Abstract: Tourism experience quality has an important predictive value for consumer behavioral intention. Sports event tourism is unique in terms of the level and intensity of embodied experience, and researches on participants’ experience quality focuses on short-distance runners and disabled, with less attention paid to marathon runners. Using the programmed grounded theory, this study explores the evaluation dimensions and formation mechanism of marathon participants’ tourism experience quality. The findings are as follows: (1) the evaluation dimensions of marathon running experience quality include participation, challenge, novelty, entertainment, aesthetics, socialization, and education;(2) personal, environmental, social, and managerial factors influence marathon runner experience quality; (3) experience quality positively influences marathon runners’ willingness to re-run and recommend. The article enriches the research field of marathon participation experience;it also improves the application value of experience quality in the field of sports tourism, and provides theoretical reference for promoting the high-quality development of marathon tourism.

Key words: marathon runner, event tourist, experience quality, evaluation dimension, influence mechanism