Events, such as festivals of an artistic nature, have stood out in recent years, making important contributions in the tourism sector. Festivals can constitute channels of local, national and international cultural promotion, providing an experiential and relational exchange between individuals. This mini-review intends to reflect on the results obtained in the study presented in the article "Motivation and tourists' loyalty in performing arts festivals: the mediator role of quality and satisfaction". This study had as main focus the analysis of two performing arts festivals in Portugal and Spain, having as main research objective to perceive quality and satisfaction as mediating variables between motivation in the choice of performing arts festivals and the loyalty of participants. The survey was carried out by questionnaire, with a sample of 532 respondents. The results of the study revealed that the participants motivated to attend performing arts festivals, perceive the festival as having quality, leading to their satisfaction with the services provided and, consequently, loyalty to the event.

KEYWORDS: Tourism, Performing arts festivals, Motivation, Quality, Satisfaction, Loyalty.

Events have stood out in recent years in the tourism sector, and this type of tourism is called event tourism. The presence of events in the various places has contributed to the economic, social and cultural development of the regions (Carvalho, 2017; Getz, 2007; Lee & Choi, 2011; Quinn, 2009; Stankova & Vassenska, 2015; Yoon, Lee & Lee, 2010; Ziakas, 2013). Events can thus be considered forms of tourist attraction, causing people to move from their usual residence to places where the attraction is (Cooper, Fletcher, Fyall, Gilbert &Wanhill, 2008).

Several researchers (Baker & Crompton 2000; Chen & Chen, 2010; Cole &IIIum, 2006; Crompton & Love, 1995; Yoon et al., 2010) sought to understand how to improve the quality and service of events, such as festivals, in order for participants to gain satisfactory experiences and diminish their change intentions. If a festival maintains a high level of quality, there will be a higher probability of a greater number of satisfied participants.

               This mini-review aims to reflect on the results obtained in the study presented in the article “Motivation and tourists' loyalty in performing arts festivals: the mediator role of quality and satisfaction” (Amorim, Jiménez & Almeida, 2019). This study focused on the analysis of two performing arts festivals in Portugal and Spain, with the main objective of researching quality and satisfaction as mediating variables between the motivation in choosing performing arts festivals and the loyalty of participants. For the study a questionnaire survey was applied, with a sample of 532 respondents. The results of this study showed that the participants motivated to attend performing arts festivals, perceive the festival as having quality, leading to their satisfaction in relation to the services provided and, consequently, to their loyalty to the event.

LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Timothy (2011), art in general is an essential element integrated into the cultural heritage product. Throughout the world, festivals are held in the most diverse areas, such as music, dance, religious, among others, being unique cultural celebrations.

This type of events naturally encourages cultural tourism and creative tourism, contributing to an increase in the tourist flow during these events.

At a global level, cultural tourism has made important contributions in the tourism sector, considered the strong point of the region, where the community presents the tourist with its origins through its cultural elements, such as history, culture, habits and customs (Timothy, 2011). As a continuation of cultural tourism, a new type of tourism emerges, creative tourism, considered by several authors as the third wave of tourism (from beach tourism to cultural tourism and, currently, creative tourism) (Carvalho, 2011; Richards, 2010; UNESCO, 2006). This new generation of tourism is distinguished by the fact that the tourist can participate in an authentic way in the local cultural life (UNESCO, 2006), by taking into account the satisfaction of the self-realization needs of the individual with the main focus on the development of active skills (Ohridska-Olson &Ivanov, 2010). Creative tourism thus calls for growth, renewal and a new concept that offers tourists more differentiating and engaging experiences (Cayeman, 2014), through unique, authentic, creative and custom-designed experiences at a competitive price (quite challenging feature for the sector) (Richards, 2011; OECD, 2014).

Motivation is considered in the literature as one of the main factors that drives the tourist to travel and to reach several tourist experiences, leading him to know and experience new realities (Cooper et al., 2008). Puertas (2004) considers that it is from the third level of the Maslow Theory's pyramid that the social needs are found, gathering the conditions for tourism to emerge in the individual's life, as a form of social and cultural status.

According to several investigations (Baker & Crompton, 2000; McDowall, 2011; Son & Lee, 2011; Stankova & Vassenska, 2015; Wan & Chan, 2013; Wong, Wu, & Cheng, 2014; Wu, & Ai, 2016; Wu, Wong & Cheng, 2014; Yoon et al., 2010), it has been found that the experience of participants in festivals is usually evaluated based on the perception of quality and satisfaction, factors that may influence the participants' loyalty, i.e., their future behavioral intentions (intention to revisit and intention to recommend). Several authors also argue that service quality indirectly influences loyalty through other variables such as satisfaction (Gotlieb, Grewal, & Brown, 1994; Oliver, 1999; Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988; Patterson & Spreng, 1997; Roest & Pieters, 1997; Rust & Zahorik, 1993; Taylor & Baker, 1994).

RESEARCH CONTEXT AND METHODOLOGY

Portugal and Spain have been the “stage” of many festivals, and many places have been part of the itinerary of several tourists for their participation in these events.

In this sense, the study presented in the article "Motivation and tourists' loyalty in performing arts festivals: the mediator role of quality and satisfaction" (Amorim et al., 2019) had as object of study two performing arts festivals: the Andanças Festival (Castelo de Vide, Alentejo, Portugal), and the International Festival of La Sierra, also known as FESTISIERRA (Fregenal de La Sierra, Badajoz, Spain). Andanças is organized by the PédeXumbo Association, and La Sierra is organized by the folkloric group Los Jateros. The selection of these festivals was based, on the one hand, on their concept, as both promote traditional dance and music, both nationally and internationally, offering a set of activities in which the participants can actively participate, and on the other hand, because cultural tourism and creative tourism are present in them.

