Steven Cobb
Douglas J. Olberding

This paper provides empirical support for the Alchian and Allen “shipping the good apples out” hypothesis. The hypothesis version tested here involves estimating the effect of travel cost on the quality of a weekend trip to Cincinnati, where travel cost is measured by time spent in travel and visit quality is measured by the amount of discretionary spending associated with the trip. Using linear regression analysis on data from race participants in the 2008 Flying Pig marathon and half marathon races, strong and robust evidence is found to support the validity of this hypothesis....Read more

Jeeyoon Kim
Joon Ho Kang
Yu-Kyoum Kim

Mega sport events are believed to positively and significantly impact the host country’s destination image (from the tourism perspective) and country image (from the international marketing perspective). Focusing on the short-haul market, this study questioned the prevailing “optimism” and empirically examined the impact of hosting a mega sport event on the destination image and country image through a pre-post study design. The results presented a mixed (i.e., both positive and negative) impact on the two images, and patterns of image change varied according to sport involvement, media...Read more

Girish Prayag
Elsa Grivel

The present study is aimed at segmenting participants’ motivation for attending the Interamnia World Cup (IWC) in 2012 and identifying whether motivational profiles differ by demographics and post-consumption behaviors. The IWC is an annual event hosted by the city of Teramo-Italy and is aimed at young participants interested in the sport of handball. Based on a sample of international sport tourists (n = 242), the study uncovers four clusters of participants (Indifferent, Enthusiast, Socializer, and Competitive). The results confirm that the youth segment of sport tourists is not...Read more

Sung Keun (SK) Koo
Kevin K. Byon
Thomas A. Baker

While mega events substantially contribute to a hosting community’s economy and marketing appeal, small-scale events might result in more positive effects because they operate within an existing infrastructure, require a smaller budget, create a more manageable level of crowd congestion, and have high-impact regional effects on the community. Despite the positive effects and prevalence of small-scale events, few have examined their conceptual development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the hierarchical relationship among event image, satisfaction, and behavioral intention (i....Read more

Xiaoyan Xing
Laurence Chalip
B. Christine Green

The social experience that attendees obtain at a sport event has been shown to play a vital role in their overall evaluation of an event and the likelihood that they will return in the future. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that determine the amount of spending to support social experiences at an event. Spending to support social experience includes nonessential spending to eat in restaurants, drink alcoholic beverages, shop, and take tours. These categories of spending (as a percent of total spendig) at an event are expected to derive from attendees’ identification with...Read more