Search

PurposeThis study examined potential sport tourists’ decision-making regarding a sporting event rescheduled due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachAn extended model of goal-directed behavior – encompassing the perception of COVID-19, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, positive anticipated emotion, negative anticipated emotion, desire and behavioral intention – was built and tested using survey data and structural equation modeling.FindingsThe perception of COVID-19 significantly influenced attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and positive anticipated emotion, which then collectively led to desire. Desire, alongside optimism bias, had a substantial impact on behavioral intention. However, the perception of COVID-19 was not related to negative anticipated emotion.Originality/valueThe findings highlight the roles that optimism bias and the perception of COVID-19 play in shaping individuals’ intentions to engage in sport tourism, suggesting how marketers and managers of sporting events should respond to the pandemic.

Despite the growing role of celebrity effects in shaping favorable tourist reactions to destination brands, little is known about how the construct is structured or functions in destination settings or niche tourism contexts. In response, this study hypothesized four elements for celebrity endorsement effects and examined how they influenced self-brand connection and brand involvement, which are antecedents to brand engagement and destination loyalty. The subjects of this study were potential tourists who were familiar with a Chines literary celebrity (Jin Yong) and a related destination (the Shaolin Temple). SPSS 25 and AMOS 22 were used to analyze the 405 valid data obtained through an online survey from October 7 to 21, 2020. Structural equation modeling analysis results showed that all the measurement scales were valid and reliable. In addition, all four elements of celebrity effects (i.e., trustworthiness, expertise, celebrity-brand congruence, and familiarity) were successful predictors of self-brand connection and brand involvement. Also, self-brand connection and brand involvement contributed significantly to brand engagement, explaining substantial variance in destination loyalty. The findings suggest the contextual nature of celebrity effects and reveal how tourists react to destination brands.

This study examined the role that tourists’ emotional solidarity with residents serves in explaining their loyalty to the destination they have visited since the COVID-19 pandemic, between May and ...

The purpose of this study is to examine how tourists' self-congruity and emotional solidarity are related and how this thereby influences travel satisfaction and destination loyalty. Notably, the roles that the different dimensions (i.e., communality and fairness) of intragroup emotional solidarity played between the constructs were scrutinized for an enhanced understanding of the relationships. Addressing these research questions, this study collected survey data from South Korean tourists to Korea's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)—a destination of symbolic and emotional significance to Koreans—and analyzed them via structural equation modelling. Results demonstrated positive relationships between self-congruity and all emotional solidarity dimensions. However, only fairness was a meaningful predictor of travel satisfaction which then translated into destination loyalty. The findings indicate that in an emotional destination like the DMZ, self-congruity with the destination can give rise to emotional solidarity toward others, but emotional solidarity dimensions may function differently in triggering further changes in travel satisfaction or destination loyalty. Implications for theory and practice are discussed within the close of the article.

Although social emotions can serve as an effective analytic lens through which to study residents’ reactions to tourists and tourism, limited theoretical discussion exists examining how social emot...

When communities are struck by natural disasters, human service organizations play an important role in supplementing governmental aids and catering to immediate humanitarian needs. Social capital is one of many factors affecting resource mobilization directed toward human service organizations as a proxy for local philanthropy. This study analyzed the effect of social capital on local philanthropy in communities affected by natural disasters and compared it to the effect of corporate philanthropy. In addition, this study examined how the relationships among social capital, corporate philanthropy, and local philanthropy were moderated by racial diversity to answer a long-standing argument regarding the effect of racial diversity on philanthropy. To this end, a panel dataset covering three given years and 3121 US counties was analyzed using GEE models. The results suggest that social capital does not always facilitate local philanthropy and its influence on local philanthropy is catalyzed by racial diversity. Also, corporate philanthropy positively influences resource mobilization toward human service organizations, more noticeably in communities affected by natural disasters.

This study explored the relationships among sport tourists’ team identification, sport nostalgia, and revisit intention. In addressing the research goal, survey data were collected from 487 sport tourists to professional baseball games in South Korea, which were then analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results revealed that team identification positively affected sport nostalgia, and sport nostalgia had a positive effect on revisit intention. Further analysis showed team identification had an indirect influence on revisit intention, suggesting full mediation by sport nostalgia. This study provides greater insights into how sport tourists’ team identification contributes to sport nostalgia and how the two constructs collectively influence revisit intention. The findings can be used in developing more effective marketing strategies in sport tourism.

