Moderating effects of affective image on relationship between novelty-seeking and behavioural intentions of runners

Abstract

Sport tourism research shows that most tourists who are runners are highly motivated to seek novelty. This inclination towards novelty-seeking causes runners to be less likely to revisit the same event and location on a regular basis. To improve the market sustainability of recurring running events, the negative effect of novelty-seeking should be minimised. This study examined the moderating role of the affective image of a destination to alleviate the effects of novelty-seeking on repetitive participation intentions via online surveys of amateur runners (n=206) who have participated in a running event within the past five years in Korea. Moderated hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the proposed hypotheses. Results indicated that the negative influence of destination novelty-seeking on re-participation intention is not moderated by affective image of destination. Yet, the moderating function of affective image was established in the relationship between event novelty-seeking and re-participation intention. Implications for enhancing destination loyalty and future research are discussed.

Keywords: Affective image; Destination novelty-seeking; Event novelty-seeking; Recurring running events; Repetitive participation.