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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.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interrelationships among the dimensions of sport event experience, event satisfaction and event behavioral intentions.

The sample was comprised of 186 individuals who actively participated in a mass participation sport event. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the relationships among the latent constructs.

The results indicated that the dimensions of sport event experience predicted 55% of the variance of event satisfaction and 63% of the variance of event behavioral intentions was predicted by sport event experience dimensions and event satisfaction. Specifically, the sensory, affective and relational dimensions of experience sought to have a statistically significant and positive association with event satisfaction, while event satisfaction and the relational dimension of experience were found to have a statistically significant and positive correlation with event behavioral intentions. In addition, event satisfaction was found to mediate the relationships between sensory, affective and relational experiences and event behavioral intentions.

The present study is one of the first that explores the relationships among sport event experience’s dimensions, event satisfaction and positive behavioral intentions in the context of sport event participation.

Based on a stimulus–organism–response theory, the purpose of this study is to empirically examine structural equation model linking personal involvement, positive emotions, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty among sport tourists to a mega sport event. Moreover, moderating effects of place attachment on the relation between the aforementioned variables were investigated.

The validities and reliabilities of the measures were investigated through confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha and correlation analysis. A structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation was tested to analyze the relationships among the research variables using 383 participants.

The results revealed positive associations among stimulus (personal involvement), organism (positive emotions) and response (tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty). Moreover, the authors found moderating effect of place attachment on the relationships between personal involvement and positive emotions, personal involvement and tourist satisfaction and tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty.

This study holds the potential to aid destination managers in acquiring a more profound comprehension of how personal involvement contributes to elicit positive emotions, keep tourists satisfied and build destination loyalty as well as demonstrating the moderating roles of place attachment. However, generalizing the findings to alternative contexts presents a formidable challenge. Enhancing the applicability of these findings could be achieved through prospective research endeavors that explore visitors in diverse cities spanning various continents.

The study contributed to the literature by providing empirical evidence that personal involvement evokes positive emotions while also plays significant role in improving satisfaction and loyalty. Given the importance of experiences in sport tourism, this study also confirmed the role of positive emotions on tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty. Additionally, this study examined the moderating effect of place attachment, which has not been investigated in sport tourism context.

The objective of this study was to examine the relationships among festival personality, satisfaction and loyalty. Also, the study further analyzed the moderation effect of involvement on the relationships between festival personality, satisfaction and loyalty.

The authors adopt a two-stage mixed-method approach. Through a list of brand personality traits from previous research and in-depth interviews with participants of a film festival, festival personality constructs were identified: exceptional, competent, reliable and cozy. The authors then analyzed an integrative model of festival personality, satisfaction, involvement and loyalty from the qualitative findings. A survey with a convenience sample of 279 film festival participants was conducted.

The findings suggest that festival personality influence satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, this study confirms the significant impact of involvement on the relationships between festival personality, satisfaction and loyalty.

This study enables authors to understand the festival personality from the perspective of the visitors and expands the theoretical understanding of how the personality of the festival affects the visitors. The findings of this study suggest that the festival personality can be predictors and determinants of participants' satisfaction and loyalty. Also, this is one of the first attempts to identify the effects of involvement on festival personality and its outcomes. Current research findings demonstrated involvement as a moderator variable in the relationships between festival personality and festival satisfaction and loyalty.

Social media's role in engaging participants in sports events, particularly during the pandemic, is acknowledged. However, previous studies often utilized sports events for diverse objectives but overlooked brand equity's influence on sports event development. And very limited research explores social media's impact on brand equity in esports events, despite its significance. Therefore, this study aims to explore how social media affects esports event brand equity and participants' satisfaction and engagement with social media through brand equity's influence.

The study focused on League of Legends World Championships (LOLWC) participants, who completed a self-judged questionnaire online. The questionnaire included demographic details and latent constructs. Data analysis involved two steps: exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to assess measurement scale validity and structural equation modeling (SEM) to study relationships between traits.

The results reveal that, within the esports event context, controlled communication exerts a meaningful and dual impact – both directly and indirectly – on the fundamental components of brand equity. This, in turn, serves as a catalyst for increasing participant contentment and their posting intention.

This study applies brand equity theories to the esports domain, exploring participant-based brand equity concepts, user behavior and the influence of social media communication on event branding and engagement. It also recommends strategies for event improvement, emphasizes controlled communication for brand equity and highlights marketing's role in brand awareness, association and participant satisfaction. Additionally, it suggests government regulation to address cyber violence during esports events.

This study aims to explore a potential conference experience design strategy, namely, festivalization. It investigates the potential festivalization effects on conference attendees in two formats of business conferences: virtual and in-person.

A series of two scenario-based experimental studies were conducted. A series of one-way analysis of covariance and PROCESS procedures (Model 6) were performed for data analysis.

The inclusion of festivalization elements significantly enhances positive responses of attendees, especially for in-person conferences. This effect is further explained by a serial mediation effect, where enhanced perceived values and conference engagement play key roles in improving attendees’ conference experience.

By incorporating festivalization elements, conference organizers can create a more engaging and satisfying event experience for attendees. This can lead to greater satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth and increased registrations.

This study represents a pioneering effort in revealing the underlining mechanisms that explain how festivalization affects attendee engagement and subsequent behaviors in business event management in both face-to-face and virtual settings.

