Guanajuato International Film Festival Visitor Profile and Segmentation

Tourism is becoming increasingly complex and new types of services are constantly emerging. Destinations are consequently experimenting with different tourism markets and operators, and this makes it essential to study their impact and quality. Cultural festivals are regularly used to promote destinations and help fuel the growth of the local economy. Obviously, there are festivals of various genres, kinds and outcomes. Andersson and Getz (2009) found that an event’s size has a significant and positive impact on its quality. Furthermore, studying a festival’s environmental, social, cultural and economic impacts supports decision-making processes (Jani, 2017). Likewise, while much has also been written about the festival industry’s contribution to the economy, festivals additionally engender other kinds of outcomes as mentioned above and can even be used to build tourism attraction strategies. For example, Fernández et al. (2009) reported that the Santiago de Compostela Classical Music Festival in Spain has helped the economy of the city that hosts the event but also concluded that sociodemographic variables and others related to cultural consumption turned out to be more determining than exclusively monetary variables. Furthermore, Dwyer et al. (2016) discussed the cost-benefit analysis, statistics and econometrics of events and festivals, and they concluded a more comprehensive approach should be employed to embrace the importance of social and environmental impacts in addition to economic impacts, and Yeoman (2004) examined the cost efficiency operations and revenue management of these events. They consider key operational areas, such as marketing and retail operations and illustrate how festivals and events can be used as a strategic marketing opportunity.

Studies such as this one can be helpful for stake-holders in general because of the data they provide for management and decision-making, including policies and their development strands. Thus, stakeholders may be key actors in festival branding (Mossberg & Getz, 2006) and also play a role in underpinning identity (Crespi-Vallbona & Richards, 2007).

Festival outcomes have additionally been explored from the viewpoint of the residents of the places where they are held. The literature reveals that there are a number of approaches to this analysis including a positive impact on the wellbeing of local people and how their involvement helps to promote the festival (Liu et al., 2020). It has also been found that residents can support festivals and contribute to event planning (Li & Wan, 2017), including evidence of locals’ appraisals of satisfaction with the festival and performance with a sustainability slant (Song et al., 2015) and the role of the media engaging with them to promote events (Li & Wan, 2017) or how locals perceived tourism impacts (economic, social, cultural and environmental) in Portugal municipalities having positive feelings (Vareiro & Mendes, 2015). However, residents’ opinions can also turn against an event (Gibson & Davidson, 2004) and, in some cases, it has been suggested that festivals may have an adverse impact on local people’s quality of life (Yolal et al., 2015).

Other consistently studied aspects include comparisons between residents vs. non-residents from a range of standpoints by assessing performance, motivation and satisfaction to identify their differences and similarities (McDowall, 2010); inclusion and social cohesion with respect to locals and visitors to enhance community interaction (Laing & Mair, 2015); assimilation of the experience through its cultural, escape and entertainment aspects (Tkaczynski & Rundle-Thiele, 2013); and also consumption and satisfaction differences as an approach for differentiating between residents and non-residents (Kruger et al., 2018).

Segmentation is widely used to pinpoint interests, markets, ticket purchasing habits and customer types (Carreira et al., 2021; Pérez-Gálvez et al., 2015). For example, events in Italy were found to attract different demographic groups of visitors (single, married, with and without children, etc.) and to generate varying levels of satisfaction (Brida et al., 2014).

The literature reveals that film festivals have received surprisingly little attention (Rüling & Strandgaard Pedersen, 2010). Mexico is no exception, and this study takes a closer look at GIFF to explore its features, attendance profiles and segments. There are precedents in which analysing socio-demographic variables has been widely considered in the film industry; comparisons such as one between the Summer Street and Winter Film Festivals in Asheville, North Carolina, uncovered significant differences in demographics, spending and economic impact between attendee segments (Grunwell et al., 2008). These differences have been used for differentiation and segmentation. For example, in Goias, in Brazil, where the International Environmental Film and Video Festival came up with a strategy to augment revenue anchored in socio-demographic variables, motivational themes and environmental values (Coudounaris & Sthapit, 2017).

Film festivals also have specific features in the kind of services they offer and the quantity, type or quality of their films, and this makes studying them a more specialized enterprise. For instance, socio-demographic aspects of cultural consumption were examined at the Valladolid International Film Festival to reveal that cumulative experience is a crucial factor in attending the event (Fernández et al., 2009). It is thus essential to explore attendees’ varying perceptions in terms of the factors driving their consumption and existing markets. This includes purchasing decisions founded on the cultural offering and the customer relationship together with the significance of how direct communication with attendees boosts attendance as in the case of the UK Film Festival (IFF) (Unwin et al., 2007).

There are several variables involved in part of the purchase decision and segmentation. One of them is the motivation for attending film festivals. Thus, Cudny and Ogórek (2014) argued that motivation was pivotal in shaping the market for the Media School Film Festival held in Łódź in Poland where reasons for attending were found to be related to satisfaction. Likewise, it was discovered that there were significant variations in motivations, satisfaction and perceptions of impacts across attendees’ socio-demographic characteristics at the Transylvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca in Romania (Yolal et al., 2015).

Film specialists have also explored residents’ perceptions by, for example, looking into the positive or negative outcomes generated by the Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania as seen by local people and dividing them into advocates, cautious defenders and ambivalent positions. This international and Mexican film festival context includes GIFF, where all activities are free of charge, thanks to a sizeable grant from the local government and, as noted above, the festival is visited by large numbers of people. It is thus worth adding to the literature by studying and analysing GIFF to see what kinds of outcomes (economic and social) it yields in its setting.

