The usefulness of selected variables for predicting activity loyalty

Abstract

The concept of loyalty is receiving increased attention from recreation and park researchers. Previous investigations have shown that, in general, participants exhibit low levels of loyalty to recreation and park services, but little attention has been given to identifying variables that could be useful in predicting activity loyalty. Three measures of activity loyalty (attitudinal, behavioral, and composite) were used in this study to assess it. It was hypothesized that participants who exhibited higher levels of loyalty would be intrinsically motivated, perceive personal competency and mastery as important, report high levels of involvement, be less price‐sensitive, have accrued a substantial number of side bets, and participate in fewer other recreation activities than those exhibiting lower levels of activity loyalty. Results of the multiple regression analyses suggest that behavioral, attitudinal, and composite measures of activity loyalty capture three different dimensions of the phenomenon.