ABSTRACT
Sporting events have some impacts on their host cities and communities as both small-scale and international sporting events have the potential to attract domestic and foreign athletes as tourists. The primary reason for visiting is to participate in an outdoor sports event, but a participant in a sporting event also has opportunities to visit attractions, such as shrines, before or after the sporting event, which is called flow-on tourism or, in this study, supplemental attractions. The purpose of this study was to investigate supplemental attractions to Foreign Sporting Event Participants. Our study focused on identifying similarities and differences in terms of supplemental attractions while considering the sociodemographic background of athletes in the World Rafting Championship as a team sport event in Tokushima, Japan. The study sample included 318 participants in this event. The results showed that most participants planned to visit attractions near the event area as confirmed by t-tests and one-way ANOVA. Differences and similarities in tourism behavior related to sociodemographic characteristics, such as the home region of the participants, were identified. However, there were no significant differences related to supplemental attractions. In addition, the level of cultural experience significantly differed across visitors to supplemental sites.
