1. Introduction
After the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China entered a new stage where the government began promoting national fitness [
1], the sports industry [
2], and city tourism [
3], simultaneously. Since 2014, the Chinese government has successively enacted more than 18 policies to include the sports industry as a part of the efforts of transforming and upgrading the national economy. In 2016, the State Council of China released an outline for “Healthy China 2030,” an initiative to promote health among all citizens [
4]. Meanwhile, since 2018, the Chinese government has proposed strategies for promoting three major regions: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, Yangtze River Economic Belt, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The core idea is to stimulate urban agglomeration in order to drive overall development in each region. This goal has pushed China’s urban marketing strategy toward accelerated and fierce competition.
In the context of these social initiatives, China has seen an explosive increase in marathon events in recent years. These events promote urban marketing, facilitate growth in the sports industry, and encourage healthy activity. According to data from the China Athletics Association (CAA), the number of marathon events in China increased from 51 events in 2014 to 1828 events in 2019, during which time 89% of the municipal cities in China hosted at least one event [
5]. Although marathons have become the largest single sporting events in China, a problematic trend has developed: event organizers tend to focus more on winning bids to host an event instead of improving event service and, in turn, increasing the loyalty of runners to the event and the host city.
Scholars have explored event loyalty among participants [
6,
7]. However, from the perspective of city marketing, loyalty to the host city is more important than event loyalty. Investigating host city loyalty among marathon participants can help cities implement the concept of “hosting events to promote urban development,” also known as “one event, one city” [
8]. Maintaining consistency with previous studies, the term “destination loyalty” (DLOY) was used to refer to host city loyalty among marathon runners. DLOY refers to the intention to revisit a destination and the willingness to recommend it to others. It represents an emotional bond between tourists and a host city during a sporting event [
9]. Because it can provide useful and reliable information about a destination, favorable word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations constitute a form of marketing that attracts potential tourists [
10].
Due to the significance of DLOY, many scholars have investigated its antecedents. Previous findings from tourism studies indicate that service quality positively influences DLOY directly and indirectly. According to Hallak et al. [
11], perceived quality predicted DLOY. Other scholars have found that destination image (DI) [
12] and satisfaction (SAT) [
13] mediated the relationship between event service quality (ESQ) and DLOY. In the field of sport tourism, Jeong et al. [
14] proposed that ESQ leads to behavioral intention and argued that destination marketers should strengthen ESQ in order to encourage sport tourists to revisit the host city. Likewise, if marathon runners enjoy high ESQ, they are more likely to come back to the host city and spread positive WOM to associates. Kaplanidou et al. [
15] investigated marathon participants via an online survey to explore the association between DI and DLOY and found that DI predicted behavioral intention and WOM of active sport tourists. Moreover, SAT plays a pivotal role in the improvement of DLOY [
16,
17,
18,
19].
However, previous studies have three primary limitations. First, scholars have paid more attention to marathon events held in first- and second-tier cities, such as the Flora London Marathon [
20] and Shanghai International Marathon [
7,
21]. However, the main force of rapid growth in China’s marathon events continues to be in third- and fourth-tier cities. Therefore, the HengQin Marathon (HQ-M) held in Zhuhai was focused on.
Second, when addressing DLOY, scholars have not distinguished between new runners and repeat runners. It is proposed that a sample of repeat runners would increase the validity of these findings because repeat runners are more likely to have higher loyalty to events than new runners, who are more likely to abandon running due to various factors [
22]. Meanwhile, based on previous findings, retaining regular customers is more cost-effective than soliciting new customers [
23]. In the case of marathon events, repeat runners are retained customers. Therefore, the antecedent factors and the mechanism behind the formation of host city loyalty among repeat runners were explored.
Finally, although many scholars have explored the relationship between ESQ and DLOY, few have explored the pathway from ESQ to DLOY. Previous findings show that DI and SAT might each play an important role in this relationship, but no previous findings confirm that they might interact. To fill this gap, an integrated model including ESQ, DI, SAT, and DLOY was constructed.
