Harbin, lanterns of ice, sculptures of snow

The purpose of this study was to investigate the motivation of those visiti ng the Harbin Ice Lantern and Snow Festival using an existing cross-cultura l instrument and to determine the reliability of this instrument in differe nt cultural festival situations. The motivational factors were compared wit h similar studies conducted for Jordanian and North American festivals, usi ng very similar questionnaire items. The results of the Harbin study differ a little from the Jordan study and appear to be more similar to the North American studies. The consistency of the results for the above studies, des pite Likert scale cultural bias and variations in festival themes, access a nd management, suggests that this instrument will be valuable to festival p lanners and marketers for the monitoring or motivational factors for festiv al attendance. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.