Journal Articles
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Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, 2020
This paper provides an introduction to Special Issue on ‘Event
Experiences: Measurement and Meani... more This paper provides an introduction to Special Issue on ‘Event
Experiences: Measurement and Meaning’. It reviews the research
conducted by the ATLAS Event Group over the past decade, and
highlights the interplay between qualitative and quantitative
research on events during this period. Major research themes
related to the event experience are analyzed, including the social
dimension of events, event design, visitor engagement, eventful
cities and event networks and platforms. The different quantative
and qualitative contributions to the issue are introduced and
compared.
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Purpose
This paper examines issues of ethical corporate social responsibility related to the esti... more Purpose
This paper examines issues of ethical corporate social responsibility related to the estimation of event attendance, scrutinizes the philosophy of situational ethics as justification for reporting inflated figures, and presents a potential solution to the dilemma.
Method
A conceptual approach is applied. First, the importance of attendance as a primary evaluation variable for economic, social, and environmental impact studies, as well as for event stakeholder ROI in general, is clarified. A brief review follows on the subject of event attendance estimation as reported in both popular and academic literature, before moving into a content analysis of this literature to investigate if there are existing concerns of ethical corporate social responsibility.
Findings
Attendance at events as reported by popular media remains controversial. Methods for arriving at accurate figures have been investigated and reported upon in academic literature, but there remains no consensus on how to best estimate event crowd size. Inflated attendance numbers reported are too often justified by situational ethics, a non-logical philosophy that has been previously debunked. A content analysis of popular media and academic literature reveled a lack of concern for ethical corporate social responsibility when it comes to the accurate estimation of event attendance.
Implications
The failure to accept ethical corporate social responsibility when estimating attendance harms event stakeholders and leads to misleading and unreliable impact data.
Originality/Value
This subject has not been previously addressed and is important to advancing the professionalism of event management.
Key Words
Event attendance, ethics, corporate social responsibility, situational ethics
Article Classification
Research Paper
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Events Management, An International Journal, 19(2): p. 151-157
This study created and field tested a density count method to analytically estimate the number of... more This study created and field tested a density count method to analytically estimate the number of spectators attending parades. Literature review revealed an earlier suggested method to estimate attendance at parades, but no indication of it ever being assessed in the field was uncovered. Additional literature, more focused on other types of large open festivals, provided further empirical insight into estimating attendance at events in general. The study began with trials and fieldwork to establish basic physical space requirements of spectators as well as the total available square footage of viewing area along a parade route in order to ascertain the maximum possible attendance as a control on final attendance approximations. During two major parades in Phoenix, Arizona, researchers hand-counted exact attendance in predetermined route sections which, when compared to density counts of identical sections by another researcher, were deemed comparably significant. Combining the density counted estimates for all sections, spectator attendance was extrapolated for both parades, which was found to be considerably less than attendance estimates assumed by event organizers and reported in the press. The density count technique was verified as a valid method to estimate parade attendance, ultimately controlled by calculations of maximum possible attendance.
Key words: parade, attendance, density, event
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Journal of Travel Research, May 2013
The tradition of tourism businesses and regional tourism industries is to measure their value to ... more The tradition of tourism businesses and regional tourism industries is to measure their value to the host community by jobs, wages, and tax revenues even though every member of that community is affected on a daily basis through a broad variety of
impacts. This article demonstrates a conceptual approach for measuring the relative importance of the major dimensions of
community quality of life that can be influenced by the tourism industry in order to calculate an indication of overall impact
on the well-being of community residents. Furthermore, we have formulated an example conjoint model that values this
overall performance in monetary units. This model is successfully implemented using samples of college students and tourism industry professionals in the United States and Cyprus. A monetary version of triple bottom line impacts is calculated for the impacts of changes to a specific hypothetical tourism business. Recommendations are made for the extension and application of this approach to implementing sustainable tourism.
