Media and Event Communication of Morocco’s Sporting Achievements and National Tourist Attractiveness
The case of Agadir
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23882/emss26351Keywords:
Sport, Communication, Image, Territoire, AttractivitéAbstract
This article examines how media and event-based communication around Morocco’s sporting achievements contributes to shaping national tourist attractiveness among international tourists staying in Agadir. In a context of heightened recent sports visibility and the consolidation of the “Morocco Brand”, the study seeks to understand how these performances reconfigure the country’s image and combine with territorial resources to influence intentions to visit, revisit and recommend. The research is grounded in the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S‑O‑R) framework, in which sports communication and place marketing actions are considered as stimuli, the cognitive and affective destination image as the internal state, and perceived attractiveness as the observable response.
An interpretive qualitative approach was adopted. Seven semi‑structured interviews were conducted, using convenience sampling, with international tourists in Agadir, then fully transcribed and subjected to thematic coding. The findings show, first, that sporting achievements are widely perceived as a lever for symbolic revalorization, projecting the image of a modern, well‑organized and confident country. Second, media and event devices disseminate narratives that systematically associate football, major cities and landscapes, producing a composite representation in which sport becomes a gateway to discovering the territory.
The travel experience in Agadir confirms, nuances and enriches these representations, revealing that attractiveness stems from the combination of territorial resources, destination image and place marketing initiatives, rather than from the sporting register alone. The study leads to a conceptual model integrating the notion of “sport–territorial resources integration”, which highlights the joint role of sporting achievements, communication and territory in building and sustaining national tourist attractiveness.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Ahmed MADI, Mustapha ATLASSI, Ahmed ABRIANE, Malika ABENTAK
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