Sustaining Sporting Destinations through Improving Tourists’ Mental and Physical Health in the Tourism Environment: The Case of Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore structural relationships between emotional experiences, novelty seeking, tourist satisfaction, and destination loyalty in the context of active sport tourism. The study emphasizes the mediating effect tourist satisfaction has on the relationship between emotional experiences and destination loyalty. The validities and reliabilities of the measures used were examined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and correlation analysis using 230 domestic and international participants who attended a marathon race as amateur athletes. Structural equation modeling analysis with maximum likelihood estimation was conducted to investigate relationships between study variables. Findings disclosed the positive impacts of (a) emotional experiences on tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty, (b) novelty seeking on tourist satisfaction, and (c) tourist satisfaction on destination loyalty, and demonstrated that (d) tourist satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between emotional experiences and destination loyalty. Based on its results, this study (a) indicates that emotional experiences play key roles in predicting tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty, (b) provides an example of the merits of the Destination Emotion Scale (DES) in a sport tourism setting, (c) implies that both emotional experiences and novelty seeking should be incorporated into tourist behavior models, and (d) contributes to tourism studies by exploring the mediating effect of tourist satisfaction on the relation between emotional experiences and destination loyalty. Thus, destination managers should manage gorgeous natural views and beautiful cityscapes, and organize various fun events, such as prize and ticket giveaway events, music performances, and charity campaigns for tourists during events.