Repeat visits and intentions to revisit a sporting event and its nearby destinations

Abstract

This article investigates the effect that loyalty and tourist satisfaction with a sporting event have on visitors' behavioural intention not only to revisit and recommend the event but also to revisit and recommend its nearby tourist destinations. The quantitative analysis is based on 343 selfadministered questionnaires collected among the visitors of the Biathlon World Cup 2009 in South Tyrol, Northern Italy. The satisfaction variables were reduced to three factors: Services, Price, and Accessibility. Through the computation of numerous Logit models, this study shows that there is a positive relationship between the three satisfaction factors and the behavioural intention to revisit and recommend the event and its nearby tourist destinations to friends and relatives. Furthermore, loyalty to the event is strongly and positively related with the intention to revisit the event in the near future but not to revisit the destination or to recommend it to friends and relatives.

Does sport event satisfaction remain stable over time?

“…Finally, literature is not clear about the definition of longitudinal studies in the sports event context, and thus, this research note may exclude presports and postsports event studies (e.g., Gibson et al, ), which are relevant contributions in the field, too. Furthermore, it has to be considered that as Osti et al () already mentioned, that high levels of satisfaction during the event may lead to revisits of the same event a year later but not necessarily to revisits of the event's host location. Last but not least, it needs to be explored whether there is a difference between active (e.g., cycling tour as discussed by Mitchell et al, ) and passive sports tourism settings such as attending events as an ET.…”

“…is not clear about the definition of longitudinal studies in the sports event context, and thus, this research note may exclude presports and postsports event studies (e.g., Gibson et al, 2014), which are relevant contributions in the field, too. Furthermore, it has to be considered that as Osti et al (2012) already mentioned, that high levels of satisfaction during the event may lead to revisits of the same event a year later but not necessarily to revisits of the event's host location.…”

“…One of the central claims for investing in and striving for a high degree of visitor satisfaction is based on the more or less observational assumption that a high degree of visitor satisfaction influences visitors' future behavior in a positive way for a destination's stakeholders (e.g., revisiting destinations). Until today, however, such positive correlations have not been empirically demonstrated with sufficient reliability in tourism in general (Dolnicar, Coltman, & Sharma, 2015) and for sports events in particular (Osti, Disegna, & Brida, 2012). Furthermore, (sports) event satisfaction studies are very often conducted in a cross-sectional design.…”

The Impact of a Book Festival on a Destination's Tourism Development

“…On the contrary, the results show that Taobuk has a direct and strong effect on the intention to attend the future edition of the festival. This may be partially explained by the fact that many people who attend an event are interested solely in the event (Osti et al 2012).…”

The need to adapt to travel expenditure patterns. A study comparing business and leisure tourists in Barcelona

“…Alegre and Garau (2010), Kozak (2001) and Som et al (2012) among others, identify factors influencing repeat visits to a destination. Martínez-Ruiz, Garau-Vadell and Campo-Martínez (2010) study the probability of a return, while Correia, Barros and Silvestre (2007) ;Meleddu, Paci and Pulina (2015) and Osti, Disegna and Brida (2012) differentiate between tourists who repeat and non-repeaters. Regarding the concept of repeat visits we should also note that for Kozak, Bigne and Andreu (2005) satisfaction and the number of visits influence the intention to undertake future visits, and for Moniz (2012) the intention to repeat arises from the overall satisfaction with the destination.…”