THE ROLE OF PLACE ATTACHMENT AND SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN TAILGATING

Abstract

Tailgating is a specialized form of tourism that surrounds most major sporting events. These major sporting events have been studied countlessly to try to understand the behavior of the consumers that attend them, but none of these studies have looked at the specific aspect of tailgating. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect that place attachment has on tailgaters. Place attachment is defined as the bonding that occurs between individuals and their meaningful environments – in this case outside of a university stadium (Giuliani, 2003 and Low and Altman, 1992). Data was collected during the fall of 2016 at all ECU home football games through the collection of email addresses. An email link to an online questionnaire was then sent to those agreeing to participate in the survey once the season was completed. The survey was sent a total of four times and the results were gathered and analyzed through Qualtrics. After the responses were analyzed it was determined that overall the respondents reported a complete sense of community score showing that East Carolina University tailgates gave them the highest levels of membership, influence, reinforcement of needs, and shared emotional connection possible.