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Tourism Today, 2012
This article is an auto-ethnographical reflection on a hermeneutic phenomenological grounded theo... more This article is an auto-ethnographical reflection on a hermeneutic phenomenological grounded theory study exploring the behavior of community festival attendees. Presented as a
“Confessional Tale” (Van Maanen, 1988), it provides a glimpse of the researcher as he immersed himself as a participant observer to learn “what was happening” at community festivals. Similar to an actual festival’s anticipation phase, the tale begins prior to actual on-site fieldwork with a recap of the researcher’s journey in search of an appropriate epistemology, research design, and theoretical method to fill a recognized research gap in the field of event studies. As the tale proceeds into the participatory phase of fieldwork the researcher discusses how data was collected and analyzed. The tale concludes not with the usual final results and conclusions of a research project, but rather with a reflection phase, with an understanding that the researcher’s first attempt at this uncommon event studies research method can be improved, that more is yet to be accomplished, and that “one day the researcher will know
more.” This article, in style and format, will undoubtedly by quite foreign to what readers typically find in tourism and event academic journals. The hope is that, in what are primarily
post-positivistic quantitative research driven fields, eyes might open to an alternative method of scientific inquiry as well as presentation approach.
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SCHOLE: A Journal of Leisure Studies Recreation Education, 2011
"Since 2008, classroom learning activities on the working poor and the living wage have been incl... more "Since 2008, classroom learning activities on the working poor and the living wage have been included in an introductory core course that focuses on community services and professions in the School of Community Resources and Development at Arizona State University. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2008 that 8.9 million people were classified as the working poor, about one-third of them service workers. This has
implications for the leisure delivery system, which uses many services workers as base employees and knowledge of this subject is important to future professionals. Students
have been required to qualitatively interview and report on a person they believed to be among the working poor. Initial reaction to the assignment was one of reluctance, but the exercise has had significant impact on the students, changed their attitudes about the working poor, and developed a sense of respect for those they may one day supervise.
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Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 2002
"Numerous special events in Arizona, including the State
Fair, have come to rely on destination ... more "Numerous special events in Arizona, including the State
Fair, have come to rely on destination marketing firms to provide information about event attendees. This information is used in planning efforts for future events. The firms use a convenience sampling method, enticing attendees to participate with the lure of potential prizes. This study compared this approach with a random sampling approach at two special events in Glendale, Arizona. Findings showed that there were significant
differences on seven out of 10 comparisons. Although the firms provide a cost effective way of gathering data, the findings in this study offer further support for the use of random sampling and a cautionary note for those entities that do not.
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Book Chapters
Handbook of Festivals, New York: Routledge - J. Mair (Ed) - in press, 2018
To best echo its ethnographic nature, the details of a socially constructed grounded theory metho... more To best echo its ethnographic nature, the details of a socially constructed grounded theory method investigation of attendee behaviour at community festivals are presented as a confessional tale. A preliminary project suggested social capital bridging between disparate visitors at community festivals does not always occur (Biaett 2012). From primary exploration a substantive theme emerged indicating lower levels of attendee social capital bonding and bridging corresponded to passive activity at community festivals. Supplementary inquiry saturated this theme, allowed it to evolve to a point of trustworthiness, and lead to the conceptualisation of organic festivity theory. This neoteric hypothesis asserts that the combination of physical collaborative creative activities, stimulation of senses, and cyclically aroused emotions at community festivals create a highly festive atmosphere giving rise to increased social capital bonding and bridging, peak liminal experience, communitas, and feelings of well-being for attendees.
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Handbook of Research Methods for Tourism and Hospitality Management, 2018
An empirical and theoretical research gap on the real-time on-site behavior of attendees at commu... more An empirical and theoretical research gap on the real-time on-site behavior of attendees at community festivals was investigated using a relativistic ontology and a social constructivist epistemology combined with a mixed research strategy of hermeneutic phenomenology, ethnographic participant observation technique, and grounded theory method.
