Sport tourist perceptions of destination image and revisit intentions: An adaption of Mehrabian-Russell's environmental psychology model

Abstract

In environmental psychology literature, an individual's perception of the surroundings leads to subsequent behaviors. In this regard, small-scale sport events (SSE) have been used as a marketing tool for tourism development. However, how SSEs are leveraged to improve destination image (DI) for tourists has not been fully understood. Building on Mehrabian-Russell's environmental psychology model, this study examined the relationship between the SSE environmental stimuli and revisit intentions through the sequential mediation of cognitive and affective DI. Data from the 423 respondents were collected from 2023 Wuxi Marathon held in Wuxi, China. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the hypothesized framework. The results indicated that the SSE environmental stimuli were positively associated with both cognitive and affective DI, which were positively correlated with revisit intentions. The applicability of the serial mediation of cognitive and affective DI within the relationship was confirmed. This study contributes to the sport and tourism literature by extending the applicability of Mehrabian and Russell's model to SSE settings and identifying the serial mediating effects of cognitive and affective DI.

Keywords: Affective destination image; Cognitive destination image; Environmental stimuli; Revisit intention; Sport tourism.

Fig. 1

Hypothesized relationships based on Mehrabian-Russell's environmental psychology model. Note. SES = SSE environmental stimuli; CDI = Cognitive destination image; ADI = Affective destination image; RI = Revisit intention. H1a = SES → CDI; H1b = SES → ADI; H2a = CDI → RI; H2b = ADI → RI; H3a = SES → CDI → RI; H3b = SES→ ADI → RI; H4 = SES → CDI → ADI → RI.