Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/10
Browse
1 results
Search Results
Item Restricted A Study on the Differences in Visitors’ Motivation to Attend a Food Festival in Saudi Arabia(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-05-31) Almalki, Almohannad; Williams, MichaelFood festivals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have gained popularity among both domestic and foreign tourists in recent years, primarily due to their focus on showcasing regionally specific harvests. The Saudi Feast Food Festival 2022, held in December 2022, aimed to highlight and celebrate the culinary traditions and diverse cuisines of the Kingdom's thirteen provinces. However, understanding visitor motivation is crucial for the success of such festivals, as it helps attract attendees. Despite the growing number of visitors to food festivals in Saudi Arabia, little is known about the factors that motivate visitors to attend such festivals. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore the differences in visitors’ motivation to attend the Saudi Feast Food Festival 2022 and to analyse the relationship between their sociodemographic characteristics and motivational factors. To achieve this aim, the researcher adapted a pre-existing theoretical framework based on the push-pull factors theory and modified several motivational items to suit the context of the Saudi Food Festival 2022. This was done after a critical review of the literature relating to the concepts of food, food tourism, food festivals, and the theories of motivation. A total of 100 research participants were voluntarily recruited to complete an online survey via Qualtrics; this quantitative approach helped the researcher achieve the aim of the dissertation. Participants were asked to answer all three sections of the survey. These sections were related to their sociodemographic characteristics, their motivation to attend the festival, and their willingness and primary motivation to attend a future food festival in Saudi Arabia. The collected data was analysed using SPSS after numerical transformation. The findings strongly suggested that the only pull factor in this study—cultural exploration—was the main driving force behind visitors’ attendance at the festival, with the push factors—escape and novelty—following. Socialization, also a push factor, was found to be the least motivating factor for attending the culinary event. Additionally, the study revealed that there were no statistically significant relationships between motivational factors and sociodemographic variables. The dissertation concludes with an interpretation of the key findings and offers recommendations for culinary festival organisers based on the dissertation's primary findings.27 0