Exploring “Sense of Community” in the Festival Tourism Experience: Review of the Relative Literature

Undoubtedly, during last decade festivals and events consist a growing industry globally. Various researches argue the festivals and events can affect positively the economy, society and culture of a destination. As a result, destinations around the world have developed events and festivals to improve local economy but also to increase social cohesiveness. Regarding the latter, it has been argued that festivals can be approached as small communities. This concept is part of the broader sense of communitas sentiment or as referred to in the international literature, the sense of community (SOC) and is directly linked to the development and building of resilient social ties or describe the perception of belonging that makes the participants feel positive and safe. Current research paper aims to present relative literature regarding SOC and its significance to the festival tourism experience. Specifically, it seeks to explore the theoretical background based on the thorough exploration of international literature on issues such as: (a) the factors that influence the sense of inclusion in the festivals society (SOFC) and (b) the importance of SOFC to the festival success and visitor loyalty. It can be considered as the first part of an ongoing research on the SOC and SOFC issues that can expand the relative knowledge of festival managers and organizers in order to support actions and policies that strengthen community building through festivals and events.