Determining The Attitudes and Participation Intentions of Tourism Faculty Students Towards Traditional Games and Sports

The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between the attitudes of tourism faculty students towards traditional Turkish sports and games, which are included in the scope of intangible cultural heritage, and their intentions to participate in these activities. The research population consists of students from the Faculty of Tourism at Balıkesir University, and the study was conducted using 255 valid questionnaires. Attitude scales towards traditional sports and games and intention-to-participate scales were used as data collection tools. The study focused on traditional Turkish archery and the traditional intelligence and strategy game Mangala, both included in the list of intangible cultural heritage. The obtained data were analyzed using normal distribution tests, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis. The findings reveal that although students have a relatively high awareness of traditional sports and games, their participation levels in these activities are quite low. According to the regression analysis results, social and cognitive attitudes towards traditional archery have a significant and positive effect on the intention to participate, while cultural attitudes did not have a significant effect. In the Mangala game, socio-cultural attitudes had a significant effect on the intention to participate, while cognitive attitudes did not.