Sport event travel intentions during times of crisis: the role of life goals, risk and emotions

ABSTRACT Sport consumers may respond to times of crisis (e.g. pandemic) in different ways depending on a number of factors related to their decision-making. When it comes to decisions related to traveling to attend or participate in sport events, some of these factors include life goals, emotions, and related risk-seeking attitudes that permeate the psychology of the consumer. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine the influence of emotions formed during a crisis, risk-seeking attitudes and relevant life goals on intentions to travel to attend or participate in sport events during times of crisis (i.e. pandemic). Survey data were collected from 412 Amazon M-Turk respondents in May 2020 using the web survey platform Qualtrics. The results revealed that positive and negative emotions, along with risk-seeking attitudes and the goals to be healthy and have a rich social life explained 41.8% of variance in intentions to travel to attend or participate in a sport event. The goal to be healthy had a significant negative influence on intentions to travel to attend or participate in sport events while the goal to have a rich social life had a significant positive influence on intentions. Positive and negative emotions and risk-seeking attitudes were also found to significantly influence intentions.