Sports event quality and athlete’s behavioural intentions at the World Wrestling Championship

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unpredictable times and led to changes in tourism, sporting society, and events organisations. Sports events were postponed or cancelled. Indeed, there was a need to reconstruct the event circumstances for safety reasons. Therefore, this study aimed to provide insights into relationships between sports event quality, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions (repeated destination visits, positive word-of-mouth communication) during the implementation of COVID-19 security risk measures. The sample included 150 athletes from the U23 World Wrestling Championship organised in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2021. The sport event quality, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions were measured with a questionnaire. The proposed model was assessed using a confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling using Smart PLS, SPSS, and AMOS. Results revealed a significant direct effect of the sport event quality (core dimension) and an indirect effect across satisfaction (tangibles and COVID-19 risk measures) on the athletes’ behavioural intentions. As wrestlers lived in a „bubble” and competed without spectators during the competition, it is not a surprise that the core dimension of service quality, including the competition itself, the opening ceremony, organisation, time schedule, medal ceremonies, and the total quality of the event, has a significant impact for wrestlers’ likelihood of coming back to the city or the country and to recommend the destination to others. Thisstudy contributes to advancing the general scientific knowledge concerning understanding sports events from the aspect of sports tourism and event organisation, especially in the post-COVID-19 era.