| Abstract: |
Festivals are among the growing global city and destination attraction factors
and they are very trendy. Studies indicate that there is a direct relationship
between the successful organizations of festivals and the number of visitors
and tourism income of a city destination. Thus, festival marketing efforts
usually have a direct impact on city marketing efforts. Due to this fact, the
study tries to figure out the festival marketing potential of Izmir city that
seems to lag behind the general tourism development pattern of Turkey contrary
to the great potential it has. The study comprises of two main sections, first
one being a literature review on festival marketing, followed by the second
section on a qualitative research on Izmir’s festivals and their marketing
potential. It tries to determine the positive impacts of Izmir’s festivals on
destination marketing and by grouping and categorizing them under similar
characteristics figuring out the most promising ones. The research consists of
four open-ended interview questions on festivals held in Izmir city. As
practical implications, Destination Management Organizations, Destination
Marketing Organizations, destination and city marketers, festival managers and
destination tourism developers may benefit from the findings of this study. |