Come on home: visitig friends and relatives: the cape breton experience

This article investigates visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourists visiting Cape Breton Island in Atlantic Canada during the summer of 2008. Family and friends who return to Cape Breton island to attend local festivals and special events and visit tourism attractions were sampled. More specifically, the purpose of this quantitative study is to demonstrate the development of the events and attractions component of the Cape Breton tourist product, establish and understanding of the effects of current marketing approaches of the events and attractions on the VFR market segment of tourists visiting Cape Breton Island, and to investigate if the marketing of unique attractions effects the decisions of the VFR tourist to return to Cape Breton. A randomized sample of 105 completed surveys was conducted at ten special events of locations. the work provides the investigator with data regarding which stimuli are ultimately the most effective when marketing Cape Breton Island to this market segment.