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Exhibitions, Trade Fairs and Industrial Events - Rutledge Advances in Event Research Series, 2018
High Point, North Carolina, USA is a city of 110,000 residents nestled between its more well-know... more High Point, North Carolina, USA is a city of 110,000 residents nestled between its more well-known neighbors of Greensboro and Winston-Salem. If you are not a resident of the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina or not associated with the furniture industry, you may have never heard of the 107 year-old High Point Furniture Market (hereafter referred to as the Market). Worldwide, people who work in the home furniture industry, whether they have traveled to North Carolina or not, are very well aware of the Market. Growing from its roots as an established regional tradeshow, the Market, over the past 40 years, has outpaced other national furniture markets in Chicago, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Dallas, as well as international competitors in Cologne, Tokyo, Guadalajara, Milan, and San Paulo, to become the largest residential furnishing tradeshow in the world. Those other cities all offer better entertainment, lodging, and attractions and are easier for buyers to walk and work, yet the Market is where they come to stock their stores and meet the needs of their global customers. The event provides a critical source of local jobs and tax revenues and has been referenced (Florida, 2008; Porter, 1998) as a significant component of the regions creative economic furniture cluster. The city of High Point has been described as a “Niche City” which utilized the Market to fashion for itself a “global centrality by creating an economic specialization in a specific segment of the global service economy” (Schlichtman, 2009, p. 106). This business-to-business (B2B) hallmark event transmits place making impacts upon its host city and is recognized as a special place by the furniture industry, specifically because the majority of its annual sales transactions are initiated and negotiated in the Market’s showrooms. The unique alliances that engulf the Market truly emphasize that “place-making is an inherently networked process, constituted by the socio-spatial relationships that link individuals together through a common place-frame” (Pierce et al., 2010, p.1).
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Handbook of Community Well-Being Research, 2017
This chapter introduces to community development event organizers and planners, through a lens of... more This chapter introduces to community development event organizers and planners, through a lens of organic festivity, the knowledge that creating optimal festival attendee experiences is an important factor in generating higher levels of well-being and social capital. Organic Festivity Theory was discovered with participant observation and socially constructed grounded theory method research undertaken to progress a contextual understanding of attendee behavior at community festivals. Substantive theory emerged from the study to reveal participant behavior shifting from passive spectatorship to more emotional, physical, creative and collaborative activities conjointly affected bonding and bridging social capital. Subsequent investigation into the historical and rhetorical relationships of festivity, play, and well-being was conducted to further validate this hypothesis. This inquiry revealed the social-psychological underpinnings of happiness, liminal experience, and peak experience provided substance to this phenomenon. Paralleling Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Theory that peak experience is achieved when participants balance perceived challenge and skill constructs during competitive and performance activities, neoteric constructs of " primordial behavior " and " sensual infused crowd behavior " were correspondingly conceived of as the elements that lead to optimal experiences for attendees at community festivals. The implication for community development event organizers and planners is that they must move past the mercantile and spectator amusements of community festival since sustainability and prosperity in today's experience economy are dependent on the peak liminal experiences wanted, sought out, and demanded by participants. Tangible economic and marketing aspects of community festivals should be united with intangible benefits of increased social capital bonding between friends, family and unacquainted peers, social capital bridging between strangers, and the social capital bridging generic senses of well-being, playfulness, and communitas created by organic festivity.
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Exploring Community Festivals and Events - Routledge Advances in Event Research Series, 2015
This book chapter traces festivity from the Paleolithic Age to modern times outlining how it has ... more This book chapter traces festivity from the Paleolithic Age to modern times outlining how it has transitioned from the Organic, to the Organized, into today's commercial Organism. It is a call to return to our historical roots to move festival participation from its current state of spectatorship to be more emotional, physical, creative, and collaborative to create optimal festive experiences.
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This short chapter is part of Event Gatekeepers Guide: The ABC's of Event Planning, an educationa... more This short chapter is part of Event Gatekeepers Guide: The ABC's of Event Planning, an educational guide for professionals and volunteers. It begins with ideas of how to create a checklist based on the 5 basic elements of event program planning before discussing the importance of being analytical, doing the math, to understand operational numbers for attendance estimates, food vendors, electric needs, porta potties, and more.
