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The purpose of this paper is to explore structural relationships between quality, destination image, perceived value, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty with emphasis on the mediating effect of tourist satisfaction on relations between destination image and destination loyalty, and between perceived value and destination loyalty in the context of small-scale sporting events.

Construct validity of the measurement scale was verified by confirmatory factor analysis, factor loadings, average variance extracted, construct reliability and correlation analysis. Reliability of the measurement scale was verified by Cronbach’s α analysis. A structural equation modeling test with maximum likelihood estimation was used to test structural relationships between variables in the proposed model using the responses of 311 participants.

Results showed significant and powerful impacts of: event quality, destination image and perceived value on tourist satisfaction; destination image, perceived value, and tourist satisfaction on destination loyalty and demonstrated; and tourist satisfaction fully mediates relationships between destination image and destination loyalty, and between perceived value and destination loyalty.

The study shows: it is meaningful to include quality and value in tourism destination image-satisfaction-loyalty models; provides empirical evidence that tourist satisfaction fully mediates the relation between perceived value and destination loyalty; and confirms small-scale as well as large-scale sporting events should be viewed as important aspects of marketing strategies aimed at improving quality, image, value, satisfaction and loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to investigate if the three service quality dimensions (service environment, interaction and outcome quality), proposed by Brady and Cronin (2001), influence the development of event loyalty, among runners of the “‘Alexander the Great’ International Marathon”, and to test if running loyalty moderates the relationship between event quality and event loyalty.

In all, 368 runners participated in the study and filled the Sport Event Quality Questionnaire (Theodorakis et al., 2015) and an adjusted version of the Leisure Involvement Questionnaire (Kyle et al., 2010).

The results indicated that only the service environment and outcome dimensions contributed significantly to the prediction of event loyalty, while, and in contrast to other sport services, interaction quality was not shown to be an important determinant for the development of event loyalty. Furthermore, running involvement was shown to play a moderating role in the relationship between event quality and event loyalty. Service quality is more important for the development of event loyalty among low- than high-involved runners. The theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed.

The study provided results on how high- and low-involved runners perceive event quality, and for which of these groups the event quality is an important antecedent for the development of event loyalty.

Investigating the moderating role of involvement on the relationship between service quality and loyalty has also applied value. While committed runners have been traditionally seen as a key target group for event marketing professionals, the majority of runners in city marathons today are more leisure oriented. The increase in the number of leisure runners is actually the reason for the rapid growth of city marathons in the last few years. Meeting the needs of these leisure runners and increasing their loyalty levels is therefore a key task for marathon marketers today.

This study contributes to the literature, as for the first time it explores the moderating role of involvement on the relationship between service quality and loyalty in the context of a sport event.

Mega-sporting events reportedly can offer many tangible and intangible benefits to the host country and regions, such as job creation, image improvement, local pride enhancement, social overhead capital investment and tourism business development. However, a paucity of studies in the literature have developed integrative models or have explored domestic tourist behavior in a general, or the sports tourism, context. To address this gap, the present study investigates the relationships between event quality, personal involvement, destination image and destination loyalty in the context of event sports tourism in order to provide sporting destination managers with valuable information for sustainable sports tourism development.

The authors collected information from 365 domestic tourists who attended the 100th National Sports Festival held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2019. Construct validity of the measurement scale was verified by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), factor loadings, average variance (AVE) extracted and construct reliability (CR). Reliability of the measurement scale was verified by Cronbach's alpha analysis. The authors utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation to analyze the predicted relationships.

The findings display the positive impacts of (1) event quality on destination image, (2) personal involvement on destination image, (3) personal involvement on destination loyalty and (4) destination image on destination loyalty. The findings indicate the key roles for event quality and personal involvement in improving destination image and the important roles of personal involvement and destination image in building destination loyalty.

The present study (1) contributes to the recent debate in the sports tourism literature over the relationship between the destination image and destination loyalty and (2) shows that there is no mediating role of the destination image on the relationship between the event quality and destination loyalty, and personal involvement and destination loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hard and soft measures of service quality and visitors' satisfaction, which ultimately contribute to visitor loyalty to the destination, specifically in the context of the Borneo Cultural Festival (BCF) in Sibu, Sarawak (Malaysia).

