Date of Award
8-2014
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Legacy Department
Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management
Committee Chair/Advisor
William Norman
Committee Member
Gregory Ramshaw
Committee Member
Dorothy Schmalz
Committee Member
Skye Arthur-Banning
Committee Member
DeWayne Moore
Abstract
Nostalgia is best described as a sentimental and bittersweet yearning for a positive and pleasant past, particularly when juxtaposed with an unsatisfying present and uncertain future. One's positive memories surely influence the evocation of nostalgia, and an individual's negative feelings for the present or future are also related to nostalgia, since a person cannot return to the past. In other words, both positive and negative feelings are associated with nostalgia, and it is called a bittersweet emotion. In many cases, people are influenced by their past memories when they decide to attend sports events. As a result, individuals have their own attitudes based on their past memories, and it may affect individual's behavioral intentions. The NCAA football game is one of the most popular and historic sporting events in United States. According to U. S. Census Bureau (n.d.), the NCAA College football drew the second largest number of spectators in the United States from 1990 to 2010. The population of this study is people who attended Clemson football games. Specifically, this study surveyed participants who have had a positive past experience at the Clemson football home games, and a systematic sampling technique was used for gathering the data. The goal of this study was to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework of nostalgia in the context of sport tourism and to provide a valid and reliable nostalgia scale for sport tourism (NSST) based on a suggested classification of nostalgia in sport tourism. Another aim of this study was to verify the developed nostalgia scale for sport tourism by testing the relationship among nostalgia (independent variable), attitude (mediating variable), and behavioral intentions (dependent variable). To clarify the group effects, this study uses multilevel structural equation modeling. The results of this study indicated that attitude mediates the relationship between nostalgia and behavioral intentions in multilevel structural equation model. In addition, this study discusses how nostalgia plays a role in sport tourism and suggests the direction for sustainable development of nostalgia sport tourism.
Recommended Citation
Cho, Heetae, "Development and Application of a Nostalgia Scale for Sport Tourism: A Multilevel Approach" (2014). All Dissertations. 1286.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/1286