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Reports, Book Reviews, Other
In late 2017 – early 2018 a SWOT analysis was undertaken on the Model Farm to determine its Stren... more In late 2017 – early 2018 a SWOT analysis was undertaken on the Model Farm to determine its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats as a possible event venue by Dr. Biaett and three students from his event management operations course at High Point University. The SWOT included both an analysis of the location of the Model Farm and also the actual site/venue. Our original site visit notes, used in part to create this report, are included as appendix A, and may add additional insight upon review.
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Data for this survey was collected and compiled by faculty and students at High Point University*... more Data for this survey was collected and compiled by faculty and students at High Point University* as part of a worldwide research project hosted by the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, The Netherlands. The survey instrument provided was employed without changes. A copy of the study guidelines and survey instrument are included at the end of this report. The purpose of the international study is to determine if a quantitative scale can be created to study the behavior of attendees at festivals and events. As of July 1, 2017 data continues to be collected for the international study with results pending.
*Dr. Vern Biaett - Assistant Professor of Event Management
Hayley Bolding and Julee Mitsler – Strategic Communication Graduate Students
Morgan Banker, Emily Edwards, Conner Harris, Carlye Hillman – Event Management Students
The collection of data did provide some excellent descriptive statistics for the John Coltrane International Jazz & Blues Festival, which are presented herein. Over 150 surveys were collected on both days of the event, 312 in total. After preliminary review it was determined that there were 272 usable surveys. It is important to note that while a high percentage of participants fully completed the survey, there were some that left an occasional question blank so the results should be considered only as general indicators.
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The 2017 meeting of the ATLAS Events Group was held in conjunction with the ATLAS Annual Conferen... more The 2017 meeting of the ATLAS Events Group was held in conjunction with the ATLAS Annual Conference in Viana do Castelo. The meeting had a slightly different format from previous years, with the first day being reserved from Events Group members, and the other days being open to all ATLAS delegates. The meeting was attended by 30 delegates over three days.
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Tourism Management, 2015
This review describes an excellent new book with a unique focus on experience design and co-creat... more This review describes an excellent new book with a unique focus on experience design and co-creation along with chapters that could be used by educators as extended case studies.
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Encyclopedia of Quality of Life Research and Well-being Research, 2014
An entry that provides a definition and description of community festivals.
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Uploads
Journal Articles
Experiences: Measurement and Meaning’. It reviews the research
conducted by the ATLAS Event Group over the past decade, and
highlights the interplay between qualitative and quantitative
research on events during this period. Major research themes
related to the event experience are analyzed, including the social
dimension of events, event design, visitor engagement, eventful
cities and event networks and platforms. The different quantative
and qualitative contributions to the issue are introduced and
compared.
This paper examines issues of ethical corporate social responsibility related to the estimation of event attendance, scrutinizes the philosophy of situational ethics as justification for reporting inflated figures, and presents a potential solution to the dilemma.
Method
A conceptual approach is applied. First, the importance of attendance as a primary evaluation variable for economic, social, and environmental impact studies, as well as for event stakeholder ROI in general, is clarified. A brief review follows on the subject of event attendance estimation as reported in both popular and academic literature, before moving into a content analysis of this literature to investigate if there are existing concerns of ethical corporate social responsibility.
Findings
Attendance at events as reported by popular media remains controversial. Methods for arriving at accurate figures have been investigated and reported upon in academic literature, but there remains no consensus on how to best estimate event crowd size. Inflated attendance numbers reported are too often justified by situational ethics, a non-logical philosophy that has been previously debunked. A content analysis of popular media and academic literature reveled a lack of concern for ethical corporate social responsibility when it comes to the accurate estimation of event attendance.
Implications
The failure to accept ethical corporate social responsibility when estimating attendance harms event stakeholders and leads to misleading and unreliable impact data.