The study uses a quantitative research approach with 427 valid responses from domestic and international tourists of BCF and employs the cognitive-affective-conative theory to examine how the festival impacts visitor loyalty.

The findings indicate that both hard and soft measures significantly contribute to the service quality and visitor satisfaction at the BCF. Additionally, service quality and visitor satisfaction were found to positively influence destination loyalty, while the relationship between legibility and visitor satisfaction was not significant.

The findings encourage the ministry and event organisers to adopt a destination event strategy that positions Sibu as an attractive event destination capable of attracting domestic and international tourists.

The findings of this study contribute to the existing body of knowledge on event tourism and destination loyalty by applying the cognitive-affective-conative theory. This study marks the first of its kind, analysing both the tangible (hard) and intangible (soft) measures of service quality and their impact on visitor satisfaction, ultimately influencing visitor loyalty to the destination, particularly in the context of the BCF in Sibu, Sarawak.

Consumer loyalty has long been recognised as a key consideration of marketing strategies focused on customer retention. While the importance of the loyalty construct is widely recognised, the conditions and variables that foster consumer loyalty for a specific service may vary. This paper explores the variables that influence fan attendance at a professional sporting event. It extends prior research by conceptualising both a behavioural and an attitudinal component of loyalty, as well as considering fan involvement with the sport and attraction to the sport. The findings suggest that psychological commitment and resistance to change mediate the effect of fan attraction and involvement on behavioural loyalty in a professional sports context.

The purpose of this paper is to test: the applicability of Aaker’s (1997) brand personality model in the context of mountain running races; and the influence of event personality on event involvement and loyalty.

In total, 177 runners (n=177) at two mountain running races participated in the study and filled the brand personality (Aaker, 1997) and leisure involvement (Kyle et al., 2004a, b) questionnaires.

The confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the factorial validity of the brand personality and event involvement models. The analysis confirmed also the structural model. Four of the five personality facets (excitement, competence, ruggedness and sincerity) significantly influenced the three dimensions of event involvement, which in their turn influenced event loyalty (intention to participate and W-O-M communications).

The topic of brand personality is important for building brand equity and guiding market positioning in the growing running races sector. The current study provides event organizers with a tool for measuring the personality of their events. Furthermore, it explains how event personality influences the development of event involvement, which is an important variable for the development of event loyalty.

It contributes to the academic literature in two ways: first, the construct of brand personality has not been previously applied in the context of outdoor sport events and especially mountain running races; and second, while it has been theoretically proposed (Aaker, 1997; Keller, 2008) and empirically supported (Eisend and Stokburger-Sauer, 2013) in the general marketing literature that brand personality is associated with positive behavioral and attitudinal (e.g. brand loyalty and brand involvement) outcomes, there has been no published research to test the relationships among brand personality, involvement and loyalty in the context of outdoor sport events.

Understanding factors that enhance participants' satisfaction has become critical to developing effective donor retention strategies for charity sport events (CSEs). However, there is a lack of empirical research on participants' satisfaction with CSEs. The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction among CSE participants and to empirically test the relationships between the proposed constructs.

Data were collected from 238 participants from four Relay For Life (RFL) events organized by the American Cancer Society, North Central Region in the USA. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted to analyze the measurement model and the structural model.

The results of the structural model indicated that perceived prosocial impact, sense of community and trust in CSE had significant positive effects on CSE satisfaction, while venue quality, knowledge attainment and entertainment value did not positively influence CSE satisfaction. CSE satisfaction had a positive direct effect on participant loyalty to CSE, which had a significant contribution to future participant intent.

The findings of this study provide CSE directors and marketers with valuable insights into the process of how to build long-term relationships with participants by identifying factors that influence participants' satisfaction and its consequences.

By measuring the mediating role of CSE satisfaction, this study provides a deeper understanding of the causal pathways from the antecedents to participant loyalty through CSE satisfaction.

