Advisor

Gray, Dianna A.

Committee Member

Stotlar, David Kent, 1952-

Department

Sport Administration

Institution

University of Northern Colorado

Type of Resources

Text

Place of Publication

Greeley (Colo.)

Publisher

University of Northern Colorado

Date Created

5-1-2015

Genre

Thesis

Extent

169 pages

Digital Origin

Born digital

Description

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a Sport Tourism Motivation Scale (STMS) that detected unique active sport tourist segments according to their social psychological motives for traveling to a destination to compete in sport. Segments’ behavioral intentions, as well as their information source behaviors were also analyzed to gain a greater understanding of how underlying motives for sport event tourism influences consumers’ product commitment and marketing communication channel preferences. A convenient sampling approach was used to collect data from 380 athletes participating in the 2014 GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, CO. In developing the STMS, items derived from previously validated sport (McDonald, Milne, & Hong, 2002) and tourism motivation scales (Jang & Cai, 2002; Mohammad & Som, 2010) were used to reduce and verify a parceled STMS factor structure. Confirmatory Factor Analysis yielded acceptable psychometric properties for future researchers wishing to accurately and reliably measure motivations of active sport tourists. Further, Ward’s hierarchical cluster analysis identified four segments labeled a) Tourism-Oriented (n=160), b) Neutral (n=100), c) Sport Tourism Enthusiasts (n=54), and d) Sport-Oriented (n=66). The Sport Tourism Enthusiasts, who exhibited greater mean responses on each of the nine STMS factors, demonstrated elevated conative loyalty characteristics above those of the other three segments. Additionally, the STMS was able to explain 30% of the variation in consumers’ conative loyalty with factors, “Destination Attributes” and “Competitive Desire” being the most influential predictors. Finally, MANOVA indicated that those in the Tourism-Oriented and Sport Tourism Enthusiast groups were most likely to utilize external sources of information, such as Internet sources and Interpersonal sources. Overall, the findings derived from this research will better equip event managers with information necessary to tailor event service elements and communication strategies which may enhance customer satisfaction and lead to greater retention.

Degree type

PhD

Degree Name

Doctoral

Language

English

Local Identifiers

Hungenberg_unco_0161D_10396

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by author.

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