Influence Of Event Image On City Image:the Case Of The 2018 Xiamen Marathon

With the development of economy,Marathon in China has been a spurt of development.The public has doubts about whether the marathon can affect the image of the city.Therefore,this paper proposes two research questions(a)What is the image of the Marathon(EI)and the image of the city(CI)?(b)Does EI have an influence on CI? If so,how does the influence occur? Compared with personal factors and stimulus factors,the influence of EI on CI is bigger or smaller? Accordingly,this study aimed to provide a better understanding of such influence focusing on the 2018 Xiamen Marathon as the case study.Data were collected by conducting a questionnaire survey and together with indepth interviews among 2018 Xiamen Marathon participants,a total of 510 valid questionnaires were collected and 15 participants were interviewed.Through factor analysis and stepwise regression analysis,this study explore the image of Xiamen Marathon,the image of Xiamen city and the relationship between the two,and draw the following conclusions:(a)EI can strongly predict CI.The cognitive event image(CEI)is the most influential factor;(b)although the event service cannot directly reflect CI,it is the core characteristic factor of EI that affects CI;(c)to shape Xiamen's "first impression" through a good marathon image,the runners who arrived in Xiamen for the first time can evaluate CI higher,thus enhancing the external communication image of Xiamen;(d)event service is the basic guarantee factor of EI.The improvement of city supporting services is conducive to the further improvement of EI,and the enhancement of event information service can effectively improve the communication degree of event,thus improving the effect of city image communication;(e)This study divides the marathon into three stages: start-up period,growth period and mature period,and proposes specific development suggestions: in the start-up period,the event service should be the key content.In the growth period,it should focus on the city's overall supporting services and pay attention to differentiated development.During the mature period,the event should be organically integrated into the city,making the event a way of presenting the city's lifestyle and attitude towards life.This study provides a statistical verification of the influence of EI on CI through quantitative methods.It confirms the key influence of CEI on CI and the status of the event service as the core characteristic factor of EI.And provided targeted advice and suggestions for the further improvement of the image of the Xiamen Marathon and the organizers of the marathon events at different stages.However,this study has limitations.Research on the influence of image formation agent such as travel motivation and information source,and supplementing more foreign participants as research objects can be the direction of follow-up research.