Benefits and motivations of attending a multicultural festival

Introduction/Research Overview

1. Brief Research Issue and managerial problem 

Taste of tourism attraction among the consumers or tourists are changing on daily basis and recently it has been found that tourists are more concerned in terms of festivals and events. Based on different attractive events a segment of tourism is developing (Richards, 2018). Cultural diversity and social harmony are the major point of sale for these event or culture based tourism. It has been found that in USA, Canada and Australia these multicultural events are getting popular and these have become a common form of cultural celebration (Martha, Agaliotou & Panos, 2017). Nevertheless, the main issue is existing in terms of creating the right appeal to the right target market in terms of ethnic and multicultural festivals.

Thus, for the managerial implication the local government of Canberra is facing the challenge to identify the process of promoting the National Multicultural Festival to the right audience. Thus for approaching wider audience range this research is focused on identifying the factors or features that are appealing to the target population. Thus, the main management problem is associated with the following question- 

How to promote benefits of multicultural festival and encourage a wider audience to attend it in the future?

1.1 Research Statement 

To understand what benefits such ethnic cultural and multicultural festivals generate and what motivates people to attend these festivals. Thus, the statement of the research is to investigate what motivates audience to attend multicultural festivals in Australia. 

1.2 Research Objectives 

The objectives of the research is concerned with the following- 

1. To understand demographic profiles of multicultural festival goers in Australia

2. To examine previous attending experience of multicultural festival goers in Australia

3. To investigate motivations of multicultural festival attendants in Australia

4. To examine future revisit intention of multicultural festival goers in Australia

1.3 Current Situation Understanding 

Considering the pandemic situation the tourism has been facing major issues in terms of revenue generation. Restrictions on the social and cultural gathering areimportant so that the tour operators and government can ensure the required demand of the tourists present in the events and festivals. Thus, finding the motivational factors are essential to find out. 

2. Brief Methodology 

The research method research is coined with the survey development and application of descriptive analytics and inferential tests. 

2.1 Research Design 

The Quantitative research design gas been used in the specific study. It allows collection of first-hand information from a wider section of the audience. Additionally, chances of human error are very much limited as most of the information is presented statistically (Morissette & Hadjigeorgiou, 2019). The qualitative design is ignored by the researcher because aspects of research bias is evident in the specific design 

2.2 Data Collection Method 

Survey questionnaire with 12 closed ended questions have been designed to gather the data on demographic details and in terms of research objectives. The questionnaire have been developed over online platform and the links have4 been circulated among the target audience through mail ID. The gathered data have been subjected to mean, median and mode calculation. 

2.3 Target Population 

The target audiences are from Australia and its other states along with it other country based visitors in Australia has been provided with the survey link.

Key Findings

A.Report descriptive analysis results

1. Purpose of the test

The true purpose of the test will be to identify the fact that it identifies the growth level of the income and it will be looking to bring in better level of growth that will be mainly looking to bring in qualitative level of bringing better inducement. Through the test it will be highlighting the fact festivals brings human being closure to each other. On the country like Australia will no doubt bring in high qualitative analysis through one-way ANOVA. 

Based on the level of assumptions about the highest level of education among the respondents, it has been seen that they are having almost the degree of graduation. They are mostly likely to take part in the survey regarding attending the multicultural festivals as part of their career building things and phenomena that can be highlighting in the sense that through culture initiative has been important in understanding human nature and culture. Here the data that has been chosen and is lacking in variables that can be framed to make better level of accountability. The one-way ANOVA can be exciting to bring on changes in the development. This will definitely have an effect on the long run growth fraternity that can innovate in bringing in innovation in the long run. This will make better activities and actions that can literally end up in having improvement. 

When the respondents were asked regarding their birthplace and most of them said that they are from Australia. Most of them are belonging from the level of aboriginals and the tribal community that can literally help in dealing with the taste and awareness of the multicultural programs and festivals. They are quite aware of the fact that overall taste and preference has been highlighting their cultures as well as national cultures that can literally surrogate the level of enthusiastic manners. The questions that can be asked and is significant as per the analysis is Q5, Q7 and Q10. These three questions literally can highlight the fact that youths and local people are literally enjoying the fact and phenomena that attending multicultural festivals actually gives them pleasure in their mind and they are mostly helpful in reading the cross culture. 

3. Interpretation of the data that is being surrogated is mainly seen as major things that are linked up with human behavior. Any kind of growth fraternity in the taste and preference of human beings during any kind of festivals will give up a hint regarding level of spending that occurs within an economy during any kind of festivals. Moreover, through the accountability in the long run growth pattern will obviously allow the cross culture to get linked up with aboriginals and people coming from outside Australia. This will induce better growth in the quality level of cultural test. 

B. Report inferential analysis results

Independent sample test

The independent sample test is prolifying the fact that overall level of improvement has been seen to generate the level of growth. This will obviously ensure the smooth level of collaboration that can be effective in the sense that overall distribution will mainly prolong the fact that most respondents wants to come back next year. Main reasons that were cited in this aspect is that close collaboration among the participants will be developing the growth and development of the cultures that are lying within the enforcement of the fact and phenomena. To some extent the overall distribution of the cultures is being closely related with better analysis. The level of gross quality has been informal in nature so that overall level of growth quality has been sustaining so that improvement can be highlighted regarding the multicultural festivals. They are mainly dealing with overall level of benefit that can be relying on the fact that multicultural festivals actually enforcing quality in the overall societal impacts on human resource. Better the level of development, better will be collaboration among human beings. They are dealing with policies that will mainly increase the fact. 