As a general research objective the respective study aimed to analyze the relationship between motivation, quality, satisfaction and loyalty of the participants of two performing arts festivals: Andanças and La Sierra, and as a specific objective, to explore specifically the mediating effect of quality and satisfaction in the relationship between motivation and loyalty of the participants of these festivals.

Taking into account the literature analysed for this study, it was assumed that the participants motivated to participate in performing arts festivals, would perceive the festival as having higher quality leading to higher levels of satisfaction, and consequently to the participants loyalty. Thus, eight research hypotheses were considered: hypotheses with direct effects, hypotheses 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and hypotheses with indirect effects, the hypotheses 6, 7 and 8, namely:

Hypothesis 1 - The motivation for choosing the festival positively influences the tourist's perception of the festival's quality.

Hypothesis 2 - The motivation for choosing the festival positively influences the tourist's satisfaction at the festival.

Hypothesis 3 - The quality of the festival positively influences the tourist's satisfaction.

Hypothesis 4 - The quality of the festival positively influences the tourist's loyalty.

Hypothesis 5 - The tourist satisfaction of the festival positively influences the tourist loyalty.

Hypothesis 6 - The motivation of the choice influences the loyalty, through the quality.

Hypothesis 7 - The motivation of the choice influences the loyalty, through the satisfaction.

Hypothesis 8 - The motivation of the choice influences the loyalty, through the quality and satisfaction.

The evaluation instrument used in the study was a questionnaire survey, with closed answers, consisting of three parts: sociodemographic analysis, frequency at the festival and the main characteristics of the festival, namely the motivation for choosing the festival, the quality and satisfaction of the service provided at the festival and the loyalty of the participant (using in this third part a Likert scale of 1 to 7 points). The data collection was carried out in August 2017 to the participants of the festivals who were willing to collaborate in the study and who were randomly approached at the respective events.

The hypotheses presented were tested through an analysis of structural equations, a statistical technique that combines factor analysis and multiple regression analysis, to analyze the structural relationships between the manifest and latent variables under study. Thus, this analysis aimed to test the mediating effect of satisfaction and quality in the relationship between motivation and loyalty. The structural equations analysis software used was AMOS (v. 24, SPPS, IBM Company, Chicago, IL).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The study published in the article "Motivation and tourists' loyalty in performing arts festivals: the mediator role of quality and satisfaction" (Amorim et al., 2019) had as a sample 532 participants, 297 participants of the Andanças festival and 235 participants of the La Sierra festival. Most of the participants of the two festivals were women (61%); they were aged up to 30 years (59.9%); they had a bachelor's degree/licentiate (44.2%) and a monthly household income above 1000 euros. As for the frequency of participants in the festivals, 70.1% said they had participated in previous editions of the festival and that, on average, they have already participated 10 times in the respective events. Regarding participation in traditional music and dance workshops, the majority of participants (42%) participated in more than 5 workshops.

Regarding the mediating effect of quality and satisfaction in the relationship between motivation and loyalty of participants, the eight research hypotheses were empirically tested through the model of structural equations, with hypotheses 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 being confirmed and hypotheses 2 and 7 not being confirmed. These results revealed that the motivation of the participant to choose a performing arts festival does not have a direct effect on satisfaction, but it has an indirect effect through the quality that is perceived by the tourist during his participation in the festival. Thus, it is perceived that the motivation of the participants to participate in performing arts festivals leads to a higher perception of quality of the festival, which in turn leads to higher levels of satisfaction and loyalty (to return and recommend) of the participants. This leads us to conclude that the loyalty of the participants, which is also reflected in the analysis of the frequency of the festival (70.1% had already participated in previous editions), reinforces this issue of loyalty, which is very important for the success of the festivals under analysis, and for the development of the regions, by increasing the flow of tourism during the dynamisation of the respective events, contributing to an increase in the local and also regional economy.

Cultural tourism is naturally present in the festivals under study, as well as in the local cultural heritage, the festivals being the very channels of promotion of the destinations where they are held, and, on the other hand, creative tourism is also evidenced in the event itself, specifically, for the possibility that the participants have to learn and experience a diversity of traditional dances and music from all over the world, through the workshops and other artistic-playful activities promoted during the festivals, which is reflected in the data, in which 42% of the participants would report that they participated in more than 5 workshops. These data refer us to a type of determined/motivated tourist (purposeful), that is, individuals who travel for cultural reasons and who seek a deep cultural experience, by their search for participatory activities (Mckercher & du Cros, 2002).

We consider the study presented in the article "Motivation and tourists' loyalty in performing arts festivals: the mediator role of quality and satisfaction" (Amorim et al., 2019) will contribute, on the one hand, to a better understanding of festival tourism in Portugal and Spain, taking into account festivals of an artistic nature that integrate the performing arts and allow for authentic and creative interpellation and enriching learning; and, on the other hand, it may be seen as an important tool for analysis, specifically for event managers, such as festivals, and it is essential to understand the participants’ motivations, facilitating an efficient planning of the festival, combined with appropriate marketing strategies for its dissemination and success.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

The fact that the study published in the article "Motivation and tourists' loyalty in performing arts festivals: the mediator role of quality and satisfaction" (Amorim et al., 2019) was applied only to two performing arts festivals is considered by the authors to be one of its limitations, since the results obtained cannot be generalised to other types of festivals.

Considering this, in future researches it may be pertinent to notice if there are differences in participants who choose performing arts events and other types of events, regarding the motivation of the event choice, quality, satisfaction and loyalty.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

            This work is financed by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the project reference no. UID/B/04470/2020.

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