Strategic Cultural Event Management and Its Role in Destination Branding and Tourism Growth

Abstract

Cultural events known to be strategic have gradually become critical tools of destination branding and tourism development in the very competitive tourism markets. This paper will explore how the strategic management of cultural events contributes towards destination branding and tourism growth stimulation, besides exploring the mediation role of destination branding between event management and tourism growth. The quantitative research design was chosen and data were then gathered using the structured questionnaire to the tourists who attended major cultural events in the study destination. To examine the proposed research model, the partial least squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used. Measurement model had been evaluated based on the indicator reliability, internal consistency reliability, convergent and discriminant validity and, structural model had been evaluated based on path coefficients, coefficient of determination (R 2 ), effect sizes ( f 2 ) and predictive relevance (Q 2 ). The findings indicate that strategic cultural event management contributes largely to positive impact on destination branding and development in tourism. It was also established that destination branding contributed greatly to tourism growth; it mediated partly the correlation between cultural event management and tourism growth. These results are the addition to the literature of tourism and destination management because they offer empirical data concerning the strategic importance of cultural events in developing strong destination brands and promoting sustainable tourism development. The research also provides viable insights to destination managers and policymakers who might want to use cultural events as a strategic branding tool to improve destination competitiveness and sustainability of tourism in the long-run.