Selection of Festival Planners: Application of Modified Delphi Method and Analytic Hierarchy Process

There are more than one million festivals regularly held every year around the world. They not only create enormous economic benefits, but have also become a new global industry. Festival activities can attract many visitors and enhance regional development in a short time. The festival is an important trend to develop tourism. In Taiwan and foreign countries, various types of festivals are frequently held to draw the visitors’ attention or increase economic benefits. Therefore, the method to hold successful festivals is an important issue for different countries. In order to construct the standard to select festival planners, this study conducts expert interviews and questionnaire survey by literature review and the Modified Delphi Method in order to confirm the hierarchical framework and evaluation criteria. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is conducted to determine the weights of criteria in the hierarchical framework. The findings can serve as reference to select festival planners, thereby increasing the effectiveness of festivals and helping the decision-making of selection.