Hallmark Events: An Evaluation of a Strategic Response to Seasonality in the Travel Market

Abstract

Cyclical demand in the leisure, recreation, and travel markets is a major factor contributing to low productivity and low returns on investment among the suppliers of goods and services to these markets. One strategic response to "the seasonality problem," which has had varying degrees of success in different regions, is termed the Hallmark Event. Such events, built around a major theme, serve to focus tourism and recreational planning on a particular period of the year. The present research provides both an in-depth, cross-sectional study of one such activity (The Quebec Winter Carnaval) as well as a longi tudinal analysis of the event's evolution over its 20-year history. Finally, the social and economic implications of the findings are discussed with a view to aiding persons interested in developing such events.