Festival quality, theory of planned behavior and revisiting intention: Evidence from local and small Italian culinary festivals

Abstract

Starting from an assessment of the main features of local and small culinary festivals, this study analyzes their main quality dimensions by examining their effects on visitors' attitude and integrating the theory of planned behavior. In so doing, the study suggests that small culinary festivals rediscover tangible and structural aspects by exploiting basic and essential service characteristics. The study employed an on-site survey of slightly fewer than 700 attendees of three local and small Italian culinary festivals to test the hypotheses. The results of structural equation modeling suggested that food and beverage quality, staff service and information strongly determine attendee attitude toward local festivals and their revisiting intentions. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.