From check-in to checkmate: unraveling satisfaction and loyalty drivers in multi-day sport tourism

Multi-day niche sport events offer valuable opportunities for tourist destinations to mitigate seasonality and promote sustainable tourism through enhanced visitor satisfaction and loyalty. This study examines the relationships between key experience components and sports tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty, with satisfaction serving as a mediating factor within the context of a 9-day chess festival. Utilizing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) on data collected from 249 participants, the analysis revealed that while accommodation and destination attractiveness did not significantly influence satisfaction, four other factors, motivation, performance, staff quality, and venue quality, exerted a significant positive impact on both satisfaction and loyalty. The findings provide actionable insights for sport event organizers and tourist destination managers aiming to optimize the tourist experience and foster long-term engagement. A significant methodological contribution of this study is developing and validating a scale specific to chess events. Besides other implications for theory and practice are discussed, along with recommendations for future research.