Examining the moderating effect of host country image on the relationship between tourists’ motivation and their intention to visit mega sporting events in India

This study uses the self-determination theory of motivation to examine the impact of tourists' motivations on their intention to attend mega sporting events held in a developing nation such as India. The present study utilized partial least square-based structural equation modeling to examine the proposed hypotheses. The data for this study were collected from a sample of 348 international visitors who visited India in January 2023 to attend the fifteenth edition of the Hockey World Cup. The results of this study have validated that the two elements of extrinsic motivation, specifically perceived benefit and perceived risk, exert a substantial influence on visitors' propensity to visit India. Similarly, the intrinsic travel motivation elements of cultural experience and self-accomplishment are found to positively influence the visit intention of international tourists seeking to partake in the Hockey World Cup in India. On the other hand, the cosmopolitanism dimension of intrinsic drive does not have a statistically significant impact on the intention of these tourists to visit India. This study additionally verified that the perception of a country strongly influences the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic motivational factors and the tourist's intention to visit India.