Improvement Axons for Ardas Cultural Festival in Evros, Greece, based on attendees perceptions

Festivals provide not only the hosting community but the wider destination area as well, with many benefits. In consequence they have gained increasing attention in the prism of tourism growth. The most popular festival in Evros prefecture in the Thrace region (Northern Greece) is Ardas festival which takes place annually near the banks of the Ardas River and is known as “Festival Arda: youth gathering”. In the highly competitive tourism market, festival organizers need to keep their customers satisfied in order to maintain and increase their market share. To accomplish this task, festival organizers must understand the visitors’ behaviour and intentions and formulate their strategy accordingly. In this context, this study aims to examine the current status of Ardas Festival based on attendees perceptions and, secondly to propose a segmentation of the attendees market, based on their overall visiting experience as well as the degree of their satisfaction. quantitative research study was conducted on the premises of Ardas festival .The questionnaire developed specifically for this purpose. It includes the following areas of improvement which were generated based on a prior qualitative study. The quantitative research obtained a sample of 410 visitors attending the festival. Statistical analysis included classical descriptive analysis, cluster analysis, and cross-tabulation tests. Results showed that all statements were considered important for attendees of the festival (MS>3.51), with cleanness being the most important (MS=4.53) and the increase of the number of Balkan countries bands the least (MS= 3.62). Three clusters (n1=116; n2=146; n3=140) were produced based on the points of development as well as visitors’ satisfaction and impression. Results also showed that clusters were statistically significantly different regarding gender, marital status, education, occupation, and net individual monthly income. Results of the research can be a valuable input for the Ardas festival organizers. The findings can contribute to the success of the festival by satisfying the visitors and consequently increasing retention rate and loyaltyFestival, tourism, destination marketing, improvement axons, consumer’s behaviour, marketing, Greece

Green Entrepreneurship and Green Products: Consumers' Views and Attitudes in Regional Unit of Evros

Abstract. Environmental challenges consider to be directly related with issues of economic growth and firms have to play crucial role in sustainable development. European environmental policy aims, among others, in the creation of a favorable framework for the development of green entrepreneurship. The research was carried out in Evros regional unit using questionnaire. The aim of the study is to investigate the views and attitudes of the consumers about green entrepreneurship and green products. The sample was 400 consumers. The results show that the majority of the respondents know about green entrepreneurship. The green products offer competitive advantage to the firms and more specifically organic products are the most popular among the respondents