Affective engagement as a contextual dimension for predicting intentions to revisit and recommend events : a multinational comparison

Within the current experience economy, the emotive and affective dimensions of event visitors' engagement are becoming increasingly important. This study uses the well-established Event Experience Scale (EES) developed by the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research (ATLAS) event experience project, to explore attendees' affective engagement in a multinational context and across various types of events (N = 852). The associations between visitors' affective engagement in event experiences and their propensity to visit the destination and recommend the event to others are also explored and verified. The results highlight the importance of affective engagement in shaping attendees' future behavioural intentions. Excitement was the most powerful predictor of intentions to recommend and revisit an event. The results also indicate the heterogeneity of perceptions of the different dimensions of affective engagement at different types of events. We suggest new possibilities for event organisers to plan and design different types of events that will generate higher levels of affective engagement and increase loyalty.