The research addressed two aspects. The first was to differentiate between residents vs. visitors and ascertain their motivations for attending by drawing on Kruger et al. (2011) model. These include 6 dimensions or factors for motivation shown in Figure 1 and centres on films, family, environment, entertainment, festival attractiveness and experience.

Figure 1:

Motivations for attendance regarding residents and visitors

Source: Own elaboration on Kruger et al. (2011)

Secondly, the study sought to define differences by genre of event (Figure 2) and establish the differences in terms of socio-demographic and residence variables. Since GIFF is extremely diverse and hosted over fourteen events in the year under analysis, not all of which attracted the same number of spectators, the ones with the largest audiences were examined as these enabled differences to be identified more effectively.

Figure 2:

Differences in residents and visitors by genre of event and socioeconomic variables

Source: Own elaboration based on Kruger et al. (2011)

The research method was anchored in a questionnaire and data analysis. The instrument used for this study was designed by Kruger et al. (2011) and had three sections: section A, demographics and festival information; section B, motivation; and section C, assessment. Section A of the questionnaire encompassed socio-demographic aspects and information was gathered about gender, age, language, occupation, education, residence, companions, stay, accommodation and spending. Section B asked about the reasons for going to the festival and the festival events attended, while section C focused on the respondents’ assessment of GIFF. Section B covers the questions on the motivations for attending the festival and the dimensions are shown in Table 2.

The questions in the socio-demographic section were open-ended while the items in the motivation and assessment factors had a five-point Likert multiple-choice scale: 1 = not important at all; 2 = less important; 3 = important; 4 = very important and 5 = extremely important. Since the questionnaire was administered in South Africa in English and Afrikaans, it was translated into Spanish and used in this language and English. It was also tailored and adapted to GIFF’s specific features. A pilot test was run with 20 people and some items were tweaked to reflect what had been identified and observed. The study population was part of the 68,148 attendees at GIFF events in 2018 in the city of Guanajuato on 25–29 July (Observatorio Turístico del Estado de Guanajuato, 2018). The data were obtained from a sample of 362 attendees who responded to the survey and were aged 18 and over. It was administered anonymously when attendees left GIFF events by random sampling of approximately one out of every five people.

Data were captured in Google Drive for surveys and subsequently analysed using SPSS version 19 and Statgraphics Centurion XVII. This data was analysed in two stages. First, the socio-demographic profile of the attendees was examined. Secondly, their socio-demographic characteristics were compared by residence, motivation to attend GIFF and the events they went to when they were at the festival.

Given the non-normality of the data, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare medians for quantitative variables (e.g., age and income). The Chi-square test of independence was performed for categorical variables (e.g., gender and event attendance).

Significances of less than 0.1 were considered relevant. Although a 95% confidence interval is most commonly used in the social sciences and in exploratory studies such as this one, 90% confidence can be considered as an indicator of trends, although obviously the higher the confidence interval, the greater the certainty that the effects identified are real (Hair et al., 2014). In any event, the p-value is presented here for the reader’s information.

Table 3 sets out the frequency distributions for the socio-demographic indicators including gender, education, residence, age and occupation of the respondents. This shows that there was no difference in gender (by study design) and that over 70% had an undergraduate or postgraduate degree, although the majority were students (40%) and 25% were professionals. Respondents ranged in age from 15 to 66 with an average age of 26.6. The audience was mostly young since 63% were aged between 21 and 30.

The survey data show that 35% of the sample came from Guanajuato (in concordance with official data), 21% from the neighbouring state of Querétaro and 4.1% from other countries (table 4). The average length of stay is always crucial in the tourism industry since the more days, the higher the spending. The study’s results included the average length of stay (3.5 nights/days) coupled with trips as a group, over six activities attended at the festival and an average of at least two visits. Furthermore, 87% said that they would attend again.

Event attendance is shown in Figure 3. The highest attendance percentages were films (17.3%) followed by concerts (10.1%), screening of winning films (8.9%), tributes (8.4%) and horror films (8.3%), while the lowest percentages were for events such as other events (1.8%), incubators (3%), panels (4.9%) and premieres (5%). In line with the research approach, the sectors with the highest attendance were analysed because they indicate a specific degree of interest and appeal in the festival.

Figure 3:

Event attendance

Source: Own elaboration

The descriptive analysis included learning how attendees found out about GIFF as shown in Figure 4. Face-book, recommendations, and the website were the most frequently mentioned, although it was also reported that people heard about the festival through various media with a high percentage using other social media sites such as Instagram and YouTube.

Figure 4:

GIFF media

Source: Own elaboration

Attendees’ monthly incomes are shown in Table 5. Mexico’s insecurity and kidnapping problems made them extremely wary of providing this information, so the response rate for this question was very low with only 50% of people answering it.

Table 6 shows the descriptive data for each of the items in the assessment of attendees’ motivation.

Another aspect prized by the tourism industry and also by festivals is repeat visits. This visit factor is shown in Table 7 with nearly 40% having visited the festival more than once.

The experience variable is set out in Table 8 with the dimension descriptors showing mean results which, in most cases, are close to the medians.

Table 9 shows the results of the Chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests for the motivation dimensions comparing residents and visitors to identify whether there were significant differences between the groups, firstly in terms of the socio-demographic gender, age and income variables. Secondly, in the attractiveness dimension, there was a significant difference between residents (R) and non-residents (NR) (visitors) in terms of the perceived attractiveness of the festival as much as the latter found it more appealing.

Men and women were almost equally represented in attendance by Guanajuato residents (53% vs. 47%). There was a majority of men (60%) vs. women (40%) in non-residents.

Next, the results of the tests conducted by genre of the event are examined to see whether there were significant differences in residents or non-residents (films, concerts, winning films, horror films and tributes).