This study evaluated the cross-cultural generalizability of the Nostalgia Scale for Sport Tourism (NSST), which was originally developed and examined in the context of football tourists in the United States. Data were collected from baseball tourists in South Korea, and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel structural equation modelling were used for data analysis. Results supported the reliability and the validity of the scale both at individual and group levels, revealing an identical five-factor structure across the 29-item scale. Additionally, this study found a significant effect of sport nostalgia on revisit intention both at individual and group levels. The findings indicate that the NSST is applicable in understanding sport tourists’ nostalgia across different sport and cultural settings. Implications and suggestions for future nostalgia research are also discussed.

While nostalgia has been explored in various contexts, no research has so far investigated how individuals' nostalgia can be generated by volunteer experiences in compulsory settings and how nostalgic feelings extend their future behavior. To fill this research gap, this study explored how nostalgia regarding compulsory volunteering is related to positive memories, age, and past experiences and how such nostalgia translates to volunteer intention. A total of 605 responses were collected from university students who had completed compulsory volunteering at sporting events and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that positive memories contributed to all five factors of volunteer nostalgia, while past experiences only predicted

With resident empowerment widely recognized as a prerequisite for sustainable tourism development, this study tested how residents’ perceived knowledge of tourism affects their perceptions ...

Although tourists’ affective bonds with one another are essential to their travel experiences as well as their pretrip anticipations, it nevertheless remains as an underexplored topic in tourism research. Responding to this research gap, this study modified the Emotional Solidarity Scale (ESS), which is originally intended to measure affective bonds between tourists and residents and developed new scales for its theoretical antecedents (i.e., shared beliefs, shared behaviors, and propensity to interact), using potential faith-based tourists in the United States as the target population. For scale modification and development, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. The modified ESS (resulting in two unique factors— communality and fairness) along with the new scales for its antecedents demonstrated strong psychometric properties. Further studies are suggested to confirm the two-dimensional structure of the modified ESS and the relationships between the three antecedents in tourists’ intragroup relationship settings.

Unlike how tourism is viewed by residents, little is known about how tourists feel about tourism in the destination. Nevertheless, studies have shown that tourists' emotional bonds with the destination positively affect their perceptions of and reactions to tourism in the destination. Such emotional bonds often vary based on tourists' previous experience in the destination. Thus, this study explored how tourists' emotional solidarity with residents influences their perceptions of tourism and how first-timers and repeat tourists differ in their views. To this end, 404 responses from South Korean sport tourists were analyzed. Though differences were not evident between first-timers and repeat tourists in their emotional solidarity or attitudes toward tourism, a positive relationship was confirmed between emotional solidarity and perceptions of tourism. The findings suggest that attitudes toward tourism is no longer a construct exclusive to residents and destination managers should also consider tourists' views.

This study examined how Brazilian and Korean residents in two Japanese towns differed in their views of tourism in general and ethnic neighborhood tourism (ENT) focused on their own culture and if their perceptions of tourism in general translate into their corresponding attitudes about ENT. A series of MANOVAs revealed that Brazilian residents held more positive views toward tourism in general and ENT than their Korean counterparts. Although the two groups differed in their perception of community benefits from tourism in general, they demonstrated a similar mix of hopes and worries regarding ENT. Results from multiple regression analyses also revealed that minority residents’ perceptions of tourism in general can be a significant predictor of their attitudes toward ENT explaining 4–40% of variance in the Brazilian sample and 4–12% in the Korean sample. These findings imply that perceptions of general tourism are precursors to perceptions of specific, niche forms of tourism. In a practical sense, this study underscores the importance of inviting residents’ opinion into the tourism planning process, especially in ENT contexts. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed at the close of the paper.

This study shed new light on the concept of nostalgia in sport tourism by quantitatively testing how nostalgia was associated with spectator types, age, and past experience. It also examined whether nostalgia varied based on spectators' perception of the sport team's present or future status. This study found that past experience and spectator types played essential roles in explaining nostalgia. However, unlike what the existing literatures suggested, no relationship between age and nostalgia was found. In addition, spectators' perceptions of the sport team's present or future had mixed effects on their nostalgia. Theoretical and practical implications of the study were provided as well.

