The impact of authenticity of historical cultural festivals on sense of place and loyalty : The moderating role of destination reputation

Abstract

To successfully promote a region, it is necessary to send bold signals by enhancing itsreputation and doing so with authenticity. These signals increase the region's appeal and shape itsidentity during the screening process by visitors. According to signaling theory, effectivelypromoting a region requires engaging in behaviors or attitudes that enhance its reputation andconvey authenticity.Existential authenticity in tourism is not necessarily related to the authenticity of the object,but rather to the subjective experience of individuals being genuine to themselves (Wang, 1999).Specifically, heritage tourism and historical cultural festivals provide tourists with an authenticexperience by offering them experiences from the past or another place. While there are severaltheoretical approaches to the concept of authenticity (Cohen, 1995; MacCannell, 1973; Wang,1999), existential authenticity, as an activity-based approach, has been the most prevalent in theliterature in recent years. Although existential authenticity emphasizes the importance of place inthe visitor experience (Rickly-Boyd, 2013), there is still limited attention to place in authenticityresearch. Meanwhile, destination reputation which can be defined as the synthesis of tourists'opinions, perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes (Su, Lian, & Huang, 2020). Previous studies havepredominantly focused on tourists' overall perception of destination reputation. Consequently,there is a limitation in examining the role of specific experiences, such as tourism content andfestivals, that tourists encounter during their visits to destinations.The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of existential authenticity of a historicalcultural festival on the sense of place and loyalty. This study focuses on destination reputation as a mediator of the relationship between visitors' perceptions of place and their loyalty to the festivalvenue for experiencing existential authenticity at the festival. In doing so, it not only confirms therole of destination reputation but also sheds light on the importance of festivals in shapingdestination reputation. The specific research questions are as follows: 1. Does the interaction ofexistential authenticity experience and sense of place through festival activities positively enhanceloyalty? 2. Does destination reputation through festival experience moderate the relationshipbetween existential authenticity and sense of place? 3. Does destination reputation through festivalexperience moderate the relationship between existential authenticity and loyalty?The survey was conducted after addressing the questionnaire errors through a preliminarysurvey. Five researchers conducted the survey during the Danyang Ondal Cultural Festival, whichspanned three days from October 7 to 9, 2022. This historical cultural festival has been heldannually in Danyang, South Korea since 1996, and the surveyed year marked its 24th edition. Thefestival took place at Ondal Tourist Park, a Goguryeo-themed park, and Ondal Mountain Castle.Out of 290 surveys collected, 282 were used in the analysis after excluding 8 that appearedto be incomplete. The collected data were analyzed using the statistics packages SPSS 19.0 andAMOS 18.0. Frequency, confirmatory factor, correlation and structural equation model (SEM)analyses were conducted to test the proposed hypothetical model.Out of the 290 surveys collected, 282 were included in the analysis after excluding 8incomplete surveys. The collected data were analyzed using the statistical packages SPSS 19.0 andAMOS 18.0. Frequency, confirmatory factor, correlation and structural equation model (SEM)analyses were conducted to test the proposed hypothetical model. Additionally, To validate themoderated mediation model of destination reputation, We used the unbiased bootstrapping method,following the approach of recent studies (May & Irmak, 2014; Vilches-Montero, 2015; VilchesMontero & Spence, 2015). The bootstrapping method with calibrated 95% confidence intervalsand the PROCESS SPSS macros from Hayes (2013) (models 7 and 14, n¼ 5000 resamples) wereused to test the mediation models.Based on the analysis results, we find that visitors who experience existential authenticityat the festival develop a sense of place toward the festival destination and ultimately become loyalto that destination. Importantly, we find that destination reputation through festival experienceplays an important role in perceived existential authenticity and sense of place; however,destination reputation through festival experience was not statistically significant in all paths and was not significant in predicting the destination loyalty dimension. Based on these findings,theoretical and practical implications of the present study are discussed.