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This study contributes to the literature on memorable tourism experience in the context of a recurring franchised participatory sport event. It tests the influence of event quality factors on the dimensions of the memorable tourism experience (MTE) model and word-of-mouth communications, in a case study of the Oceanman open water swimming series. Empirical data were collected from swimmers, across 10 events in different countries, with a total sample of 878. The analysis showed that MTEs significantly predicted word-of-mouth communications, supporting our hypothesis that service quality is one of MTE antecedents. Six of the seven MTE dimensions were significantly predicted by the four service quality dimensions, with the hedonic and local culture having the highest predictions. The study has theoretical value for further modeling participants' decision-making for repeated behavior and applied value for identifying critical event attributes which should be properly planned.

Rural sport events can play an important role in the sustainable development of rural areas, and bring various benefits. The atmosphere of a rural sport event covers the character and feeling of a place and situation. The aim of this article is to assess the impact of rural sport event atmosphere on participants. Research was conducted using the IPA method (Importance–Performance Analysis). On 22 January 2022, 127 respondents assessed the atmosphere of a running sport event—before the run defining “importance”, and after the run defining “performance” (a survey questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale was used). The research covers three groups of factors: event organization (rules and safety, management and hosting, sport competition class), relationships between participants (integration, sharing passion, ability to compete), and event place (attractiveness of the area, attractiveness of the sport competition place, and the will to return to the place). For both the “importance” and “performance” scales, the examined factors received high values (from 3.80 to 4.77). The conducted research shows that atmosphere is a key element when building a rural sport event. Satisfaction with a running event has a positive impact on the perception of the event and its atmospheric components.

Amateur athletes invest a lot of effort, time, and money on participating in events such as marathons and bike races. The aim of the study is to explore whether this increases their subjective well-being (SWB). The study addresses both what contributes to SWB and the effects of SWB for participants in large-scale sport events. More than 7,000 sport event participants responded to surveys including measures of sociodemographics, participation in sport events, perceptions of quality and satisfaction of the event, behavioral intentions, and SWB. Building on theories of SWB and serious leisure, hypotheses linked to the causes and effects of SWB are explored. Results show that sociodemographics, past relational activities, and past event participation influence SWB. Furthermore, with higher SWB the sport event participants are more satisfied, perceive a higher quality, and are more likely to participate in future events. These are proposed to be effects of SWB. For sports clubs and event organizers the results help inform marketing efforts before, during, and after events. In particular, if participants with serious leisure careers are identified.

This study contributes to the literature on memorable tourism experience in the context of a recurring franchised participatory sport event. It tests the influence of event quality factors (Shonk & Chelladurai, 2008) on the dimensions of the memorable tourism experience (MTE) model and word-of-mouth communications, in a case study of the Oceanman open water swimming series. Empirical data were collected from swimmers, across ten events in different countries, with a total sample of eight hundred and seventy-eight. The analysis showed that MTEs significantly predicted word-of-mouth communications supporting our hypothesis that service quality is one of MTE antecedents. Six of the seven MTE dimensions were significantly predicted by the four service quality dimensions, with the hedonic and local culture having had the highest predictions. The study has theoretical value for further modelling participants’ decision-making for repeated behaviour and applied value for identifying critical event attributes which should be properly planned.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of emotions on sport consumers' meanings, or stored cognitive evaluations, attributed to a participatory sport event experience, and measure how these constructs directly influence event satisfaction and indirectly influence future approach behaviors. Data were collected from a sample of 231 5K and half marathon runners in the Southeastern US using a postevent online survey. Results indicated that meaning attributed to the event experience partially mediated the relationship between emotions and event satisfaction. Additionally, event satisfaction significantly influenced future approach behaviors. Finally, positive emotions (i.e., elation) had a stronger relationship with meaning attributed to the event experience than negative ones (i.e., anger, unhappiness, and worry). The findings illustrated how positive affective experiences drive consumers' cognitive processes related to the formation of meaning and satisfaction in a sport event context and contribute to positive behaviors that are vital to sport organizations.

