on, their tasting and sampling, 

and their information should be in the marketing materials. For Other festival goers, novel events, 

entertainment, weekend getaway contents for festivals and so on should appear in the marketing 

messages. Alternatively, how to socialize not only with attendees’ companions but also other 

attendees need to be highlighted for One Festival Goers to attend each local agricultural festival.  

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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 

 

The local government is to adopt the collaborative marketing approach for its local festivals 

in the region, thus helping coordinate networking, enjoy its synergy effect, and effectively share 

their best resources among its local festivals. The local government is one of the key stakeholders 

for the success of local festivals, which is important for the region and its community as well as 

festivals themselves. More and more local governments utilize festivals strategically to bring long-

term economic and social benefits to the region and its community but competition among local 

festivals has also been intensified. Therefore, the local government needs to help their local festivals 

in their region to be self-sustaining and become institutionalized rather than being run on an ad-hoc 

basis (Getz & Andersson, 2008) For this, the local government needs to not only support individual 

local festivals but also develop an approach to help all of those mutually benefiting each other. The 

latter requires to segment festival attendees to share and cross-target some of those would be the 

first step.  

Limitations of This Study 

The findings of this study are specific to local agricultural festivals in South Korea and may 

not be applicable to other types of festivals. Future research should replicate this study across 

various festival types—such as cultural, art, and music festivals - and different geographical 

locations. Moreover, expanding upon this work could involve considering additional variables. For 

instance, motivation and involvement, as suggested by previous festival scholars (Chang, S. & 

Gibson, 2015; Shi, Ji, Weaver, & Huang, 2022), could help explain varying levels of satisfaction 

and loyalty among different groups attending local festivals. Furthermore, it is important to 

recognize that the predictors identified in this study's framework may vary across cultures. 

Therefore, cross-cultural studies are needed to better understand these differences within specific 

regions and countries. 

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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

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Events and Tourism Review Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024), 18-33, DOI: 10.18060/28150                                                                                                  

               Copyright © 2024 Hyungsuk Choo 

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Appendix. Measurement of concepts 

Variety seeking 

   I generally like to try out something different or new. 

   I attend different local agricultural food festivals to try something different.    

   I like diversity. 

   I like new, different types of local agricultural food festival. 

   Always attending the same festival is boring. 

Festival Loyalty 
  I intend to visit the current festival again. 

  I’ll recommend this festival to my friends/families. 

  I’ll say positive things about the festival 
Satisfaction 
   I am satisfied with my decision to visit the festival. 

   My overall feeling about the festival was positive. 

   I am satisfied with the programs/operations of the festival. 

Motivation-Novelty/Escape 
   Because I enjoy special events. 

   For the festival atmosphere. 

   I can enjoy a festival crowd. 

   I can enjoy a day out. 

   To enjoy the entertainment. 

   For a change of pace from everyday life. 

   Festivals are unique. 

   To get away on the weekend. 

   To try something new. 

Motivation - Local Product 
   To experience local agricultural products.    

   For local agriculture food tasting. 

   To get familiar with local agricultural food. 

   To increase food knowledge. 

   To buy food. 

Motivation - Socialization 
   To visit a place I can talk about when I get home. 

   To help bring the family together. 

   To spend time with the family. 

   I can meet people with similar interests. 

   I can exchange ideas with food providers. 

Motivation - Learning 
   To learn local food products 

   To explore culture 

   To seek education and education 

   To meet experts 

 

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