Filipe JA and Palrao T* |
Corresponding Author: Palrao T, ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute, Portugal |
Revised: 21 September 2020; |
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This work aims to study the recreational sport tourism
events and the experience satisfaction level of participants in this type of
events in Portugal. This kind of research has been scarce until today. After a
thorough theoretical revision of these themes and particularly based on Getz
(1998), Gibson (1998), Gammon & Robinson (2003), Weed & Bull (2004),
Aspas (2000) and Nogawa, Yamguchi & Hagi (1996), a scale was developed to
measure the experience of a recreational tourist event. Considering that, some
of these events in Portugal were studied and, in a second phase, in-depth
interviews with the managers of these events were conducted in order to define
the variables that constitute the constructs "Activity",
"People" and "Place" (based on Weed & Bull's theoretical
model [2004]), being complemented with participant surveys in order to classify
them. This study was the basis for the construction of a model identifying the
interaction of the determinant variables in the experience of recreational
tourism events from the perspective of the participant. This study allowed us
to show that, from the three constructs, "Place" has a greater
explanatory weight in the perception of the experience than the other two
constructs "Activity" and "People". The results obtained
revealed that the perception of the experience of a sports event does not
change either with the type of event or with the type of participant. The
experience of such an event varies according to the participant's assessment of
the event’s experience. It is clear that the "Activity" has a greater
number of variables considered more significant for a positive experience than
the other two constructs, being followed then by "Place" and finally
by "People". Qualitative data were submitted to frequent statistical
techniques in social sciences and may provide valid contributions for further
analysis of the same nature. This study allowed us to show that, from the three
constructs, "Place" has a greater explanatory weight in the
perception of the experience than the other two constructs "Activity"
and "People". Therefore, due to the importance of “place” construct,
Portugal presents privileged conditions for this kind of tourism.
Keywords: Sports tourism,
Recreational sports events, Participants, Experience, Activity, Place, People.