Destination Image, Sport Event Image, and Intention to Recommend–Model Inventory

Abstract

The Destination Image, Sport Event Image, and Intention to Recommend–Model (Hautbois, Liu, & Djaballah, 2023) is a specialized psychometric inventory developed to measure critical consumer perceptions related to major athletic competitions. Specifically, it assesses sports spectators’ perceptions of the Host-City Image (a form of Destination Image), the quality of the Sport Event Image, their resulting Event Satisfaction, and their subsequent likelihood of providing a positive Intention to Recommend attendance at major, mega-sporting events.

The instrument was developed to provide organizing committees with a framework for understanding how leveraging a positive destination image can influence event perception and consumer advocacy. Scale construction began with 36 initial items, many of which were adapted from established tourism and marketing research (e.g., Echnter & Ritchie, 1993; Hallmann & Breuer, 2010). Following expert review and rigorous statistical testing, the final refined measure was administered to adult stadium spectators attending an event in France, with questionnaires available in both French and English. The subsequent academic study reported detailed findings regarding the measurement model’s factor structure, reliability, and validity.

Keywords

Sport Event Image, Consumer Intentions, Intention to Recommend Sporting Event, Destination Image, Host City Image, Consumer Attitudes, Tourism, Mega-Sporting Events, Event Satisfaction, Measurement Model.

Authors

Hautbois, Christopher, Liu, Dongfeng, Djaballah, Mathieu

Purpose

The primary purpose of this psychometric measurement model is to quantitatively assess the interplay between various perceptual factors that drive consumer behavior in the context of major sporting events. It specifically targets four core dimensions: the image spectators hold of the host city, their perception of the sporting event itself, the level of satisfaction derived from the overall experience, and the resultant likelihood of recommending the event to others.

This inventory provides event organizers and tourism boards with a structured, validated tool to evaluate the success and lasting legacy potential of hosting large-scale athletic competitions by focusing on the consumer’s subjective experience and willingness to engage in positive word-of-mouth promotion.

Construct

The Destination Image, Sport Event Image, and Intention to Recommend–Model is designed to capture four distinct, yet interrelated, psychological constructs critical to sports tourism marketing:

• Destination Image: This construct relates to the overall perception of the host city, encompassing affective elements (e.g., city atmosphere) and cognitive elements (e.g., tourism infrastructure and attractions).

• Sport Event Image: This refers to the perceived quality and atmosphere associated specifically with the sporting competition itself, separate from the host city’s general appeal.

• Tourist Satisfaction: This measures the overall contentment derived by the spectator from their experience at the event and within the host destination.

• Event Recommendation: This assesses the spectator’s behavioral intention, specifically their likelihood of recommending the event to friends, family, or colleagues, which is a key indicator of consumer loyalty and advocacy.

Validity

The validity of the measurement model was rigorously established through several statistical methods.

Construct Validity: Construct validity was confirmed based on the findings of factor analysis, ensuring that the items accurately represented the underlying theoretical constructs.

Convergent Validity: Strong convergent validity was demonstrated, as all model constructs surpassed the required threshold values for both Construct Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE). Specifically, CR values exceeded 0.70 and AVE values surpassed 0.50, indicating that the items within each construct converged strongly.

Discriminant Validity: Discriminant validity was assessed using the criterion suggested by Fornell & Larcker (1981), which requires that the squared correlation between any two constructs must be lower than the AVE value for each respective construct. Although the highest correlation was observed between event image and event recommendation (0.831), all squared correlations within the model were smaller than the corresponding AVE values, confirming that the discriminant validity of the measurement model was satisfactory.

Reliability

The reliability of the scale was assessed by measuring the internal consistency of the items within each construct.

Internal Consistency: High internal consistency was confirmed through the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha values. These values were computed for every construct and were consistently found to be greater than 0.7, which is the standard threshold for good reliability in social science research, indicating homogeneity among the variables.

Factor Analysis

Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques were employed in the development and validation of the scale structure.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA): EFA, utilizing principal component factor analysis, was conducted to identify the underlying factors of both destination and event image. Following the removal of poorly performing items, the 19 remaining items assessing destination image loaded distinctly onto five factors with eigenvalues greater than 1, collectively explaining 65.023% of the variance. For the event image construct, nine items were retained, loading onto two coherent factors.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): CFA was performed to evaluate the fit of the final measurement model. Initial results required modification after factor loadings for pricing and one item for tourist satisfaction were deemed too low (below 0.6) and subsequently removed. The model was re-estimated following these removals, resulting in significant improvement in model fit statistics (𝜒² = 113.354, df = 38, p < 0.01, 𝜒²/df = 2.983, NFI = 0.943, CFI = 0.960, and RMSEA = 0.078), demonstrating a relatively good fit to the empirical data.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: Questionnaires were presented to the respondents, and they were asked to rate how much they agreed with each item on the scale.

Language Available: French; English

Population Group: Human; Male; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older); Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs); Thirties (30-39 yrs); Middle Age (40-64 yrs)

Population Details: Location: France; Respondents: Sports Spectators

Test Methodology: Test Validity; Construct Validity; Convergent Validity; Discriminant Validity; Test Reliability; Internal Consistency; Factor Analysis; Confirmatory Factor Analysis; Exploratory Factor Analysis; Principal Component Analysis; Measurement Model

Number of Items: This final measure comprises 30 items.

Keywords

Destination Image, Sport Event Image, Consumer Intentions, Tourism Marketing, Psychometrics, Scale Development, Host City Image.

Authors

Christopher Hautbois

• Affiliation: Université Paris-Saclay, CIAMS

• Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

• Affiliation Email addresses: No data is Available

Dongfeng Liu

• Affiliation: Shanghai University of Sport, School of Economics and Management

• Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

• Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected]

• Correspondence Address: Shanghai University of Sport, School of Economics and Management, Shanghai, China, 200438, [email protected]

Mathieu Djaballah

• Affiliation: Université Paris-Saclay, CIAMS

• Author ORCID Identifier: No data is Available

• Affiliation Email addresses: No data is Available

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Corresponding Author

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

Reference’s

Hautbois, C., Liu, D., & Djaballah, M. (2023). The influence of medium-scale host cities’ image on mega-sporting events: The UEFA Euro 2016. Event Management, 27(1), 91–106. https://doi.org/10.3727/152599522X16419948694973

Items of the Destination Image, Sport Event Image, and Intention to Recommend–Model Inventory

Dimensions:

• Destination Image:

  • Affective city image

  • Tourism atmosphere

  • Tourism infrastructure

  • Tourism attractions

• Event Image:

  • Event atmosphere

  • Event quality

• Tourist Satisfaction

• Event recommendation