Perception of staff, food, activities program, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions in child sports camps

Abstract

Thousands of children participate in child camps annually (Feenstra, 2015). Usually, child sports camps (CSC) provide different services (activities program (AP), food, and interaction with staff; Costa et al., 2004) that can influence consumer satisfaction (Tsuji et al., 2007) and their future BI (Sousa et al., 2023). Since CSC have two types of consumers (parents and participants; Lehto et al., 2020), camp managers must know both perceptions to manage these events properly. The present study aims to examine the relationship between consumers' perceptions of staff, food, AP, satisfaction and BI.

Data were collected from 258 participants (11.72±1.32years) and 226 parents (38.88±5.23years) that answered a questionnaire with items related to staff (thirteen), food (five), and AP (five) (7-point Likert scale: 1=strongly disagree and 7=strongly agree); and items related to satisfaction (six) and BI (three) (10-point Likert scale: 1=strongly disagree and 10=strongly agree). The relationships between staff, food, AP, satisfaction, and BI were tested using linear regression models. Durbin-Watson statistic (Maroco, 2018) and multicollinearity (i.e., variance inflation ratio (VIF) and the tolerance (T)) were verified (Fox, 1991). The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to assess the normality assumption, never verifying this condition (p<0.05 for the participants and their parents).

Participants' and their parents' perceptions score regarding staff, Food, and AP were high (>6.0). They also are satisfied (participants: M=8.94±0.88; parents: M=9.37±0.55) and demonstrate high BI regarding CSC (participants: M=8.90±1.05; parents: M=9.23±0.65). The Durbin-Watson statistic (values close to 2) points to the independence of the residues, and the tolerance values (0.67<T<0.99) and VIF (1.02<VIF<1.50) are indicative of the absence of multicollinearity.

The analysis of the regression coefficients and their statistical significance indicates that staff, food, AP, and satisfaction are significantly related to the BI of the participants (R²=0.353; p<0.001) and their parents (R2=0.453; p<0.001), being in line with the literature (e.g., Dubin et al., 2020; Costa et al., 2004; Sousa et al., 2023). These results support the relationship between interaction with staff and BI (e.g., Biscaia et al., 2021) and sustain that to future BI, food (Kennedy et al., 2017) and AP (Kwok et al., 2010) are special service attributes in CSC. Similarly to other events, in CSC, satisfaction is essential to future BI (Crespo-Hervás et al., 2019).

For participants and parents to return to this CSC in the future, staff, food, AP, and satisfaction are essential. Thus, managers should improve staff quality, guarantee balanced dining options, and plan activities participants enjoy.