Could similar clusters have different perceptions? Motivation segmenting of local food festival

Abstract

This study aims to contribute to the academic and practitioner festival tourism literatures by suggesting the segmentation of the festival participants’ motivations and perceived destination service quality. To meet the study's aims exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis, and variance analysis were used on 301 surveys from Alaçatı Herb Festival, Turkey. As a result of cluster analysis, four clusters emerged. These clusters are named as follows, multi-purpose seekers, social escape seekers, cultural escape seekers, and apathetic attendees. Significant differences emerged in clusters’ motivation and perceived destination service quality. The inclusion of participants’ motivation segmentation and destination service quality perception in this study adds to the festival tourism literature. When these two variables were examined together, it was discovered that different groups with comparable goals (social escape seekers and cultural escape seekers) rate destination service features differently. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.