THE INFLUENCE OF TOURISM COMPONENTS AND EVENT OPERATIONS ON TOURIST EXPERIENCE QUALITY: A PLS-SEM APPROACH

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the influence of tourism components (5A) and sport event operation components (EO) on tourists’ experience quality (EQ) within the context of sport tourism in Thailand. A quantitative research approach was employed using a structured questionnaire as the research instrument. The sample was obtained through purposive sampling from 400 tourists who had previously participated in various types of sport events in Thailand. The findings revealed that all latent constructs demonstrated high levels of reliability and validity, with factor loadings ranging from .79 to .93, composite reliability values between .92 and .97, and average variance extracted values between .69 and .81. The results of the structural model indicated that tourism components (5A) had a significant positive influence on experience quality (β = 0.36, p < .001), while sport event operation components (EO) exerted a stronger positive effect (β = 0.58, p < .001). In addition, perceived value and emotional engagement were found to partially mediate the relationship between structural components and tourists’ experience quality. The findings further reflected that the quality of event management plays a crucial role in shaping tourists’ experiences, particularly in terms of safety, service quality, communication, and systematic experience design, which significantly enhance perceived value, emotional engagement, and overall satisfaction. Furthermore, this study proposed a process-based model explaining the mechanism of sport tourists’ experience quality formation in a systematic manner, which can be applied as a practical guideline for developing experience-driven sport events in Thailand effectively.