How do theme parks use events to attract new and returning visitors?

Abstract

The aim of this research is to identify how theme parks use events to attract new and returning visitors. This research will also investigate how the events establish consumer satisfaction, how important the theming of an event at a theme park is and what motivates people to visit these events. The topic of events and theme parks is a very broad area, but it lacks academic literature so the researcher decided to use a broad spectrum of literature in order to create background to the research. The key literature that will be discussed within the literature review are; Disneyization (Bryman, 2004), The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need (Schor, 1999),Value- Driven Marketing: From products to resources and competencies (Grönroos 1997), Customer advocacy and brand development (Knox and Lawer, 2006) and Marketing (Blythe, 2006). The research methods chosen by the researcher to collect the data are; online and paper questionnaires which were administered face-to-face and shared through online platforms such as Facebook and other fan sites of the events. From analysing the data it was concluded that theming is a very important factor in determining whether an individual will attend an event. The data also revealed that many respondents felt that there were a lot of factors that motivate them to attend an event. It was also concluded that the main advertising used by theme parks were online adverts and through word of mouth.