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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of image congruence between sport events and their hosts as perceived by sport tourists on future visits to the destination, respectively the sport event.

In order to measure image congruence an indirect, multi‐attributive measure was chosen – using a self‐administered questionnaire distributed to sport tourists at six different sport events in Germany – so as to be able to investigate the two images first separately and second to construct an independent fit measure using the absolute differences of corresponding items. Logistic regression analyses evaluated dependencies between image congruence, location components and socio‐demographic aspects on behavioural intentions.

The results show that the overall models are significant and that certain elements such as the affinity of atmosphere do play a central role in predicting future visits.

A research limitation could arise due to the sample because almost all sport tourists were German. A more international sample might have shown different results. Future research should analyse samples of different sports concluding whether the sport performed influences behaviour, too.

Some practical implications with respect to the kind of appeal towards sport tourists are given.

This paper shows that not only separated images affect future behaviour but that the perceived fit between two actually distinct images influences behaviour as well.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between image congruence, tourist satisfaction and intention to revisit in marathon tourism. The results show that both affective image congruence (AIC) and cognitive image congruence (CIC) have a positive influence on tourist satisfaction and intention to revisit in the context of marathon tourism. The results also reveal that demographic and behavioural characteristics have a significant impact on revisiting intentions; and past experience of marathon tourism controls the relationship between image congruence and tourist satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse quantitative and qualitative image aspects of destinations hosting a small‐scale sport event, as perceived by spectators and participants.

A survey was conducted at different sport events hosted by destinations in a rural setting. The data are analysed using confirmatory factor analyses and correspondence analyses.

The results suggest several differences between the image perception of participants and spectators. These can be attributed to different levels of involvement, which is very high for participants. The perception of the qualitative image aspects showed that unique features were associated with the destination, such as sport themes or organizational aspects of the sport event visited. Further, it is shown that the quantitatively measured indicators of affective destination image have a great influence on the image of rural sport event tourism destinations.

A research limitation could arise due to the sample, as almost all sport tourists were German. A more international sample might have shown different results. Future research should analyse samples of different sports, concluding whether the sport performed also influences behaviour.

For marketing communications it is essential to utilise emotions to promote the destination, as they are a very essential element of destinations hosting sport events.

This research contributes to the understanding of images held by spectators and participants of small‐scale sport events hosted in rural destinations. The value is the large sample, consisting of various rural destinations, which allows for general patterns of the perceived image to be drawn.

Sports events are tourist attractions and their image components can relate to the destination image concept and structure. This study examined sports event images held by active and passive sports tourists at four marathon races in Germany. Some differences in the perception of event images were found for active and passive sports tourists as well as for different types of destinations. For active sports tourists, emotional, physical and organisational image associations were clustered closer. For passive sports tourists, social and historical image associations were clustered closer. The type of destination elicited different event images among active and passive sports tourists.

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.

Existing literature reports the positive image impact of major sports events on sport tourists. This paper empirically tests the image impact of an overall sports events initiative on a host city, and on intention to revisit from the perspective of general international tourists. The findings show that major sports events, in general, can be useful in reaching out to tourists. However, it questions the utilisation of sports events in destination marketing to general tourists - as awareness of sports events actually depresses tourism atmosphere and service image, as well as the overall destination image. Practical implications and future research are suggested.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating effect of brand exposure time and exposure frequency in image transfer. In study 1, H1 and H2 assumed the bidirectional image transfer (i.e. from an event to a brand, from a brand to an event). H3 and H4 were set to examine the moderating effect of brand exposure time and exposure frequency in image transfer upon spreading activation theory, mere exposure effect and three-hit theory.

According to study 1, the result indicated that the amount of image transfer varied based on the exposure time. However, brand exposure frequency did not show statistically significant interactions. Study 2 was performed to complement the H4 of the study 1. In study 2, apart from the number of exposures on a screen (group 1=four times; group 2=eight times), the perceived number of exposures were separately measured (group 1=2.67; group 2=3.96) to see if the number of perceived exposures moderated the amount of image transfer.

The results indicated that there was no group difference in the amount of image transfer. Based on the result of the study, a sponsor brand must be exposed for enough time duration in order to maximize the return on investment regardless of how frequently it is exposed.

The current study examined the image transfer in sport sponsorship. Although previous studies empirically examined the image transfer phenomenon in sport sponsorship, they failed to establish theoretical ground. Thus, this study incorporated the three theories in advertising and examined how we can apply the theories to sport sponsorship. In addition, we examine the image transfer based on video clip which is mainly how people are exposed to sport sponsorship. Next, we examined the moderating effects of exposure duration and exposure frequency, which has never been studied in sport sponsorship context.

Using Shanghai F1 as an example, this research seeks to examine the impact of mega-events on host city image from the perspective of international students. Leisure facilities and service were the most positive image impact perceived by the respondents, followed by affective city images as well as opportunities and convenience. International students tended to disagree that F1 would result in any crime and security problems and were unsure about any negative impact on environment and daily life. Some of the image factors were significantly related to intention to work in the city or the willingness to recommend the city.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the structural relationships between destination image, tourist satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty, with an emphasis on the mediating effect of tourist satisfaction on the relation between destination image and loyalty in the context of a small-scale recurring sporting event held in Asia.

Validity and reliability of the measurement scale were proved through a confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s α analyses and correlation analyses. A structural equation modeling test with maximum likelihood estimation was conducted to test the relationships among the research variables using 440 participants.

The results revealed destination image had a direct influence on tourist satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty, and that tourist satisfaction had a direct influence on attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty. Moreover, tourist satisfaction was found to partially mediate relationships between destination image and attitudinal loyalty, and between destination image and behavioral loyalty.

First, destination marketers and organizers of a small event should provide tourists with an international or domestic newsletter of the small event. Second, destination marketers should place well-educated employees at popular hotels and restaurants and the event organizers should arrange that trained volunteers be positioned at stadiums, to enable tourists to find the locations of interest, which would help develop a positive image of the destination. Third, marketers and organizers should actively use social media to improve destination images and promote sporting events.

The authors offer a new perspective of tourist satisfaction as a mediating effect. Existing studies show tourist satisfaction fully mediates on the relation between destination image and loyalty, but the present study shows tourist satisfaction partially mediates this relation. In this respect, the term “sporting event” should be regarded important when attempting to understand tourist psychology and behavior because the level of tourist satisfaction can be affected by a term like “sporting event” in the mediating effect context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between sport event volunteer service performance and sport spectator experience that leads to future intentions.

Subjects were the international visitors at a mega sporting event in South Korea (n=431). The sample was randomly drawn based on convenience sampling method. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was utilized to test the hypotheses. The adequacy and statistical significance of the path models were confirmed by individual indicator loadings, average variance explained, bootstrap t-statistics and convergent validity.

Volunteer service performance significantly predicted event satisfaction, event image, and host city image and indirectly influenced intentions to revisit the event and host city. Event image predicted host city image, event satisfaction and intention to revisit the event. Host city image predicted event satisfaction and intention to revisit the host city. Event satisfaction predicted both intentions to revisit the event and the host city.

Sport event volunteers are in direct contact with spectators; therefore the performance of volunteers’ service may have an impact on establishing event and host city images perceived by visitors at the event. The research findings suggest that sport event volunteer performance positively affects image formation and further induce international visitors to revisit both the event and the host city. One of the key findings includes the important role of event satisfaction in the association between volunteer performance, image formation and future behavior.