Clemson University TigerPrints All Dissertations Dissertations May 2020 The Impact of Festival Participation on Social Well-Being and Subjective Well-Being: A Study of the International Orange Blossom Carnival Visitors in Turkey Nese Yilmaz Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations Recommended Citation Yilmaz, Nese, "The Impact of Festival Participation on Social Well-Being and Subjective Well-Being: A Study of the International Orange Blossom Carnival Visitors in Turkey" (2020). All Dissertations. 2582. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/2582 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE IMPACT OF FESTIVAL PARTICIPATION ON SOCIAL WELL-BEING AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING: A STUDY OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORANGE BLOSSOM CARNIVAL VISITORS IN TURKEY A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management by Nese YILMAZ May 2020 Accepted by Sheila J. Backman, Committee Chair Kenneth F. Backman Muzaffer Uysal Brent L. Hawkins ABSTRACT Festivals provide numerous benefits for societies. For instance, they enhance destinations’ images in visitors’ mind, therefore they are very useful marketing tools to promote the destinations and their attractions (Fredline & Faulkner, 2000; Yolal et al., 2016). They also have a great impact on boosting local economy through tax revenues, increased employment and business opportunities through increased visitor arrivals, expanded tourist season, and extended length of stay and expenditures (Yolal et al., 2009). Moreover, they have positive social impacts on local communities such as increasing the community attachment of residents (Lau & Li, 2015) and strengthening community ties with past or existing culture which help to preserve local culture (Bagiran & Kurgun, 2013). Beyond generating all the economic and social benefits and opportunities, festivals are likely to create positive significant impacts on both the residents’ and visitors’ subjective well-being (SWB) (Jepson & Stadler, 2017; Packer & Ballantyne, 2011; Yolal et al., 2016). Despite the substantial literature on the association between leisure, recreation, tourism, travel and subjective well-being (SWB), until recently, there are only few studies concerning festivals’ positive impacts on SWB (Jepson & Stadler, 2017; Yolal, Gursoy, & Uysal, 2016). Therefore, this study aimed to contribute to the limited understanding of the possible impacts of festival participation on SBW of festival participants. Moreover, the study investigated the relationships between the following main constructs: festival motivations, festival satisfaction, perceived social impacts of ii festival, social well-being, subjective wellbeing (positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction), revisit intention and word of mouth. The study used a face to face survey to obtain quantitative data. The data was collected from the attendees of the 6th International Orange Blossom Carnival, 2018 in Adana, Turkey. A total of 652 festival visitors were approached and invited to participate in the survey. Of the 652 visitors, 550 accepted to be in the study and filled out the survey (response rate: %84). The data was analyzed using SPSS 25 and EQS 6.3 with advanced Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA). To test the hypothetical relationships, the structural equation modeling (SEM) method was adopted. Based on the results of final structural model, some hypotheses were rejected while most of the hypotheses failed to be rejected. While no significant relationship was found between festival motivation and wellbeing factors (positive affect, negative affect, life satisfaction and social wellbeing), significant association was found between festival satisfaction and wellbeing factors. The results also indicate that there is a significant relationship between the perceived social impacts of the festival and wellbeing of the festival attendees. Furthermore, the study also found that positive affect has a positive link to revisit intention and word of mouth, while negative affect has negative associations with both revisit intention and word of mouth. The findings suggest that moods during the festival impacts the participants intention to revisit the festival next year. Similar to affect, life satisfaction has also significant relationship with both revisit intention and word of mouth. This finding suggest that individuals who has higher life satisfaction has higher intention to revisit the festival. Finally, the study found a iii significant association link from social wellbeing to both revisit intention and word of mouth reccomendations. The study provided important practical implications for festival organizers and community leaders to maximize the positive social benefits of festivals and gain more support for their organizations. Identifying the factors affecting subjective well-being of attendees and understanding the relationships among the factors can help organizers to develop strategies to monitor and better manage these factors. iv DEDICATION To my husband Emrah YILMAZ for his love and support. The completion of this doctorate degree is just as much his accomplishment as it is mine. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I want to thank to all my committee members especially my committee chair Dr. Sheila J. Backman for her guidance, support, patience, persistence throughout the long journey of developing and completing this dissertation. I would also like to thank to my PhD committee members – Dr. Kenneth F. Backman, Dr. Muzaffer Uysal and Dr. Brent L. Hawkins for their insightful suggestions and guidance towards accomplishing my dissertation. I am also highly grateful to Dr. Peter J. Mkumbo for his friendship, and for his knowledge and patience in answering my unending statistical questions. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my family, to my parents Gul Polat and Ekrem Polat, and my parents-in-law Esin Yilmaz and Ismail Yilmaz for their love, care, support and prayers. I also thank to my sister Elif POLAT for always being there for me. This dissertation would not have been possible without you all. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION....................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1 .......................................................................................................................1 INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 1.1. Problem Statement ....................................................................................................3 1.2. Research Purpose and Objectives .............................................................................4 1.3. Research Questions and Hypotheses ........................................................................5 1.4. Definition of Terms...................................................................................................8 CHAPTER 2 .....................................................................................................................11 LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................11 2.1. Importance of Festivals ...........................................................................................11 2.2. Subjective Well-Being (SWB) ................................................................................13 2.2.1. Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................18 2.2.2. Relation between Leisure Engagement and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) .....21 2.2.3. Relation between Tourism and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) .........................25 2.2.4. Relation between Festival and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) .........................29 2.3. Social Well-Being ...................................................................................................31 2.4. Perceived Social Impacts of Festivals .....................................................................34 2.4.1. Relation between Perceived Impacts of Festivals and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) .........................................................................................................................37 2.5. Festival and Event Motivation ................................................................................38 2.5.1. Relation between Motivation and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) ....................40 2.6. Festival Satisfaction ................................................................................................41