Originality/Value
This subject has not been previously addressed and is important to advancing the professionalism of event management.
Key Words
Event attendance, ethics, corporate social responsibility, situational ethics
Article Classification
Research Paper
Key words: parade, attendance, density, event
impacts. This article demonstrates a conceptual approach for measuring the relative importance of the major dimensions of
community quality of life that can be influenced by the tourism industry in order to calculate an indication of overall impact
on the well-being of community residents. Furthermore, we have formulated an example conjoint model that values this
overall performance in monetary units. This model is successfully implemented using samples of college students and tourism industry professionals in the United States and Cyprus. A monetary version of triple bottom line impacts is calculated for the impacts of changes to a specific hypothetical tourism business. Recommendations are made for the extension and application of this approach to implementing sustainable tourism.
“Confessional Tale” (Van Maanen, 1988), it provides a glimpse of the researcher as he immersed himself as a participant observer to learn “what was happening” at community festivals. Similar to an actual festival’s anticipation phase, the tale begins prior to actual on-site fieldwork with a recap of the researcher’s journey in search of an appropriate epistemology, research design, and theoretical method to fill a recognized research gap in the field of event studies. As the tale proceeds into the participatory phase of fieldwork the researcher discusses how data was collected and analyzed. The tale concludes not with the usual final results and conclusions of a research project, but rather with a reflection phase, with an understanding that the researcher’s first attempt at this uncommon event studies research method can be improved, that more is yet to be accomplished, and that “one day the researcher will know
more.” This article, in style and format, will undoubtedly by quite foreign to what readers typically find in tourism and event academic journals. The hope is that, in what are primarily
post-positivistic quantitative research driven fields, eyes might open to an alternative method of scientific inquiry as well as presentation approach.
implications for the leisure delivery system, which uses many services workers as base employees and knowledge of this subject is important to future professionals. Students
have been required to qualitatively interview and report on a person they believed to be among the working poor. Initial reaction to the assignment was one of reluctance, but the exercise has had significant impact on the students, changed their attitudes about the working poor, and developed a sense of respect for those they may one day supervise.
Fair, have come to rely on destination marketing firms to provide information about event attendees. This information is used in planning efforts for future events. The firms use a convenience sampling method, enticing attendees to participate with the lure of potential prizes. This study compared this approach with a random sampling approach at two special events in Glendale, Arizona. Findings showed that there were significant
differences on seven out of 10 comparisons. Although the firms provide a cost effective way of gathering data, the findings in this study offer further support for the use of random sampling and a cautionary note for those entities that do not.
Book Chapters
Reports, Book Reviews, Other
*Dr. Vern Biaett - Assistant Professor of Event Management
Hayley Bolding and Julee Mitsler – Strategic Communication Graduate Students
Morgan Banker, Emily Edwards, Conner Harris, Carlye Hillman – Event Management Students
The collection of data did provide some excellent descriptive statistics for the John Coltrane International Jazz & Blues Festival, which are presented herein. Over 150 surveys were collected on both days of the event, 312 in total. After preliminary review it was determined that there were 272 usable surveys. It is important to note that while a high percentage of participants fully completed the survey, there were some that left an occasional question blank so the results should be considered only as general indicators.
Experiences: Measurement and Meaning’. It reviews the research
conducted by the ATLAS Event Group over the past decade, and
highlights the interplay between qualitative and quantitative
research on events during this period. Major research themes
related to the event experience are analyzed, including the social
dimension of events, event design, visitor engagement, eventful
cities and event networks and platforms. The different quantative
and qualitative contributions to the issue are introduced and
compared.
This paper examines issues of ethical corporate social responsibility related to the estimation of event attendance, scrutinizes the philosophy of situational ethics as justification for reporting inflated figures, and presents a potential solution to the dilemma.
Method
A conceptual approach is applied. First, the importance of attendance as a primary evaluation variable for economic, social, and environmental impact studies, as well as for event stakeholder ROI in general, is clarified. A brief review follows on the subject of event attendance estimation as reported in both popular and academic literature, before moving into a content analysis of this literature to investigate if there are existing concerns of ethical corporate social responsibility.
