Abstract
PURPOSE In this globalizing world, sporting events play an important role in improving the attractiveness and competitiveness of a city. Cleveland’s continuously increasing sports offering is making the city an appealing travel destination to wider groups of tourists. Brand personality theory provides the theoretical support for the present study. The purpose of the study is to test the brand personality framework in the context of sports tourism, explore the brand personality of Cleveland as a sports destination, and apply the theory into destination marketing. METHOD A mixed method of focus group interview (N=16) and survey (N=96, data were collected through Amazon Mechanical Turk) were conducted. Ten brand personality traits of sports destination Cleveland were generated from the focus group. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to analyze the relationship between interest in Cleveland attractions and intention to visit Cleveland regarding the attractiveness of Cleveland’s sporting events (H1), the attractiveness of Cleveland sporting events (Questionnaire Section B) and intention to visit Cleveland (H2), and Cleveland destination personality and intention to visit Cleveland (H3). RESULT leveland’s brand personality traits were identified such as athletic, passionate, exciting, friendly, and hardworking. The results of the multiple linear regression showed that there is relationship between attraction and visit intention to Cleveland. As found in previous studies, sporting events enhance tourism industry’s performance. CONCLUSION This paper examined a city’s brand personality as a sport destination and found how they can predict sport tourists’ perception of the city and their intention to visit.
Published Version
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