Festivalscapes and the visitor experience : an application of the Stimulus Organism Response approach

Abstract

This paper presents a framework that articulates the complete tourist experience with reference to a traditional local event in Macau—A-Ma Festival. The Stimulus Organism Response (S-O-R) framework is deployed to depict the festival experience as a continuous and multistage process. The festivalscape concept provides an elaboration of the festival construct by considering how attendees form enduring attitudes. The authors use the concept as a medium for conveying key festival messages and values from the attendee perspective. They identified a high incidence of spontaneous involvement in the festival. Festival attendance provided respondents with a considerable enhancement of the destination experience.