Page 21 - ATA

A14 LOCAL
Friday 31 May 2019
Commercialized Music Festivals on Aruba: Do or Don’t?

Continued from Page 13 kind experience. What we the experience of the SIDS arrive and maximize the sector, NGOS and commu-
can learn from this research themselves. consumption of the islands’ nity remain important in this
When it comes to commer- report is that: 5. Comparison between experience. If SIDS tour- discussion because it will
cialized Music Festivals, ac- 1. “Much of the interna- the music festival interna- ism marketing, advertising, determine the economic
cording to Croes, Semrad & tional tourists indicated tional tourist event attend- and promotional efforts are dynamic of the industry
Rivera (2016) in the paper; that their primary reason ee and the typical tourist to not reaching the most lu- within the entire economic
The Relevance and Value for travel to the island was the destinations revealed crative and viable market sphere. Studies show that
of Music Festivals as Rela- the music festival they at- that neither of these market segments than such efforts these commercialized mu-
tional Goods in SIDS, aims tended. segments spend their mon- may be incurring wasted or sic festivals do bring eco-
to report on efforts from 2. It seems that music festi- ey on tours and shopping high opportunity costs. nomic gain, now it is the job
both Aruba (Aruba Soul vals in SIDS have become as a primary or secondary 8. These tourists were inter- of all stakeholders involved
Beach Music Festival) and an attractive attraction on consumption activity. ested and committed to to make sure that effective
Curacao (Curaçao North itself and demonstrate the 6. The music festival inter- experiencing not only the strategic plans are there to
Sea Jazz Festival) in terms ability to produce the at- national tourist possessed festival but also the SID they set Aruba apart from other
on event management, tention from profitable mar- more favorable demo- were visiting. This indication SIDSs in the region and to
event quality, event atten- ket segments that are both graphic profiles and char- is supported via the results avoid losses like the Carib-
dance, audience satisfac- local and international. acteristics than that of the of the economic Input Out- bean Sea Jazz Festival.
tion, and overall contribu- 3. The international tourist typical tourist in that they put (I-O) model.
tion to the island’s econo- event attendees were ar- were much more educat- 9. It was revealed through Personally, I would like to
mies. This paper highlights riving from included: the ed, made more money, the survey assessment and see the CCI within the Inno-
the fact that destinations in Netherlands, Suriname, spent more money while the I-O model that not only vation Model considering
the Caribbean region are and the USA. on the island, and stayed in did the international tour- the Aruban government’s
continuously trying to diver- 4. The music festival at- the local hotels. ist event attendee make aim of innovating and
sify and become unique. tendees who were tourists 7. The overall marketing, more money they also creating sustainable de-
In this sense, cultural activi- were more affluent, highly advertising, and promo- spent more money while velopment and the deep
ties such as music festivals educated, stayed in hotels, tional efforts used to gen- visiting the island” (p. 1 – 5). linkages the CCI has with
play have been a pivotal and demonstrated the in- erate tourist arrivals to SIDS the other economies. Hav-
strategic move in market- terest to consume not only may not be effectively Clearly between these ing an industry policy will
ing these SIDS as relaxing, the music festival as an reaching the appropriate two papers, we can con- not help Aruba catalyze
entertaining and one of a experiential good but also potential tourists that would firm that a CCI does have growth and innovation as is
economic value within desired.
a community, especially We can’t innovate our
when it is connected to the economies, if we are not
Tourism Industry. The suc- going to innovate the
cess of these types of festi- way we make policies, the
vals on the island depend way we interact within the
on more factors than dis- economy, the way we are
cussed today, but the role used to invest, and the way
of the government, private we are used to consume.q

Biography – Currently, Thaïs Franken is a 23-year-
old Aruban student at the University of Maastricht
(UM). She is studying a Master of Science in Pub-
lic Policy and Human Development in collabo-
ration with the Unites Nations University (UNU).
Back home, on the beautiful island of Aruba she
completed her Bachelor of Arts in Organization,
Governance & Management (OGM) at the Uni-
versity of Aruba (UA). She successfully graduated
and defended her thesis titled “Placing Culture
and Creativity at the Heart of the Aruban Sustain-
able Development” on July 6th 2018. Thaïs is very
passionate about topics such as sustainability, in-
novation, culture and creativity. Next to her aca-
demic interests, she enjoys reading, writing, danc-
ing and cooking.