Perceived impacts of festivals and special events by organizers: An extension and validation

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure the festival and special event organizers' perceptions of the impacts of festivals and special events on local communities. An instrument with 17 items was proposed based on the literature and the suggestions of experts in the area. The proposed instrument was empirically tested using the data collected from professional festival and special event organizers by employing a confirmatory factor analysis. Results indicated that the organizers' perceptions of the socio-economic impacts of festivals and special events have four dimensions: community cohesiveness; economic benefits; social incentives; and social costs. Results suggested that the proposed instrument had acceptable validity and reliability scores. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.