Sustaining Sporting Destinations through Improving Tourists’ Mental and Physical Health in the Tourism Environment: The Case of Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore structural relationships between emotional experiences, novelty seeking, tourist satisfaction, and destination loyalty in the context of active sport tourism. The study emphasizes the mediating effect tourist satisfaction has on the relationship between emotional experiences and destination loyalty. The validities and reliabilities of the measures used were examined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and correlation analysis using 230 domestic and international participants who attended a marathon race as amateur athletes. Structural equation modeling analysis with maximum likelihood estimation was conducted to investigate relationships between study variables. Findings disclosed the positive impacts of (a) emotional experiences on tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty, (b) novelty seeking on tourist satisfaction, and (c) tourist satisfaction on destination loyalty, and demonstrated that (d) tourist satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between emotional experiences and destination loyalty. Based on its results, this study (a) indicates that emotional experiences play key roles in predicting tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty, (b) provides an example of the merits of the Destination Emotion Scale (DES) in a sport tourism setting, (c) implies that both emotional experiences and novelty seeking should be incorporated into tourist behavior models, and (d) contributes to tourism studies by exploring the mediating effect of tourist satisfaction on the relation between emotional experiences and destination loyalty. Thus, destination managers should manage gorgeous natural views and beautiful cityscapes, and organize various fun events, such as prize and ticket giveaway events, music performances, and charity campaigns for tourists during events.

Understanding Active Sport Tourist Behaviors in Small-Scale Sports Events: Stimulus-Organism-Response Approach

“…According to Kaplanidou et al [15] (p. 550), most active sport tourists who participated in a focus group interview mentioned that "It was exciting", "It [the event] was an accomplishment", "I prepare more for cycling events, but it was still a challenge to get through some of the day", "It was a lot of fun", and "There is a certain amount of pride doing it". It can be inferred from these statements that active sport tourists are likely to attach special meanings to and develop a deeper emotional connection with sporting events and destinations to which they have traveled and/or participated [14,16,17]. Therefore, promotion of recurring participatory sports events would be a good strategy for a destination in bringing a steady stream of visitors, considering previous findings on the positive relationship between emotions and behavioral intention [13].…”

“…Likewise, the current study seeks to understand behaviors of active sport tourists, who can be referred to as those travelers who are seeking sport-related event participation opportunities at a destination. As they do for general tourists, several authors have suggested that emotions are closely related with before, during, and after trips of active sport tourists [14,15]. In other words, sporting events such as marathon, cycling, badminton, table tennis, climbing, hiking, skiing, windsurfing, and canoeing events evoke emotional responses (e.g., exciting, enjoyment, happy, self-fulfillment, accomplishment, challenge, and pride) of active sport tourists.…”

“…On the other hand, relatively little attention has been paid to small-scale recurring sporting events such as local marathons and their participants [24]. Unlike large-scale to mega sporting events that require heavy financial investment to host one [25], recent studies show that hosting small-scale sporting events is a viable option for small-and medium-sized cities, while these small events have the potential to attract significant number of participatory tourists, thereby being beneficial in fostering development of a region as an attractive tourist destination [14,24]. Given the effectiveness and attractiveness of small-scale sporting events that potentially bring in an increased number of visitors, the present study was conducted to investigate behaviors of active sport tourists in a local marathon in South Korea, which was also requested by several scholars in the sport tourism field [13,16].…”

Public Policy of Green Practices by Restaurants and Hotels: Case of Ecotourism in Ranong Province, Thailand

“…There is an important relationship between ecotourism and environment. Moreover, literature also discussed the relationship between tourism and environment (Jeong, Kim, & Yu, 2020), however, the relationship between ecotourism and environment is not discussed in relation to the hotels and restaurants. Therefore, this study has significant contribution to the literature of hotels and restaurants in respect to the tourism industry.…”

Determining the Brand Loyalty of Health Tourism of Ranong Province, Thailand

“…Because it is one of the important sources of revenue generation. Literature also shows the significant importance of health tourism (Jeong, Kim, & Yu, 2020;Wilkinson, 2020). However, health tourism is varying from country to country based on the services of health sector.…”