Findings
Attendance at events as reported by popular media remains controversial. Methods for arriving at accurate figures have been investigated and reported upon in academic literature, but there remains no consensus on how to best estimate event crowd size. Inflated attendance numbers reported are too often justified by situational ethics, a non-logical philosophy that has been previously debunked. A content analysis of popular media and academic literature reveled a lack of concern for ethical corporate social responsibility when it comes to the accurate estimation of event attendance.
Implications
The failure to accept ethical corporate social responsibility when estimating attendance harms event stakeholders and leads to misleading and unreliable impact data.
Originality/Value
This subject has not been previously addressed and is important to advancing the professionalism of event management.
Key Words
Event attendance, ethics, corporate social responsibility, situational ethics
Article Classification
Research Paper
Key words: parade, attendance, density, event
impacts. This article demonstrates a conceptual approach for measuring the relative importance of the major dimensions of
community quality of life that can be influenced by the tourism industry in order to calculate an indication of overall impact
on the well-being of community residents. Furthermore, we have formulated an example conjoint model that values this
overall performance in monetary units. This model is successfully implemented using samples of college students and tourism industry professionals in the United States and Cyprus. A monetary version of triple bottom line impacts is calculated for the impacts of changes to a specific hypothetical tourism business. Recommendations are made for the extension and application of this approach to implementing sustainable tourism.
“Confessional Tale” (Van Maanen, 1988), it provides a glimpse of the researcher as he immersed himself as a participant observer to learn “what was happening” at community festivals. Similar to an actual festival’s anticipation phase, the tale begins prior to actual on-site fieldwork with a recap of the researcher’s journey in search of an appropriate epistemology, research design, and theoretical method to fill a recognized research gap in the field of event studies. As the tale proceeds into the participatory phase of fieldwork the researcher discusses how data was collected and analyzed. The tale concludes not with the usual final results and conclusions of a research project, but rather with a reflection phase, with an understanding that the researcher’s first attempt at this uncommon event studies research method can be improved, that more is yet to be accomplished, and that “one day the researcher will know
more.” This article, in style and format, will undoubtedly by quite foreign to what readers typically find in tourism and event academic journals. The hope is that, in what are primarily
post-positivistic quantitative research driven fields, eyes might open to an alternative method of scientific inquiry as well as presentation approach.
implications for the leisure delivery system, which uses many services workers as base employees and knowledge of this subject is important to future professionals. Students
have been required to qualitatively interview and report on a person they believed to be among the working poor. Initial reaction to the assignment was one of reluctance, but the exercise has had significant impact on the students, changed their attitudes about the working poor, and developed a sense of respect for those they may one day supervise.
Fair, have come to rely on destination marketing firms to provide information about event attendees. This information is used in planning efforts for future events. The firms use a convenience sampling method, enticing attendees to participate with the lure of potential prizes. This study compared this approach with a random sampling approach at two special events in Glendale, Arizona. Findings showed that there were significant
differences on seven out of 10 comparisons. Although the firms provide a cost effective way of gathering data, the findings in this study offer further support for the use of random sampling and a cautionary note for those entities that do not.
*Dr. Vern Biaett - Assistant Professor of Event Management
Hayley Bolding and Julee Mitsler – Strategic Communication Graduate Students
Morgan Banker, Emily Edwards, Conner Harris, Carlye Hillman – Event Management Students
The collection of data did provide some excellent descriptive statistics for the John Coltrane International Jazz & Blues Festival, which are presented herein. Over 150 surveys were collected on both days of the event, 312 in total. After preliminary review it was determined that there were 272 usable surveys. It is important to note that while a high percentage of participants fully completed the survey, there were some that left an occasional question blank so the results should be considered only as general indicators.
For this special issue of the Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events we would like to invite papers that explicitly explore the way in which visitors experience events, through the collection of quantitative or qualitative data, or a combination of the two.