Segmenting food festivalgoers: experiential value, emotional state and loyalty

The primary purpose of this research is to segment food festivalgoers based upon their experiential value. Once those segments are found, it aims to examine whether the segments differ with regard to their perceived level of satisfaction, delight and loyalty.

A self-administered questionnaire was designed to assess the on-site festival experiential value, satisfaction, delight and loyalty of local and overseas visitors at the Macau International food festival. Data were analyzed by using the factor and cluster approach. To profile segments, a series of chi-square tests, ANOVAs and multivariate analysis of variance were performed.

This study uncovered three underlying dimensions of experiential value and classified four segments based on their experiential value among the food festivalgoers, which provides insightful implications for festival organizers and marketers. The segments differed in age, education level and place of residence. Furthermore, the multi-experiential value group was the most important segment, showing the highest festival satisfaction, delight and loyalty.

Experiential value reflects a core value of festival attendees, where the experience is a determining factor in the creation of a successful festival and desirable outcomes. Limited studies, however, have been conducted to segment food festival markets according to their festival experience. This study identified experiential value, applying it as a segmentation criterion within a food festival setting.