The impacts of Saudi Arabia’s hosting of football famous players on European football fans’ intention to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This research looks at the relationship between destination image, visitor motivation, and behavioural intentions, using Saudi Arabia as an example of an expanding tourism destination. With the Kingdom's increasing efforts to diversify its economy and promote itself as a worldwide tourism hub, understanding what motivates tourists to pick Saudi Arabia as a destination becomes critical. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study investigated how external stimuli, such as tourist motivations and destination qualities, impact interior cognitive and emotional processes, hence shaping tourists' behavioural reactions. The study used quantitative approaches, including a survey of European tourists. The primary variables investigated are cognitive and affective destination visions, intrinsic and extrinsic motives, and behavioural intents. The study investigated seven hypotheses, each focussing on a distinct element of the relationship between these variables. The findings shed light on how cognitive and emotional evaluations of a destination, together with motivating variables, influence tourists' intentions to visit, recommend, or return to a destination such as Saudi Arabia. Tourism is a major engine of economic growth, and it is an important component of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 strategy. The Kingdom has made significant investments in infrastructure, cultural preservation, and entertainment to attract international visitors. However, understanding what inspires tourists to visit Saudi Arabia is critical for developing efficient marketing techniques that appeal to potential visitors. The presence of known football celebrities in Saudi Arabia, such as players in the Saudi Pro League, has a moderate impact on tourists' trip plans. While football celebrities were not the major motivators for most tourists, their presence helped to increase Saudi Arabia's overall visibility as a destination. This study uses the S-O-R framework, a well-known paradigm in psychology and marketing, to explain how external stimuli affect human behaviour. In the tourism context, this framework aids in understanding how tourists process information about a destination (stimulus), how this information influences their cognitive and emotional responses (organism), and how these internal processes lead to behavioural outcomes such as the intention to visit a destination (response). The data were collected and analysed using a quantitative research approach. A systematic survey was distributed to 252 European tourists, with questions meant to assess their cognitive and affective assessments of Saudi Arabia, motivations for going, and behavioural intentions. The survey was divided into three sections: demographics, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, cognitive and affective destination pictures, and behavioural intention. The data was analysed with both descriptive and inferential statistics. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the correlations between variables and determine the strength of the hypotheses. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to assess the underlying structure of the components, and reliability tests were conducted to guarantee the internal consistency of the measures. This study's findings give significant empirical support for the presented hypotheses, showing numerous crucial links between goal image, motivation, and behavioural intention. The cognitive and emotive images of Saudi Arabia had a substantial impact on travellers' behavioural intentions. The cognitive image relates to tourists' knowledge and awareness of Saudi Arabia's attractions, which include cultural landmarks, natural beauty, and safety. According to the study, tourists who have a strong favourable cognitive image of the country are more inclined to plan a visit. Furthermore, the emotive image, which refers to tourists' emotional responses to the site, was discovered to have a considerable favourable impact on their propensity to visit. Tourists who connected Saudi Arabia with pleasant feelings, such as exhilaration or relaxation, were more likely to plan a visit. The study also found that intrinsic and extrinsic incentives influence tourists' cognitive and affective assessments of the place. Tourists who were driven by internal motives such as adventure, discovery, and personal improvement were more likely to form a positive mental image of Saudi Arabia. Tourists driven by extrinsic reasons, such as luxury, social standing, and recognition, were found to have a greater emotive image. These findings show that Saudi Arabia's marketing tactics should address a variety of motivational elements in order to attract a wider range of tourists. Both cognitive and emotive destination representations strongly influenced behavioural intentions. Tourists who had positive cognitive views of Saudi Arabia's attractions and infrastructure, as well as strong emotional connections to the nation, were more likely to visit, suggest, and return. This finding emphasises the need of boosting Saudi Arabia's informational and emotional appeal in its marketing campaigns. Moreover, the study discovered that cognitive image has a considerable influence on affective image, supporting the theory that tourists' awareness of a destination's characteristics shapes their emotional responses to it. This emphasises the role of cognitive and emotional processes in affecting visitor behaviour.