European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2019, 5(1):98-106 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.v5i1.154

Perceptual Carrying Capacity and Trade Fairs – Eye Tracking Experiment

Jan Vrána1, Michal P¹urnı1, Ondøej Dufek1, Stanislav Mokrı1
1 Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic

This study was focused on application of perceptual carrying capacity concept in the environment of trade fairs. The main contribution of this study is exploration of customers' attitude towards overcrowding at trade fairs as there is not known any study with focus on these events. For this purpose, the eye tracking experiment was conducted, where different images depicting different level of visitors were used. In addition, the aim of the study was to identify what is at the centre of people's attention when looking at photographs taken at trade fairs. The study was conducted with 30 respondents from generation Y. The results imply that the number of people is a very important factor in deciding whether to attend these events (in this case trade fairs) or not at all. Simultaneously the in-depth interviews showed that people tend to have more of a negative attitude towards both overcrowding and a low number of people perceived at an event. This study also suggests that the optimal number of people at trade fairs is not extreme, not too low or not too high.

Keywords: social carrying capacity, threshold of perceptual carrying capacity, trade fairs, crowding, eye tracking
JEL classification: M31, M37

Published: August 31, 2019  Show citation

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Vrána, J., P¹urnı, M., Dufek, O., & Mokrı, S. (2019). Perceptual Carrying Capacity and Trade Fairs – Eye Tracking Experiment. European Journal of Business Science and Technology, 5(1), 98-106. doi: 10.11118/ejobsat.v5i1.154
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