One-way ANOVA

The One-way ANOVA is mainly showing the fact that there is low level of homogeneity in the variables. This will obviously enduring the fact that variables are not having homoscedasticity. This will allow the quality of the fact that improvement has been seen to develop that the chosen variables are not having autocorrelation. If this was present then it would have been problematic for the analysis to take place.

Conclusion and Recommendation

1. Key Findings and recommendations

The data analysis of the research suggests that in the survey, more male respondents participated compared to women. Results also indicate that among the respondents, the highest educational qualification was graduation. The survey result also suggested that most of the respondents were born in Australia. Most of the respondents represented the tribal and aboriginal community.

Organising a multicultural event at least twice a year

In Canberra, multicultural festivals are organised every year for a week to encourage various cultures to come together. The findings of the analysis also stated that more aboriginal and tribal people are attending multicultural events. Hence, the interest of non-aboriginal people can be less. To attract a wider audience in the multicultural event, the Government needs to ensure that they arrange multicultural events at least twice a year. The incidence of the non-aboriginal people is required to be high in these events to ensure that more people know about the benefits of these events. To ensure that most people in Australia take an interest in the event, the frequency of the event needs to be increased. Tribal and aboriginal people come to the event as they feel more connected to the event, and they know about the actual tastes and preferences (Li & Moore, 2020). Non-aboriginal Australians go to these events less frequently, which can be the result of their low awareness about the event. Increasing the frequency will ensure that through promotional activities, more people will be attracted to attend the event at least once. Their interest is required to grow to ascertain that more people come to know about these events.

The findings of the analysis suggested that most of the respondents have stated that they became highly satisfied after attending the event. Their experience was good as they came to learn about different cultures, tastes and prejudices. The local people and the youth have gained great experience in these multicultural festivals.

Utilising social media platforms to share the experiences of festival-goers

The popularity of the multicultural festival is still restricted among a few people. It is essential to utilise the power of social media to promote the benefits of attending a multicultural festival. The research findings suggest that youth and local people have gained good experience while attending the multicultural event. Moreover, youth are the most frequent users of social media in Australia. If the younger generation shares their experiences and learning while attending a multicultural event, more people can also learn about the experiences of others. This, in turn, can also influence non-aboriginal people as well as aboriginal people from the outside of Australia. The advantages of attending the events, including enriched experience, enjoyment and learning about other cultures can be promoted on social media (Rice, Haynes, Royce & Thompson, 2016). The Tourism department of Canberra can also create a specific hashtag for using it in the social media posts related to attending multicultural events. The festival-goers can be encouraged as well to share their experiences on social media by featuring their posts on the official page of the tourism department of Australia. The reach of social media is wide, and people outside the country can be attracted as well by social media posts.

The findings of the analysis also stated that most of the respondents suggested that they attended the festival for the intention of career-building; hence, this intention motivated them to attend the event. Being able to know about the culture and language of diverse cultures also motivated the respondents to attend the multicultural event.

Deciding specific themes for the multicultural event every time

Multicultural events are considered to be inclusive as they attempt to attract all the people irrespective of their cultural backgrounds (Dewilde, Kjørven & Skrefsrud, 2019). The planning and organisation of an event attract new attendees in the first place. The results of the analysis stated that the opportunity of career building and learning about the languages and preferences of the people of other cultures motivated the attendees to be present at the multicultural events. Hence, for attracting new people to the event, deciding specific themes can be helpful. Specific themes such as foods, music and dance, fashion can be considered as effective themes for multicultural events. The multicultural event is required to attract people even outside Australia. It is necessary to provide them with a point of connection to ensure that they can find the motivation to attend the event. The cultural aspects can seem confusing for the people who are not aware of them. Design interesting themes related to food, fashion, sports can ensure that all the people attending the events can be attracted to the event more closely. The people can also find an attraction to these events only through relating to the decided theme. The Tourism department is needed to decide the theme based on public opinion.

The key findings of the analysis suggest that a majority of the respondents who have attended the event suggested that they have the desire to attend the event once again. The close association of various people has helped in the growth of cultures which is expected to grow in future.

Maintaining an attendee database and keeping in touch with them regularly

The festival authority is required to ensure that the people come to the event once, come there again. The people attending the event suggested that they would prefer coming back to the event again. To ascertain that the attendees come back, a database of the attendees is required to be maintained. This database can be created from the registration database of the event. The department of tourism and the event authority can keep data about the attendees for future references. Keeping a database can be also helpful for the event organisers to provide updates about the event. Furthermore, the promotional messages sent to the attendees can help in attracting new people to the event. New people can learn about this event from word of mouth of the attendees. Furthermore, after getting regular updates, the attendees can be encouraged to go back to the multicultural event again.  

Recommendation for future research

In the case of multicultural festivals, the socioeconomic status of the respondents is required to be considered. Culture is largely related to the socioeconomic status of people. Future research regarding the same topic, it is required to consider the socioeconomic status of the respondents which can change the results. In addition, the current research has not discussed the sources from which people have been aware of the multicultural festival. These sources are needed to be explored to realise the ways in which new attendees can be attracted to the event. Hence, future research needs to enquire about the information sources that an authority can take into account for attracting more customers. Future research also needs to explore the reasons behind people attending these events and their motivation to do so. The current research has not explored these reasons effectively.

The positive and negative both kinds of motivation are needed to be enquired about. The motivators that help people to come back to multicultural events are required to be explored as well. Effective ways of ensuring that people come back to the events are also required to be explored by future research in a more thorough manner.  Apart from aboriginal people, people from other communities can be considered for research such as Asian, American and African people.

2. A summary table of research findings and recommendations

Table 1: Key Summaries

Source: Author