Leisure satisfaction of sport tourists with collegiate sporting events and related local attractions

Abstract

The purpose of the study was (1) to examine the frequency of travel of respondents on an overnight trip to participating in a sports event, (2) to  identify whether or not they participate in local attractions and the satisfaction levels of local attractions during the sport event and (3) to determine the effect of sport event tourism involvement and experience of local attractions on leisure satisfaction of participants by utilising the mean of the Leisure Satisfaction Scale (LSS) short form. A total of 108 participants (male=59; female=49) responded to an onsite survey near a stadium in a regional public four-year university located in the southwest region of the USA. Convenience sampling was utilised for the better understanding of fan tourists' experience of sports event participation, local attractions and their leisure satisfaction. The results revealed that the experience and  satisfaction of local attractions had a statistically significant difference in aesthetic leisure satisfaction  among six subscales of the LSS. The findings should be considered by practitioners in the development of strategies to attract more participants based on the results of leisure satisfaction levels through sport event tourism.

Keywords: Aesthetic satisfaction; Collegiate sports; Leisure Satisfaction Scale; Local attractions; Sport event tourism.