The motives for visitors to attend a food and wine event in Cape Town and their satisfaction levels

Abstract

Special events such as the Cape Town Good Food and Wine Show (CTGFWS), now in its 16th year, can be regarded as a mature event according the product life cycle (PLC). Whilst operating in a mature market, the PLC suggests that event marketers should consider adapting target markets, continuously rejuvenate the event offering and modify the marketing mix to ensure future sustainability. As this study determines the motives and visitors‟ satisfaction of the CTGFWS, it can enable marketing of the event accordingly. A spatially-based systematic purposive sampling approach was used to survey 316 visitors to the CTGFWS. The results indicated the five most important visitor motives were a mix of physiological motives which included wine tasting (which was found to be the main motive), to enjoy the food, to relax and enjoy a different environment (escape), to spend time with family and friends as well as to see the live shows by celebrity chefs. Furthermore, the majority of visitors were satisfied with many aspects of the event and almost two thirds had all of their expectations met. However, visitors to the event were also less satisfied with some aspects such as information about the event, the annual improvement of the event and signage in and around the venue, amongst others. It is recommended that these aspects be considered as part of the marketing strategies to rejuvenate the event in order to sustain interest and satisfaction in a mature event.