1Research Scholar, Division of Sport Science, Baekseok University, 76 Munam-ro Dongnam-gu Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, 330–704, Korea
2Professor, Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies, Am Sportpark Muengersdorf 6 Cologne, 50933, Germany
*Corresponding Author: Jong-Chul Park, Professor, Institute of European Sport Development and Leisure Studies, Am Sportpark Muengersdorf 6 Cologne, 50933, Germany Phone: +49 178 1137046 E-mail: j.park@dshs-koeln.de
Online published on 27 February, 2018.
The aim of this study was to identify differences in perceived satisfaction of physical environment of Dragon Boat festival at waterfront according to the levels of participation and nationality.
A total of 261 respondents who participated in International Dragon Boat festival in Korea were selected by convenience sampling method. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire, andinstruments of physical environment factors to measure perceived satisfaction of Dragon Boat festival were adapted from previously validated scales. Principle Component Analysis (PCA), descriptive analysis, One-way ANOVA, and T-test were conducted to analyze the data by using SPSS 21.0.
The findings showed that international level's participants indicated more satisfaction with venue adequacy and accessibility than domestic and citizen level's participants. For cost-benefit, international level's participants were also happier than domestic level's participants. It implied that different levels of approaches considering the levels of participants are required, and therefore multidimensional strategies reflecting various elements should be established to increase overall quality of the festival. It would be helpful for organizers to consider key elements, such as venue adequacy and accessibility more important, as the participants tend to be considered them more sensitive than other factors. Moreover, foreign participants were happier with accessibility, venue adequacy, and cost-benefit among the physical environment factors than Korean participants. It might be a consequence due to providing them with different service during the festival. Also, the Korean participants might be unfriendly to differentiated marketing strategies between the Korean and foreign participants. Therefore, the organizers should seek to improve overall service quality of the event and establish long-term planning for satisfying the Korean participants.
The organizers should continually come up with systematic operating process considering the participants’ characteristics and improve the physical environment factors reflecting regional characteristics nearby the waterfront.
Dragon Boat festival, sport event management, physical environment, waterfront, satisfaction
