1. An Evaluation of Visitor Movement Patterns at a Business to Consumer Exhibition: a Case Study
of The Country Living Magazine Christmas Fair 2014.
Introduction
This research is important and relevant as it
identifies visitor movement patterns at the Fair,
which in turn gives an insight in what direction is
most popular and enables the fair to consider
this for upcoming events.
Objectives:
1) To discover circulation patterns and see if
they support Bitgood’s theory.
2) To establish whether busy stalls influence
other visitors to follow.
3) To see if any observations link to Poullson
and Kale’s 5 elements of a successful
experience.
4) To identify any possible recommendations for
the Country Living Fair to consider for future
fairs.
References
Bitgood, S. (2006) ‘An Analysis of Visitor Circulation:
Movement Patterns and the General Value Principle’,
Curator: The Museum Journal, 49(4), pp. 463–475.
Fox D. Gouthro M, Morakabati Y. and Brackstone J. (2014)
Doing Events Research: from theory to practice. Oxon
Routledge.
Poulsson, S, & Kale, S 2004, 'The Experience Economy
and Commercial Experiences', Marketing Review, 4, 3, pp.
267-277, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed
19 November 2014.
Smith, C. (2014). Why do people walk on the left or right?.
Available
at:http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/questions/que
stion/1000314/ (Accessed:19th November 2014).
Upper Street Events Ltd. (2014). Christmas Country Living
Fair. Available at:
http://www.countrylivingfair.com/xmas/page.cfm/Link=0/t=m
/goSection=23 (Accessed: 12th November 2014).
Contact
Lauren Thackeray
Laurenthackeray_@outlook.com
Method
- Three choice points were observed every
30mins for three hours.
- An interpretivist approach was used and
data was collected in a naturalistic setting -
an interpretation of the data was produced
(Fox, 2014).
- The direction each visitor went in was
noted down. Also, the side of the path
visitors walked in were observed.
- The data was used to create a graph and a
table.
Results Conclusion
The results suggest that visitors may have
stopped at the entrance as there was the
Father Christmas and reindeers made of
various fruit to the right, and the Christmas tree
decorations and the products with the scent of
cinnamon as main centerpieces to the left that
caught visitors eyes as they entered. It was
also evident that most visitors that walked down
the staircase on the left hand side, turned left
once they reached the bottom. This may have
been due to One Sided Viewing as Bitgood
(2006) suggested, where visitors tend to stay
on one side of the path to save steps. A reason
for visitors going to the busier stalls may have
been because people tend to copy and follow
each other once people notice what others are
doing (Smith, 2014).
The Circulation of Visitors in Hourly Slots
200
150
100
50
0
Left
Middle
Right
Choice Points
Number of People
Recommendations To consider adapting the design of the show to make
an equal amount of visitors go in all directions.
This could be done by having key attractions in all directions.
Figure 1: The circles show the points that
were observed.
Results
It is clear that the vast amount of visitors observed turned to their left with
126 (50%) of visitors at Point 2 and 139 (57%) at Point3.
The least amount of people went straight ahead, with a total of only 159
visitors doing so.
However, the total number of visitors observed turning left and right at the
entrance (Point 1) are similar with 40% turning left and 45% turning right.
It was found that visitors often went to the stalls that were most busy. This
could be because they were eager to find out why they were so busy.
Another observation found is that the fair can be linked to aspects of
Poulsson and Kale (2004) and their theory of the 5 elements of a
successful experience. Aspects of the fair related to these elements;
Personal Relevance - Visitors attended as they had an interest in the fair.
Novelty - There were 87 new exhibitors this year (Upper Street Events Ltd,
2014) and Poulsson and Kale (2004, p.272) state that ‘people are attentive
and attracted to something that is new and different’.
Surprise - Although the show is held annually, there are differences to the
show each year.
Learning - visitors learnt and experienced something new and therefore
were engaged in the fair.
Engagement - visitors were engaged in the stalls available that had an
effective design.
Point 1-
Point 2 - Entrance
Staircase
Point 3 –
Staircase by
Christmas Tree