Jie Ni, Xu Zhang
Sport events are increasingly used to promote cultural heritage destinations, yet the mechanisms linking event image with tourist loyalty remain insufficiently understood. This field-based cross-sectional survey examined the associations among sport-event image, embodied experience, place attachment, and tourist loyalty. A structured Chinese-language questionnaire was administered to tourists attending a heritage-themed sport event. After data screening, 386 valid responses were retained from 412 collected questionnaires (valid-response rate among returned questionnaires, 93.7%). Each construct was measured using five reflective Likert-scale items. Partial least squares structural equation modeling showed positive associations between event image and embodied experience (β = 0.470, t = 10.82, p < 0.001, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.383-0.551), embodied experience and place attachment (β = 0.507, t = 11.36, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.421-0.589), and place attachment and tourist loyalty (β = 0.524, t = 10.74, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.430-0.611). The direct association between event image and tourist loyalty was weak and not statistically significant (β = 0.100, t = 1.88, p = 0.060, 95% CI = -0.004 to 0.203), whereas the sequential indirect association through embodied experience and place attachment was significant (β = 0.125, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.074-0.184). Because the data were cross-sectional, these estimates represent statistical associations rather than temporal causation. These findings are consistent with a sequential association in which a favorable sport-event image is linked to greater tourist loyalty through embodied experience and place attachment in a cultural heritage tourism context.