As the full-dress of the local autonomy was implemented, the local governments have put plenty of efforts to improve the over all quality of life for residents and to achieve the self-supporting economy.
The local governments have held the local festi...
As the full-dress of the local autonomy was implemented, the local governments have put plenty of efforts to improve the over all quality of life for residents and to achieve the self-supporting economy.
The local governments have held the local festivals as a strategical instrument to achieve those two purposes mentioned above. In Korea, every year about eight hundred festivals are held by local governments with the basic purposes which the local governments pursue; providing the preservation of local culture, strengthening the unity and self-esteem for the residents, increasing opportunities of recreation and attracting tourism for boosting local economy.
However, unlike the fundamental purposes of holding the local festivals, there are negative effects and issues on local festivals because of holding without serious consideration. They just think the simple expectation for propaganda effects caused increase in tourism. This also brings wasting the budgets of local governments.
Therefore, this study focuses on finding the important variables for improving the system of holding the local festival through the empirical study and verification analysis of two festivals. One is held by local government and the other one is held by non-government organization. Mud Festival held by BoRyong city is 9th year in 2006. and International Festival of Theatre held by the Executive Committee of Keochang International Festival of Theatre is 18th year in 2006.
After the empirical study and verification analysis of these two festivals, this study found that in a point of size, the Mud Festival is overwhelming but in a point of efficiency, the International Festival of Theatre is better. In other words, relating to budgets, the local governments is in advantage but not in efficiency point of view. That means the local governments have overlooked one important implication. Now, festivals have to be looked as an industry, not just a festival. One festival, holding for a week, brings more than one million people and more than forty three million dollars.
So, if it is an industry, the host organization has to more focus on the efficiency like any other industries. In order to manage festivals with efficiency, the host organization has to be shifted the local governments to non-government organizations. About 65% of the festivals in Korea are held by local governments. Therefore, it is right to consider that negative effects and issues derived from the festivals have been caused by the host organizations.
In conclusion, to improve services of festivals, host organizations have to consider the efficiency as a most important variable and to get the efficiency for the festivals, the host organizations have to be shifted the local governments to non-government organizations. However, the local governments need to support the non-government organizations in two ways. First is financial support to non-government organization and second is to build up the festival infrastructure.