Emotional change, satisfaction and attachment to a sport mega-event: The PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics

Abstract This empirical study investigated the perceived impacts of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics on emotional changes and support of residents hosting a mega-event. Pre- and post-event surveys with a homogeneous group were collected from 479 South Koreans who were residents or non-residents of the host region. A paired t-test was used to detect changes in satisfaction and positive affect from before to after the event. Additionally, a mixed linear modelling analyses were conducted where region and event attachment were treated as between-subject variables whereas time was treated as a within-subject variable. The results indicated a significant increase in residents' satisfaction with hosting the mega-event. For the results of positive affect, the levels of positive affect after the mega-event was significantly higher than before the mega-event. Specifically, the levels of host city residents' positive affect were significantly higher than non-host city residents' positive affect. Lastly, event attachment significantly predicted the levels of residents' positive affect, which indicates that people who were emotionally attached to the mega event experienced the higher levels of positive affect than their counterparts who were not emotionally attached.