Findings in this study make academic and practical contributions. DLOY was examined via ESQ, DI, and SAT, simultaneously, to expand the research areas of sport and city marketing and to identify a mediating mechanism between ESQ and DLOY. These findings should also help local authorities and event organizers facilitate the formation of DLOY by highlighting significant predictors of DLOY and pointing out strategies for destination brand sustainability.
3. Methods
3.1. Research Site
HengQin (HQ) is an island in South China with an area of only 106.46 square kilometers and about 4000 residents. Due to its natural geographical advantage of being adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, HQ plays an important role in connecting Hong Kong, Macao, and the mainland. Because this position promotes common prosperity and development, the Chinese government approved the establishment of HQ New Area in 2009, and in March 2019, the State Council of China issued a policy to accelerate, on HQ, the construction of a modern industrial system driven by leisure tourism, including a world leisure tourism center. HQ’s tourism has entered a golden period. In 2018, Macao’s inbound tourists exceeded 35 million, and the total number of HQ tourists exceeded 15 million.
As an important supply component of tourism destinations, marathon events attract runners and their companions as active sport participants and tourists, respectively. Meanwhile, “smaller recurring sport events, such as local marathons might produce more sustainable economic impact on host communities [
25]”. In 2018, HQ began using marathons to generate investment and tourism for the city, and in 2019, HQ-M happened for the second year running. As event organizers and destination marketers expected, HQ and HQ-M share a spirit of challenge and continual development. As a national pilot Free Trade Zone, HQ is likely to continue down the path of growth by hosting marathons.
HQ-M is the only professional marathon event in Zhuhai certified by CAA. It welcomes 16,000 runners: 4000 participants for the full marathon, 6000 for the half marathon, and 6000 for the mini-marathon. Regarding event scale, HQ-M is medium to large, relative to marathon events in China. HQ-M has many unique characteristics, including when the event takes place, its cultural focus, its full use of Chinese and Western holidays, and the inclusion of festival activities. To a large extent, HQ differs from other city marathon events in China.
3.2. Data Collection Procedure
Data were collected for the current study from repeat participants in the 2019 HQ-M in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province. Face-to-face interviews and questionnaire-based surveys were conducted on 29 December 2019 with the help of the Organization Committee. The convenience sample in this study included 400 HQ-M participants staying at hotels in the host city or nearby cities for at least one night. Eight questionnaires were eliminated due to incompletion, and the final sample size was 392.
3.3. Measures
A seven-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) was adopted to measure the five perspectives of marathon participants: (a) ESQ, (b) DI, (c) SAT, (d) DLOY, and (e) demographic background. Event service quality was assessed by using 9 items (3 items addressed information quality, 3 interaction quality, and 3 facility quality). These items were adapted from Theodorakis et al.’s study [
26] and Huang et al.’s study [
25]. Destination image was assessed by using 3 items derived from Chen and Phou [
39]. Satisfaction was assessed by using 3 items adapted from Albaity and Melhem’s study [
54]. Destination loyalty was assessed using 3 items from Loureiro and Miranda [
77].
3.4. Data Analysis
Data analysis included four stages. First, a descriptive analysis of the questionnaires was conducted to identify the demographic characteristics of the participants and general information about the items in each construct. Second, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to test how well the measured variables represented the constructs and to ensure goodness-of-fit for the measurement model. Third, the relationships among ESQ, DI, SAT, and DLOY were examined by using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS 24.0. Finally, mediation effects were tested.