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of emotions on sport consumers’ meanings, or stored cognitive evaluations, attributed to a participatory sport event experience, and measure how these constructs directly influence event satisfaction and indirectly influence future approach behaviors. Data were collected from a sample of 231 5k and half marathon runners in the Southeastern United States using a post-event online survey. Results indicated that meaning attributed to the event experience partially mediated the relationship between emotions and event satisfaction. Additionally, event satisfaction significantly influenced future approach behaviors. Finally, positive emotions (i.e., elation) had a stronger relationship with meaning attributed to the event experience than negative ones (i.e., anger, unhappiness, and worry). The findings illustrated how positive affective experiences drive consumers’ cognitive processes related to the formation of meaning and satisfaction in a sport event context and contribute to positive behaviors that are vital to sport organizations.

Parkrun is a weekly mass-participation event. Finishes are recorded, with the resulting database potentially containing important public health information. The aim of this study was to identify characteristics of events that overcome barriers to participation, and to identify changing patterns in the demographics of participants. GLMMs were generated of age-graded performance, gender ratio and age of participants at Scottish parkrun events. Predictor variables included age, gender, participant, runs, date, elevation gain, surface and travelling time to the next nearest venue. There was a decline in the mean performance of participants at events, yet individual performances improved. The gender ratio showed higher male participation with a narrowing gender gap. Events in the most remote parts of Scotland had lower performance and a higher proportion of female participants. Events on slower surfaces had more female participants. Parkrun events are becoming more inclusive, with more females and participants exhibiting low performance. In more remote parts of Scotland, more females participated in parkrun than males, suggesting parkrun has overcome traditional barriers to female participation in sport. Prioritising the creation of events at remote locations and on slower surfaces could increase inclusivity further. General practitioners prescribing parkrun might want to prescribe attendance at slower events for female patients.

Amateur athletes invest a lot of effort, time and money on participating in events such as marathons and bike races. The aim of the study is to explore whether this increases their subjective well-being (SWB). The study addresses both what contributes to SWB and the effects of SWB for participants in large-scale sport events. More than 7000 sport event participants responded to surveys including measures of socio-demographics, participation in sport events, perceptions of quality and satisfaction of the event, behavioral intentions and SWB. Building on theories of SWB and serious leisure, hypotheses linked to the causes and effects of SWB are explored. Results show that socio-demographics, past relational activities and past event participation influence SWB. Furthermore, with higher SWB the sport event participants are more satisfied, perceive a higher quality and are more likely to participate in future events. These are proposed to be effects of SWB. For sports clubs and event organizers the results help inform marketing efforts before, during and after events. In particular if participants with serious leisure careers are identified.

While users can interact with others online, more and more social networking services can help people to organize various offline social events, such as dinner parties and study groups, on the Internet. The hosts can invite friends or strangers to participate in their events in either manual or collaborative manner. However, such invitation manners may cost substantial time. Besides, the invitees may be uninterested or even unexpectedly contain spammers. In this paper, we aim at developing a predictive model to accurate recommend event participants. Specifically, given the host who initializes a social event, along with its event contexts, including the underlying social network, categories, and geolocations, our model will recommend a ranked list of candidate participants with the highest participation potential. We propose a feature-based matrix factorization model that optimizes pairwise errors of user rankings for training events, using six categories of features that represent the tendency of a user to attend the event. Experiments conducted on two event-based social networks Meetup and Plancast and Twitter retweet data exhibit the promising performance of our approach, together with an extensive study to analyze the factors affecting users’ event participation.

Mass-participation sports events (MPSEs) are of significant value to the fields of sports, culture, and tourism. MPSEs have witnessed a remarkable surge in popularity, which has led to a complex interplay of factors influencing participants’ overall experience, making it crucial to understand the role of embodied behaviour. However, the existing literature is deficient in terms of providing substantial evidence, particularly with regard to the growing significance of experience planning as a core aspect of event design. This research employed the Guangzhou Marathon, one of the most renowned MPSEs in China, as a case study. The objective of this research is to investigate and extend the knowledge of the embodied behaviour of MPSE tourists through the mixed method of a questionnaire survey together with interviews. Furthermore, this research aimed to explore the antecedents and consequences of the embodied experience formation process. The findings demonstrated the pivotal role of the embodied experience in shaping tourist perceptions and subsequent intentions. Specifically, this research suggested that tourist behaviour with experience and attachment influenced the perceived value and cost of participation willingness through moderating and mediating effects. The findings contribute to the existing knowledge on sports tourism and behavioural studies and provide sustainable event management strategies.