New book chapter "Golf Tourists’ Satisfaction: Hard-Core Versus Recreational Golf Tourists"

published in

“International sports events: impacts, experiences and identities”

edited by Dr. Richard Shipway and Professor Alan Fyall (Bournemouth University)

Today this awaited book has been published. It features an article that I have co-authored with Nuno Ricardo Dias, from the Estoril Higher Institute of Hotel and Tourism Studies. The chapter was written as part of receiving an ESRC (England Social Research Council) grant under the STORMING programme to attend CAUTHE 2010 in Hobart, Australia.

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About the chapter:
Some types of tourism are centered on practicing favourite leisure activities in a different setting. One such example is golf tourism, which has established itself as a significant tourism activity in many countries, including Portugal. In order to improve the performance of the sector, golfing destinations should aim at not only increasing re-visitation rates through greater levels of loyalty, but also to generate new demand, for which word-of-mouth plays a critical role. For these two outcomes to happen, current tourists need to be highly satisfied with their experience. This chapter aims to examine the determinants of golf tourist satisfaction, with a focus on tourists visiting Lisbon. The chapter compares two types of golf tourists: the hard-core golf tourists (those who travel to Lisbon to play golf) and the recreational golf tourists (those who play golf but for whom practicing this sport is not the main reason to travel to Lisbon).

Data from the Lisbon Tourism Board’s 2010 survey profiling golf tourists in Lisbon (Portugal) was obtained and used for the purposes of the empirical study. A total of 520 questionnaires were used in the analysis, 199 from “hard-core” and 321 from “recreational” golf tourists. Pearson correlation was undertaken to identify whether there was a relationship between overall satisfaction and each of the 10 attributes of Lisbon as a golfing destination. The chi-square test was applied when the dependent variable was nominal (gender and reservation of golf course in advance), while the Mann-Whitney was used for ordinal dependent variables (age, number of nights spent in Lisbon and number of golf courses to be played at).

The main results were:

• Golf tourists in Lisbon were middle aged, predominantly male, travelled on a long holiday (over three nights), played in a reduced number of golf courses and booked golf course(s) before arriving at the destination, suggesting that playing golf in Lisbon was a planned rather than a spontaneous activity.
• When compared to hard-core golf tourists, recreational golf tourists are older and a greater proportion are females. In addition, recreationists stay longer but play in fewer golf courses, and are less likely to book the golf course in advance of the trip.
• Tourists evaluated their golfing experience in Lisbon positively. They appeared particularly pleased with the accommodation and the easy access to golf courses.
• According to the correlation coefficients, the value elements appear to play the most important role in influencing overall satisfaction (satisfaction with the price of accommodation, green fees and the cost of playing golf).
• For the hard-core golf tourists, quality aspects in the form of service quality of golf courses, ease of booking and quality of accommodation appear to be a more important influence on satisfaction, while recreational golf tourists appear to consider value as a most important influence (notably price of accommodation and cost of playing golf)
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The full contents are summarised below:

1. International sports events: toward a future research agenda
Richard Shipway and Alan Fyall

SECTION 1 - Impacts and legacies of international sports events
2. Evaluating economic impacts of international sports events
ShiNa Li and Leo Jago
3. Exploring the political and international relations dimensions of hosting sports mega events through the lens of the 2010 FIFA World CupTM in South Africa
Suzanne Dowse
4. Mega sports events and the potential to create a legacy of increased sport participation in the host country: a London 2012 Olympic promise or Olympic dream?
Kate Hughes
5. ‘No manual available’: the creation of a youth Olympic legacy - a case of Singapore 2010
Youth Olympic Donna Wong
6. The cultural legacy of the 2012 Games
Nancy Stevenson
7. Sports events: do we need to set limits?
Deborah Sadd

SECTION 2 - Consumer behaviour and the participant experience at sports events
8. Understanding the ‘event experience’ of active sports tourists: long distance endurance triathletes
Amanda Miller
9. Sailing events and the participant experience
Holly Henderson
10. Golf tourists’ satisfaction : hard-core versus recreational golf tourists
Miguel Moital and Nuno Ricardo Diaz
11. The Olympic experience from a distance: The case of the equestrian events at the 2008 Games
Katherine Dashper
12. Adventure tourism as a series of memorable events: women travellers walking experiences in New Zealand
Linda Myers and Kevin Hannam

SECTION 3 - Sports events and identities
13. Olympic tourists: seeking a sense of belonging and the construction of social identities
Naomi Kirkup
14. Encouraging active identities and lifestyles: the spatialities of youth mountain biking
Katherine King
15. Stadia, identity and belonging: stirring the sleeping giants of sports tourism
Richard Wright
16. Distance running events and the ‘third place’ Richard Shipway

Endnote - Professor Leo Jago