On the Verge Between Co-Creation and Co-Destruction: The Interesting Case of a Greek Traditional Cultural Event

Traditional cultural events provide unique opportunities for resident-attendee destination experience and image co-creation, yet the cognitive, perceptual and behavioural disparities between these key actor groups remain rather sparse. Focusing on the process rather than the outcome of co-creation, this paper adopts a Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) to explore the underlying dynamics of social and economic actor encounters and their role in service value and image co-creation and destination resource management. More specifically, the study applies a mixed method approach to study the interface of social and psychological carrying capacity during the Easter Rocket War in Chios (Greece). Building on the particularities of this traditional event, the research identifies variables that trigger cognitive and perceptual conflicts of interests that may jeopardise an event’s and a destination’s image co-creation process, resulting in its co-destruction. Research findings contribute to the broader event image co-creation and destination branding body of literature, though the exploration of the underlying dynamics of multi-stakeholder and multi-attribute event dimensions (cultural, spiritual, historical, recreational). From a managerial perspective, research findings aim to inform destination planning and decision-making processes that dictate event viability, publicity and multi-stakeholder satisfaction.