Exploring visiting friends & relatives’ (VFRs) image fit between Indy and the Indy 500

Although sport and tourism researchers have become increasingly interested in studying the relationship between sport events and tourism destinations, yet not much research has been conducted to examine the similarities and dissimilarities between destination images and sport event images as well as their interrelationship. This study empirically explored the image fit between Indianapolis (Indy) as a leisure travel destination and the Indy 500 as a well-known sport event perceived by Indy’s visiting friends and relatives (VFRs). A cross-sectional questionnaire was designed consisting of four parts: 1) the cognitive image of Indy and the intent to revisit and recommend Indy as a leisure travel destination, 2) the cognitive image of the Indy 500 and the intent to revisit and recommend the Indy 500, 3) the affective image of Indy and the Indy 500 respectively using bipolar items, 4) information about respondents’ demographic characteristics and their previous visits to Indy and the Indy 500. A self-administered survey was conducted online via Qualtrics and collected with 548 usable data. According to the results of this study, the Indy 500’s cognitive image variables are more favorably perceived than Indy by the VFRs indicating the Indy 500 is more popular than the city itself as perceived by the VFRs. Indy’s tourism organizations should take advantage of the popularity of the Indy 500 when promoting the city to VFRs. All the top rated and the important cognitive image attributes are found to be related to Indy’s sports and events, which further highlights the importance of positioning Indy as a sport and event city in tourism marketing; innovative marketing strategies are needed to create a more successful image of “sport and event city” in the VFR market segment. One marketing implication of the findings is that tourism and event organizations and marketers should allocate more marketing resources and promotional efforts to the VFRs who have already visited Indy and the Indy 500 as these are the people who tend to be more active in recommending and promoting Indy and the Indy 500 to their friends. The method of quantifying image fit may not be fully adequate between sport events and destinations in this study, but the image fit approach should be recommended and applied as a supplemental tool in assessing the synergy of the attractiveness of both the destination and the sport event