Despite the fact that emotional solidarity, social distance, and contact theory have been widely used to explain resident tourist interaction, these three concepts were never considered in tandem in investigating the intergroup attitude within a domestic tourism setting. To understand what type of interaction improves emotional solidarity and reduces social distance, and how emotional solidarity affects social distance, this study sought to measure the factors explaining emotional solidarity and social distance by focusing on the frequency and the nature of interaction in domestic tourism. Study hypotheses proposed that frequency of interaction and different types of activities that residents engage in with visitors explain both emotional solidarity and social distance, and emotional solidarity in return explains social distance. All hypotheses were partially supported with the findings, confirming the validity of the contact theory in a domestic tourism setting and underscoring the importance of interaction in residents' attitudes toward tourists.

Despite potential benefits from applying Tobler's law in a tourism context, the law has been used sparingly within the tourism literature. This study seeks to expand the use of Tobler's law in tourism research by examining the relationship between tourists' distance travelled to a destination and the perceived degree of emotional closeness such visitors have with community residents. In doing so, visitor data from three uniquely distinct Texas destinations were analyzed. Results suggest that visitors to the destinations not only differed in their average travel distances, but also the perceived levels of emotional solidarity with residents. Results supported Tobler's law in a tourism context, whereby results indicated that the further an individual travelled to a destination, the less they agreed with feeling close to destination residents. Implications and future research direction opportunities are offered at the close of the work.

Due to the spread of COVID-19 and restrictions on international travel, popular destinations around the world have experienced an influx of domestic tourists. Regardless of the economic benefits that tourists could bring, residents have expressed their concerns about the health risks that would accompany tourists. Residents are not risk-proof or risk-tolerant, but the literature to date has overlooked the relevance and importance of residents' perceived risk associated with tourists. Addressing this research gap, this study investigated how residents’ perceived risk, emotional solidarity, and support for tourism were interrelated amid the pandemic. It was found that perceived risk was negatively associated with emotional solidarity and support for tourism, and emotional solidarity had a positive impact on support for tourism. Also, emotional solidarity was a partial mediator between perceived risk and support for tourism. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed within the closing of the article.

Given the growing interest in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as a tourism destination, this study investigated DMZ tourists' place attachment and tourism development support, by identifying the importance of perceived similarity and shared beliefs in symbolic, touristic, and preservation values. Using survey data collected from 378 DMZ tourists, this study revealed that perceived similarity was a significant antecedent of shared beliefs, which further influenced place attachment and support for tourism development. In particular, shared touristic value had a direct impact on place attachment, while symbolic and preservation values influenced tourism development support only. This study adds to the burgeoning research on DMZ tourism and offers a unique approach to evaluate destination values from tourists' sociological perspectives. This study suggests managerial guidance on how the destination can develop the DMZ as a tourism destination, concerning tourists’ perspectives and shared beliefs highlighting key values associated with the place.

Community development and related approaches have become prominent in academic circles, resulting in the emergence and resurgence of related community-level notions. With the expansion of terms, conceptual confusions have surfaced. The notion of community resilience has gone through this process, as its development/understanding is still in progress. Community resilience has been misused/confused with other notions including community agency, community vulnerability, community adaptability, and community capacity. Our goal here is to provide conceptual clarification to the term community resilience by reviewing and contrasting it with the above-mentioned notions. We argue that while similitudes exist within these concepts, they are bounded by their literatures fed by different fields of study, resulting in different goals (i.e. problem solving, response to change, and risk mitigation) in varying contexts. Despite their differences, we offer explanations of how the concepts are interrelated, in add...

In tourism research, scholars have often drawn a comparison between tourists and pilgrims to explain individuals’ travel motivation and behavior. Tourists are frequently conceived of as modern pilg...

Given that sport tourists usually come to sporting events in groups and are exposed to multiple types of stimuli, the influence of sport tourists' nostalgia on their attitude or behavior can be more complex than in other settings. Thus, this study explored how sport tourists' nostalgia toward a sporting event shapes their intentions to engage in related activities when their attitude toward the event functions as a mediator. To this end, data gathered from U.S. sport tourists to college football games were analyzed using a multilevel approach. Results showed that the relationship between nostalgia and intentions concerning college football was fully mediated by attitude toward college football at both individual and group levels. Such findings provide evidence for the positive link between nostalgia and intentions in a sport tourism context as well as for the applicability of the Nostalgia Scale for Sport Tourism.