AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOCAL CROWD BEHAVIOUR AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: THE CASE STUDY OF RIYADH SEASON 2024

Abstract

As Saudi Arabia strives to promote and position itself as a global hub for events under Vision 2030, events like Riyadh Season are rapidly growing in scale, ambition, and complexity. Understanding and controlling crowd behaviour has become crucial for both safety and providing top-notch visitors experiences as millions of people converge on public destinations. This dissertation investigates crowd behaviour and crowd management strategies during the Riyadh Season 2024, one of the largest events in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. The study investigates how behavioural patterns in mega event settings are explained by psychological theories, particularly the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), as well as contagion and convergence theories. The effectiveness of the crowd management strategies used during the event is also investigated by the research. 142 local participants took a part in an online structured questionnaire survey created on google forms and distributed through X platform and WhatsApp, as part of a quantitative research methodology approach. SPSS was used for data analysis, which included multiple regression analysis, descriptive statistics, and Pearson correlation. The findings show while there were high presence of personal intentions on crowd behaviour. Yet, emotional contagion emerged as an effective gauge of actual behaviour, even though TPB components like intentions, subjective norms, and perceived control have a major influence on individual compliance and crowd behaviour. Moreover, findings showed high influence of crowd management effectiveness. While finding also showed areas of improvements and recommendations for emerging trends of using real-time, modern technologies and mobile applications in events management. As the research also find a gap in considering Saudi Arabia's unique sociocultural event environment. Regarding how gender dynamics, national policies (such as Vision 2030), and cultural norms influence crowd behaviour at public events, there is a visible research gap.