Are we there yet? An analysis of visitor attitudes towards sustainability awareness raising initiatives

Abstract

Sustainable practices aiming to reduce environmental impacts have become key guiding principles of events, but initiatives focusing on the economic impacts and on supporting the local economy and society are also gaining more emphasis in event planning and management. Music festivals attracting larger audiences are becoming especially aware of the importance of sustainability as well as of their role in the process of raising participants’ awareness of it. The paper aims to assess the initiatives of the Street Music Festival in Veszprém, Hungary, one of the flagship events of the city, from both the participants’ and the organisers’ perspective. For the investigation of participant attitudes, a questionnaire survey was conducted, while the organisers’ views on sustainability were sought through interviews. The findings show that although respondents rate the importance of sustainability as very high, their contribution to responsible consumption is far from what could be considered sustainable, therefore better communication of the initiatives or stricter rules need to be introduced. The interviewees revealed that organisers consider economic sustainability just as important as the environmental issues, and gave an insight into the rationale behind sustainability enhancing initiatives, some of which have a marketing function as well as protecting the environment.

The sustainable transformation of business events: sociodemographic variables as determinants of attitudes towards sustainable academic conferences

“…An effective waste management system consisting of recycling and composting is needed to minimise the waste's environmental impacts and, on the other hand, transform waste into a new resource in a circular economy system (Dolf and Teehan, 2015). A few studies show that separating waste in events is commonly rated high (Mair and Laing, 2013; Raffay-Danyi and Formadi, 2022; Sox et al , 2013). Recycling provides, according to Hottle et al (2015, p. 86) “the greatest reductions in CO 2 eq.…”

“…The colours of the recycle bins, as well as signage, are essential for the correct use of the recycle bins. Recycling is common in many events and is also rated high by event attendees (Mair and Laing, 2013; Raffay-Danyi and Formadi, 2022; Sox et al , 2013).…”

“…In a study on attendee perceptions of green meetings, eating local food was rated high (Rittichainuwat and Mair (2012). Conversely, in another study, festival attendees showed no interest in locally sourced food products (Raffay-Danyi and Formadi, 2022).…”

“…Event sustainability must necessarily encompass the triple bottom line framework, i.e. the balanced positive output of interconnections between events' economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts on society, stakeholders, and the surrounding region's development (Mair and Smith, 2021; Raffay-Danyi and Formadi, 2022). Events can contribute to destinations' economic and social sustainability, especially if off-season, thus helping to maintain economic activities and jobs when they are most needed in tourism regions (Dalgiç and Birdir, 2020; Santos et al , 2020a; Sox et al , 2013).…”

“…Above all, organisers must take the demand side, the attendees as end users of the service (Toscani et al , 2022), into account, especially the target audience's attitudes regarding practices that contribute to event sustainability. Accordingly, the product offered has to be adapted to match the attendees' wishes and expectations (Raffay-Danyi and Formadi, 2022). It is a basic marketing principle to consider the desires and expectations of the customer for the success of a product or service (Mair, 2010).…”