THE EFFECT OF SPORT TOURISTS' TRAVEL STYLE, DESTINATION AND EVENT CHOICES, AND MOTIVATION ON THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN SMALL-SCALE SPORTS EVENTS

This exploratory study investigates whether and in which way motivation and destination, travel, and event selection criteria influence sport tourists' involvement in small-scale events. Thus, a model was developed and tested at a small-scale sport event in Sfendami, Greece. To test the six hypotheses of the proposed model a primary research study was conducted, which received responses from 181 participants. Implementation of the partial least square technique showed that changes in sport tourists' travel style exert a direct and positive effect on involvement, as well as an indirect effect with motivation acting as a mediator; however, perception of destination and events characteristics does not exert a significant influence on participants' involvement. Additionally, the model's ability to predict the motivational aspects of sport tourists' participation was demonstrated. Multidimensional scaling was employed to assist with event service design and improve organizers' capabilities to develop effective promotional strategies.