Abstract
Event designers are continuously developing new strategies that will optimize any competitive advantages that their event may have, while, at the same time, minimizing their operation’s vulnerability to external threats and emulation. Yet, limited research has been done to date with respect to visitor experience at events, in the Irish setting. With this in mind, the principal aim of this study was to establish how event design techniques and practices are influential to attendees’ experience and to determine main motivations for attendance and to review the range of satisfaction levels. Overall, a total of 100 visitor surveys were collected, with results showing that there was a significant difference among event visitors with respect to their reasons for attending the event, intensity of event design factors that influence their experiences and assessment of it when comparisons across key study variables were determined. These findings provide clear insights into the changing nature of visitor behaviours in the experience economy and the importance of responding to the diverse needs of discrete niche groups who might congregate at a particular event.
