Expenditures, Motivations, and Food Involvement Among Food Festival Visitors: The Hefei, China, Crawfish Festival

Given the increasing socio-economic significance of food festivals, this study examines the characteristics of visitors to the Hefei Crawfish Festival in Hefei city, Anhui province, China, along with the determinants of their festival expenditure. Specifically, the study examines correlations among festival spending patterns and the visitors’ event-related motivations, food-related motivations, and food involvement levels. Using a Tobit model, the research suggests overall that visitors’ total or food-related expenditures at the festival were not associated with their overall scores on event-related or food-related festival motivations, and visitors’ spending during the festival had negative correlations with their overall food involvement scale scores.