Residents’ Perception towards Hosting the 2019 Southeast Asian Games: Is the Philippines as a Developing Country Ready for Sport Tourism?

Sport tourism has been identifi ed as one of the most important industries of recent years. Research about Philippine sport tourism, however, is scarce. The aim of the present investigation was to assess residents’ perception on the impact of hosting an international sports event on their community. A previously validated impact questionnaire was used in this study. The respondents were 262 (Males, n=47%; Females, n=53%) residents of the diff erent cities hosting the 2019 Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in the Philippines. They were generally well-educated (87%), of prime working age (68%), average earners (76%), physically active (61.3%), and watched sports (51%) using mobile devices (59%). The results revealed that the respondents (81.3%) generally support the present SEAG. The majority agree that the event would signal urban development (77.8%), develop positive socio-psychological benefi ts (84%) such as civic pride but also bring about negative consequences (57.6%) such as overcrowding and traffi c congestion. There is general ambivalence about the positive outcomes outweighing the negative ones. Among the demographic variables, age (p=0.002), gender (p=0.004), income status (p=0.027) and media preference (p=0.018) have signifi cant eff ects on the respondents’ support for the event. Although there is general support for hosting the international sports event, the respondents’ general perception was marred by domestic issues related to corruption, environmental destruction and displacement of some ethnic groups.