5. Discussion and Conclusions
The aim of the current study, based on previous discussions and investigations of the inter-relationships among ESQ, DI, SAT, and DLOY, explored the causes of DLOY among repeat participants in a city marathon event. The findings extend a common understanding of the relationship between sport event marketing and city marketing in four ways. First, repeat runners and first-time participants were distinguished and focused on the former in the 2019 HQ-M, for active sport tourists are to some extent different from passive sports tourists in attitude and behavior [
15]. Using an exclusive sample of repeat runners, how the constructs of ESQ, DI, and SAT might predict DLOY behavior was investigated. While some scholars, such as Jeong et al. [
14], have collected data from spectators and runners at city marathons to examine the relationship between event quality and DLOY, none have examined the determinants of DLOY among repeat participants in the context of sport event marketing and city marketing. Second, instead of measuring the separate effects of ESQ, DI, or SAT on DLOY and ignoring the mediating effects of DI and SAT [
10,
81], an integrated structural model was tested including all four constructs, producing new findings for sport event marketing and city brand sustainability. Third, ESQ was found to play an essential role in achieving DLOY among marathon runners. Based on the total effect coefficient, ESQ appeared to have the most important effect on DLOY. Additionally, four paths emerged from ESQ to DLOY: direct, mediated by DI, mediated by SAT, and mediated serially by DI and SAT. These results suggest ESQ is crucial to take into account when assessing event participant DLOY, as previous scholars have found [
14,
15,
56]. Fourth, the findings highlight the mediation effect and dual mediation effect (i.e., serial mediation of DI and SAT between ESQ and DLOY). In particular, DI had a greater mediation effect than SAT. According to the push–pull theory, DI is the external push force, and SAT the internal pull force, which leads to the choice of destination and DLOY. This idea implies that DI and SAT are worthy of more attention, even though ESQ plays a key role in predicting DLOY. Active sport tourists (e.g., marathon runners) primarily differ from general tourists because the DLOY of the former relates to the sporting event [
9]. Timely and sufficient information and service from the organizer will affect registration and event participation, revisit intention, WOM recommendation, and willingness to encourage friends and relatives to visit the host city.
As city marathons face fierce competition and greater challenges, knowing why runners participate in city marathons and what drives their loyalty to the host city is essential. Findings in this study confirm that high ESQ, favorable DI, and high SAT enhanced DLOY separately and simultaneously. The findings have important implications for strategic destination management and can help city managers design and implement marketing programs to improve ESQ, DI, and SAT. First, ESQ is a key factor for event and destination managers to consider because it is a direct antecedent of DI and SAT and influences DLOY. Event marketers and destination managers must strive to improve ESQ if they want to compete successfully in the city marathon market, strengthen revisit intention, and increase WOM recommendation. Given the three dimensions of ESQ, city marketers and event organizers need to understand what event participants need in terms of INF, INT, and FAC and then prioritize those needs when organizing events. When planning marathon events, organizers should pay attention to information service quality. Runners often want to search for event and destination information using mobile apps, check the record after running and training, and send photos via social media. Marketers need to understand these information habits and provide high-quality and timely event publicity on the internet and social media. Regarding facilities at a marathon event, repeat participants most desire shuttle buses, parking lots, water and aid stations, and convenient facility layout. Improving ESQ can enhance DI, SAT, and, eventually, DLOY. Although simultaneously controlling all of the elements that contribute to ESQ is difficult, managing some of them (e.g., advertising, event information offices, routine planning, shuttle buses, volunteers, websites, public relations, and tour agents) is feasible. Furthermore, DI is an important factor in marketing a sporting event and the host city. DI might have an even greater positive effect on DLOY than SAT. Therefore, city marketers and event organizers should improve the four aspects of DI: atmosphere, natural environment, entertainment, and exoticness of the host city. They should also develop the unique attributes of an event and the destination to attract participants and build a sound brand. Doing so is crucial for the host city to gain a competitive advantage in an increasingly challenging market. Moreover, event and destination marketers should pay more attention to SAT. SAT was found to be positively related to DLOY, implying that higher SAT might lead to higher loyalty to the host city. High ESQ is likely to increase SAT, and poor ESQ likely to leave tourists dissatisfied. In order to retain marathon runners, managers and marketers need not only to improve ESQ but also to provide local food, public transportation, souvenirs, and accommodations in order to strengthen the host city’s image and loyalty.
The current study also has some limitations. First, the marathon industry is soaring high in China; however, most of the marathon events have a short history. HQ-M has happened only twice. The relationships among ESQ, DI, SAT, and DLOY might depend on the amount of time a marathon has been around. In the future, scholars should compare marathons with different length histories, as well as different sporting events, to confirm the interrelationships among these variables. Second, scholars should explore the predictive validity of the scale used to assess ESQ of recurring sporting events, DI, SAT, and loyalty to the host city.