Achieving regional revitalization through festival marketplaces: The perspective of participating companies

Abstract

This study examined the roles of community-related factors (participating companies’ support, resource preservation, and sociocultural exchange) in festival marketplaces in Taiwan. It assessed the factors that predict the impact of regional revitalization via tourism consumption. The study employed convenience sampling, a questionnaire survey of 627 employees working for participating companies attending the Taiwanese festival marketplace, and a structural equation modeling approach to analyze the research model. Festival marketplaces enhance a destination's image and are used in marketing strategies to shape its regional revitalization. Our findings confirm that the attractiveness of a festival marketplace indicates that resident participation helps attract tourists to a community and positively impacts regional revitalization. The festival marketplace is an element of event tourism and a regional revitalization strategy. The multiple identities of the participating companies’ employees act as bridges between companies and residents. This study demonstrates the significance of this finding.