Testing the influence of destination image and event quality on athletes’ intentions to re-visit the city: a case study of the 2017 World youth and juniors’ sambo championships in Novi Sad, Serbia

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to test the influence of destination image and event quality on athletes’ intentions to repeat visiting the city in the future and develop positive word-of-mouth. Two hundred and twenty-five (N = 225) questionnaires were collected, with an on-site survey, from athletes. Destination image was measured with the affective and cognitive dimensions (Kaplanidou & Vogt, 2007). Event quality was measured with three dimensions: core, tangibles and supporting (Alexandris, et al., 2017); finally, behavioural intentions were measured with intention to visit the city in the future and word-of-mouth communications (Alexandris, et al., 2017). The factorial validity of the scales was supported with a confirmatory factor analysis; the model showed acceptable fit indices: S-B χ² = 819.61, p < 0.001, NNFI = 0.95, CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.08, RMSEA CI = 0.079–0.089. In terms of the intention to visit the city in the future, the results showed that the model predicted 21% of the variance (F = 3.25, p < 0.001). All the dimensions had significant contributions to the prediction of intentions. In terms of the word-of-mouth communications, the model predicted 28% of the variance (F = 4.04, p < 0.001). The tangibles and supporting dimensions had the most significant contributions. The theoretical and applied implications of these results are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport tourism
• sport event quality
• consumer behaviour
• martial arts
• sambo

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).