Effect of Regional Sports Events on National Pride and Physical Activity Participation: A Case Study of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games

Abstract A large number of studies have examined the economic benefits in hosting mega sports events. The aim of this study was to examine the non-economic benefits arising from hosting a regional sports event, the Southeast Asian Games, hosted by Singapore in 2015. In this study, 805 students from a tertiary educational institution in Singapore were surveyed. The results showed that while there was an increase in national pride as measured by the General National Pride Scale, it was not statistically significant. This was contrary to earlier studies and suggests that any increase in national pride in hosting sports events may be diminished when the event is of a smaller scale. Using the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), the results also showed that there was an increase in the intention to participate at higher levels of physical activity. This suggests that there may be non-economic benefits in hosting regional sports events such as the SEA Games.