How Can Emerging Event Sustainably Develop in the Tourism Industry? From the Perspective of the S-O-R Model on a Two-Year Empirical Study

Festivals and events are important activities related to enhancing the image of the destination. Modern festivals are spread all over the world, not only changing the rhythm of daily life but also bringing more development possibilities for the places where these festivals are held. In order to learn more about tourists’ experiences in emerging events, a detailed study of famous hot air balloon festivals was conducted in Taitung City, Taiwan. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship among these three constructs, namely stimulus: perception of marketing strategies and motivation, organism: positive emotions and satisfaction and response: revisit intention. Face-to-face surveys were conducted on-site in 2014 and 2018, a total of 896 valid questionnaires were collected from tourists who visited the Taiwan International Balloon Festival. SPSS Macros PROCESS was used to examine the measurement model. This study confirms the application of the S-O-R model in predicting tourists’ revisit intentions in the context of emerging events in the tourism industry. The survey results show that whether in 2014 or 2018, tourists’ satisfaction and tourists’ positive emotions can mediate the relationship between tourists’ perception of marketing strategies (or tourist’s motivation) and tourists’ revisit intention. Moreover, only in 2018, tourists’ visiting frequency can moderate the relationship between satisfaction and revisit intention.