ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sport, Leisure, Tourism, and Events
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1616394
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring the Dynamics of Medium and Small Scale Sport Events: Implications for Communities and DevelopmentView all 5 articles
The Impact of Residents' Knowledge and Perception of Marine Sports Tourism Destinations on Post-COVID-19 Tourism Attitudes : The Mediating Effect of Tourism Acceptance and Moderating Effect of Place Identity
Provisionally accepted
- 1Kangnam University, Yongin, Republic of Korea
- 2Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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This study examines residents' attitudes toward marine sports tourism in the post-COVID-19 era, focusing on the mediating effect of tourism acceptance and the moderating effect of place identity. Data were collected from 231 residents who had lived in marine sports tourism destinations in South Korea for more than five years. The results revealed that residents' tourism knowledge and perceptions positively influenced their tourism attitudes. Tourism acceptance demonstrated a significant mediating effect between residents' tourism knowledge, destination perception, and tourism attitudes. Furthermore, place identity exhibited a positive moderating effect on these relationships. The findings suggest that for sustainable development of marine sports tourism destinations, it is essential to establish customized tourism development policies that consider residents' levels of tourism knowledge while emphasizing positive impacts and minimizing negative impacts. Additionally, measures to enhance residents' tourism acceptance and implement policies that consider place identity during the tourism development process are necessary. This study provides valuable insights for marine sports tourism destination managers in promoting sustainable tourism through effective communication with local residents. Future research recommendations include conducting qualitative interviews with residents, implementing pilot studies, and regularly evaluating residents' attitudes as the COVID-19 situation evolves.
Keywords: marine sports tourism, Tourism attitudes, place identity, Tourism Acceptance, COVID-19, residents' perception
Received: 22 Apr 2025; Accepted: 26 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Song and Jeong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kwon-Hyuk Jeong, pure3241@khu.ac.kr
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