The purpose of this study was to gather insights from sport marketing professionals and identify key opportunities, challenges and knowledge that sport marketing educators and researchers could utilize in developing curriculum and research agendas.

A qualitative approach was used, and data were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 sport marketing professionals. Participants were asked questions related to the knowledge, skills and experiences that they believe are important for students to have to be successful in the industry, as well as the types of research that would be most useful in their day-to-day work.

Industry professionals noted collaboration, transformation in digital marketing, data and analytics and experiential marketing as key trends facing the industry today. The findings suggest that sport marketing curriculum should focus on soft skill development such as communication, relationship building and empathy alongside hard skill development such as data analysis and storytelling. As well, findings show research areas where scholars can aid practitioners with a focus on consumer insights, technology, measuring ROI and experiential marketing.

With these findings, educators and scholars can better prepare students for successful careers in industry and contribute to the ongoing advancement of the scholarly field. This study serves as a starting point for further research in this area, and it is hoped that it will spark continued collaboration between academia and industry.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of sports sponsorship on brand equity using two managerially related outcomes: price premium and market share.

This study uses a best–worst discrete choice experiment (BWDCE) and compares the outcome with that of the purchase intention scale, an established probabilistic measure of purchase intention. The total sample consists of 409 fans of three soccer teams sponsored by three different competing brands: Nike, Adidas and Puma.

With sports sponsorship, fans were willing to pay more for the sponsor’s product, with the sponsoring brand obtaining the highest market share. Prominent brands generally performed better than less prominent brands. The best–worst scaling method was also 35% more accurate in predicting brand choice than a purchase intention scale.

Future research could use the same method to study other types of sponsors, such as title sponsors or other product categories.

Sponsorship managers can use this methodology to assess the return on investment in sponsorship engagement.

Prior sponsorship studies on brand equity tend to ignore market share or fans’ willingness to pay a price premium for a sponsor’s goods and services. However, these two measures are crucial in assessing the effectiveness of sponsorship. This study demonstrates how to conduct such an assessment using the BWDCE method. It provides a clearer picture of sponsorship in terms of its economic value, which is more managerially useful.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the fast growth of online music festivals. This paper explores how festivalgoers' experience affects their satisfaction and drives their loyalty to re-attend online music festivals in China.

Based on an understanding of the music festival experience and the characteristics of live-streamed performances, this paper investigates five factors that affect festivalgoers' satisfaction and loyalty, namely the music experience, ambience experience, separation experience, social experience and novelty experience. The relationships between festivalgoers' experience, satisfaction and loyalty are also explored using structural equation modelling techniques.

The empirical results suggest that four of the above-mentioned five factors of the online music festival experience directly affect festivalgoers' satisfaction and loyalty. The online mode is a rapid adaptation of and preferred alternative to offline music festivals, whilst the creation of the experience, along with satisfaction with and loyalty to the online music festival, are determined by different factors compared to offline modes. Overall festival satisfaction positively enhances the relationship between festivalgoers' experience and loyalty to online music festivals.

This study offers a range of practical and managerial implications for organisers of online music festival, similar activities such as live-streaming concerts and stage performances and hybrid events.

This study explores a phenomenon that has evolved quickly since COVID-19 and will, potentially, have an ongoing and enduring impact on the music festival sector. It differentiates the understanding of festivalgoers' experience in online and offline modes, which is a new addition to the literature. It also enriches the theoretical understanding of the experience of, satisfaction with and loyalty to online music festivals.

Gastronomic festivals are important events to bring people together around food-themed activities. This study aimed at determining the relationships between festival quality, memorable food experience, loyalty, behavioral intention, hedonic well-being, and eudaimonic well-being. In this study, festival quality is the independent variable that affects the memorable food experience, the memorable food experience is the independent variable that affects loyalty, and loyalty is the independent variable that affects behavioral intent. Hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being are moderating variables. Behavioral intention is the dependent variable, while memorable food experience and loyalty are both dependent and independent variables.

The population consisted of local tourists visiting Orange Blossom Carnival held in Adana, Turkey. The survey technique and the convenience sampling method were preferred and 545 data were obtained.

The analysis results showed that all dimensions of the memorable food experience are strongly affected by festival quality. Plus, superior service approach and high value perception dimensions of the memorable food experience have significant effects on loyalty. Furthermore, destination loyalty was found to have a strong effect on behavioral intentions. Moreover, higher levels of Hedonic well-being (HWB) and Eudomenic well-being (EWB) were found to increase the effect of loyalty on behavioral intention; accordingly, the moderator roles of HWB and EWB were determined.

This article provides information that the memorable dining experiences of festival visitors who attend the Orange Blossom Carnival in Adana affect the quality of the festival and their intentions to loyalty. In addition, in the study, it was found that the well-being of carnival visitors had a moderating role in the effect of their loyalty on their behavioral intentions. Therefore, this article provides information on how the food experiences and well-being of the visitors at the gastronomy festival will affect which factors.

According to the findings, gastronomy-based events may affect tourists’ experiences, and tourists’ psychological well-being affects loyalty and behavioral intentions. Destination management organizations can learn about gastronomy-based festivals. The results of the study include a number of theoretical and practical findings for destination management organizations, festival managers, policy makers and academics working in the literature.