The Role of Niche Tourism Products in Destination - Repository ...

esearch agenda. Paper 13, contributes to the limited work on festival cities and its significance lies in the identification of a clear
gap between the awareness of the importance of the use of image as a strategic destination management tool and the
measurability of its effects. Festivals are enabling factors, but cannot be the sole image provider and must be seen within the
complex array of other attractions at the destination. This research can also be seen as a key response to Garcia’s (2005)
comment on the disparate nature of academic and professional study which has not appropriated a clear conceptual framework for
analysing festival and events.
Paper 7 develops this conceptual framework into the ACCESS research agenda. Pasanen et al. (2009) reference ACCESS in their
evaluation of standardised measures for event evaluation, citing its benefit as a research method for collecting secondary data by
interviewing event organisers. There is a growing recognition of a need for a holistic framework that can assess event impacts,
beyond purely economic ones, and this has led to the author’s input into a subsequent research project in this area (Pasanen et al.,
2009; Robertson et al., 2009). Robertson et al. (2009) identify the need for further research into stakeholder needs, roles and their
perceptions of event impacts. This is addressed in some of my recent collaborative research into festival and event stakeholder
management (Paper 9). It is evident from the literature that festivals have a key role to play in attracting niche markets and
transforming destinations. Festival managers, however, as key stakeholders need to be aware of their input into this process.
Finally, festivals are seen as a form of cultural capital that will help to develop and regenerate the host destination. This is evident in
Paper 12, where through a case study approach; the benefits of wine festivals in economic and social terms are evaluated. The key
contribution here is the suggestion of the significant role that festivals have in facilitating and celebrating rural rejuvenation and
transformation. Beverland et al. (2001) comment how regional wine festivals are rarely examined and Yuan et al. (2005) note that