The role of socio-psychological and culture-education motives in marketing international sport tourism: A cross-cultural perspective

Abstract

This study empirically investigated the motives of sport tourists who traveled internationally to participate in a hallmark Australian running event, the 2005 Gold Coast Airport Marathon. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that involvement and strength of motivation contributed to socio-psychological motivation while cultural experience and knowledge learning contributed to cultural-education motivation. Cultural experience was further explored through a consumer acculturation framework that led to development of the Cultural Learning Inventory (CLI). Analysis revealed that international participants desired to experience and learn nine specific aspects of the foreign destination's culture: transportation, housing, arts, language, food, media, currency, leisure activities and indigenous population. Hofstede's [(1980). Culture's consequences: International differences in work related values. Newbury Park, CA: Sage] cultural clusters were subsequently used to segment participants and MANOVA results revealed that while respondents did not differ on socio-psychological motives, respondents from cultural backgrounds dissimilar to Australian culture were more likely to agree that experiencing Australian culture and learning new information was appealing. These results indicate the duality of international marketing efforts for hallmark sport events. Convergent marketing strategies should be used to target specific segments in their sport communities, while divergent cultural marketing strategies should be utilised to target potential participants with different cultural backgrounds.

Introduction

Throughout the world, one of the fastest growing tourism niche markets is sport tourism (Bull & Weed, 1999; Gratton & Taylor, 2000; Jago, Chalip, Brown, Mules, & Ali, 2003). Within this niche market, sport event tourism plays a significant role, as an increasing number of host destinations incorporate sport events into their marketing mix (Chalip & Leyns, 2002; Gratton & Taylor, 2000; Higham & Hinch, 2003). Research suggests that both large-scale and small-scale sport events can attract participants, spectators and tourists, increase media attention, and create a positive image among community residents, as well as visitors (Chalip, Green, & Hill, 2003; De Knop, 1998; Getz, 1998; Gibson, Willming, & Holdnak, 2003; Hall, 1992; Kim & Petrick, 2005). Hence, in order to assist in marketing efforts, it is important for sport and tourism managers to understand what motivates individuals to attend sport events and the types of experiences desired (e.g., Gibson, Attle, & Yiannakis, 1998; Mohsin, 2005).

Prior research illustrates the opportunities and challenges faced by sport tourism academics and managers in understanding the complexity of motivation. Current theorizing suggests that sport-based tourist attractions have economic, social, and political advantages over other cultural attractions (Hinch & Higham, 2005; Nogawa, Yamaguchi, & Yumiko, 1996). However, what motivates the sport tourist differs in terms of the type of sport attraction and experience desired (Gibson, 1998a). In addition, the relative contribution that sport versus tourism has on motivation and behavior, or whether they are synergistic remains a topic of discussion (Weed, 2005).

Sport tourism broadly defined is “leisure-based travel that takes individuals temporarily outside their home communities to participate in physical activities, to watch physical activities, or to venerate attractions associated with physical activities” (Gibson, 1998b, p. 49). This perspective partitions sport tourism into three categories based upon distinct behaviors: (a) active sport tourism, (b) event sport tourism, and (c) nostalgic sport tourism. However, recent work by Gibson et al. (2003), on college sport fans suggests that these categories may not be mutually exclusive, and efforts should concentrate upon examining motivation related to multiple categories. The focus of the current study is to examine the motives of individuals who traveled internationally to participate in a hallmark Australian running event, the 2005 Gold Coast Airport Marathon (GCAM). The unique context of the GCAM provides an opportunity to examine motivation for a hybrid of sport event and active sport tourism categories. To guide this investigation, an interdisciplinary approach was adopted (Gibson, 1998b; Weed, 2005) to examine the complexity of sport tourism motivation through consideration and integration of three literature streams: sport involvement, travel motivation, and consumer acculturation.

Tourism research suggests that participation in an international marathon event would be based upon travel motives (Hanquin & Lam, 1999) and taking into consideration the element of international travel, culture and learning would be important motives to direct travel decisions (Kim & Petrick, 2005; McGehee, Loker-Murphy, & Uysal, 1996; Oh, Uysal, & Weaver, 1995). However, efforts to date have not offered a framework to identify what specific aspects of a destination's culture are appealing for tourists to learn. The current study utilized a consumer acculturation framework to investigate specific aspects of the culture experience. In addition, tourism research has not examined prior sport experiences such as involvement and a desire to participate in organized events, which are likely to serve as equally important motives for international travel (Carroll & Alexandris, 1997; McGehee, Yoon, & Cardenas, 2003). Therefore, the current study examined involvement with running and strength of motivation towards running events as motives for international travel.