Sports and Emotions in Tourism Marketing Management: A Preliminary Study in Football in Portugal

The concept of sport related tourism has become more prominent in the last decades both as an academic field of study and an increasingly popular tourism product and as a niche tourism example. The main objective of the present research is to understand how emotions and brand love affect consumer decision making in specific tourism contexts (i.e. sports tourism), more specifically the case of professional football in Portugal. A qualitative methodology was adopted, collecting data from specialists of the phenomenon to be studied (i.e. semi-structured interviews with professionals and managers linked to sports tourism in Portugal) and consumers (i.e. adept-tourist), through a focus group. The results seem to show that the feelings of affection and love for brands in sporting contexts (i.e. football) significantly influence the purchase decision by consumers-fans in the Portuguese context, namely with regard to travel to attend competitions, visits in vacation contexts, recommendation to third parties and revisits the places previously visited. The present study is an instrument to aid strategy and marketing and sports tourism. A marketing and sports tourism strategy will therefore be central to the success of football brands in the Portuguese context. It was intended that this study is a contribution to sports tourism as well as the understanding of how emotions and brand love affect consumer decision making. The manuscript intended to analyze the views of managers/professionals and consumers.