Given the increased competition among running events, it is important for event organizers to comprehend how they can retain a base of loyal customers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the association between sport event personality and loyalty intentions of runners participating in a running event. More specifically, it examined the relationship of sport event personality dimensions with the overall image of a sporting event as well as the association of event image with runners’ loyalty intentions.

Data were collected from 247 participants of an international running event. A structural equation model analysis was followed.

The results showed that three dimensions of event personality (namely, excitement, sophistication and sincerity) predicted event image, which in turn positively associated with loyalty intentions.

The study discusses how event managers can improve the image of their events in order to increase their customers’ loyalty levels.

This is one of the first endeavors that examined the role of event image, a construct that has not received much attention in the context of road races, in a model concerning event participation.

Eventscape is widely recognised as having played an important role in the image of wine events; however, research on this topic is scarce, with only a few studies examining the image of a wine tourism event. To date, no studies have examined eventscape and attitudinal variables of a wine event together, thus indicating a gap in the research. Further research to gain a deeper understanding of the role these factors play is needed; thus, this paper aims to explore the relationships between event image, eventscape, satisfaction and loyalty in wine events.

A structured questionnaire was chosen for data collection, with a final sample of 117 valid responses. Qualitative data was analysed by means of content analysis. Univariate and bivariate statistical analyses were performed to analyse eventscape attributes and explore its relationship with event image, satisfaction and loyalty.

The paper highlights that perceptions of eventscape are intrinsically related to perceived event image and reveal a statistically significant relationship between these two elements. Results show the importance of the social dimension in the image perception of a wine event and point to conviviality as the main element. This study also reveals a relationship between perceived event image and attitudinal variables and suggests that having a positive image of the event positively influences levels of satisfaction, which are higher, and willingness to participate in future editions of the event. Findings also reveal a relationship between event image and loyalty.

Wine-related events are undergoing significant developments, creating a need for competitive strategies to develop wine tourism and vineyards in certain regions. Research in this field is scarce to date; therefore, this paper adds to the literature by the studying consumer behaviour of attendees at wine events.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships among brand experience, sports event image and loyalty in the Jeju International Ultramarathon Race.

Data were collected from 313 ultramarathon runners during the 16th Jeju International Ultramarathon Race. Statistical analyses were carried out using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

An analysis of the relationship between brand experience and sports event image revealed that affective experience is the most influential dimension, followed by sensory and behavioral experiences. However, intellectual experience showed insignificant relationship. Sports event image indicated a positive effect on word-of-mouth and revisit intention.

Ultramarathon races are sporting events with few participants, even though it is becoming more popular. The attitude, motivation and personality of people participating in these races may be different in terms of the extreme characteristic and endurance level of sports activity. If the results of this study need to be generalized with other sports event images, a comparative study may help to understand the personality traits of people participating in ultramarathon races and other sports.

As ultramarathon races are not yet popular sports, to target more people, behavioral experience has an influential role because it is action oriented and actively engages the body. Enriching consumer life by facilitating and creating opportunities to physically experience as well as showing them alternate ways of doing things may attract them to substitute lifestyle and interactions (Pine and Gilmore, 1999). Few other popular endurance race events organize short-distance races and kid races for fun (e.g. Lavaredo Ultra trail race), to engage friends and family members before the start of the main event. Doing so may provide an opportunity to attract more runners, and they may engage in running activities and participate in these kinds of events later, after having this sort of casual experience.

Social networking sites may be used to maintain continuous interaction with the runners and followers. Supporting a social cause is another measure to generate the intellectual experience of sports events. The result of this study shows no significant relationship between intellectual experience and the sports event image. To increase the worldwide popularity of this race and to attract more international runners, a judicious use of web platforms may be an option to maintain regular contact with a wider group of audience.

This study is the first to examine the relationship between brand experience and sports event image in an ultramarathon event context. Findings contribute to an understanding of the impact of brand experience on sports event image, thereby influencing the loyalty of runners participating in an ultramarathon event.