Risk in Active Sport Tourism Projects: Narratives from Managers in the Chinese Event Industry

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to identify risk issues in managing active sport tourism event projects in China from the perspective of event managers. A qualitative method was utilized, with 12 semi-structured interviews being conducted in China in order to achieve the research objectives. A key finding is that ten risk issue categories were identified: safety, financial, environmental, technical equipment, operations, human resources, political, legal, tourist behavioral, and relationships. Among these categories, the issues can be further divided into two groups focused around, firstly, ‘contributing risk’ which directly leads to the occurrence of the second ‘primary risk’ category. The second finding uncovers the impacts of these risk issues as well as the interaction between them. Furthermore, another finding reveals distinctions of risk issues in different types of sport tourism event projects in China. This research contributes to the development of systematic understanding of categories and management of risk in active sport tourism from the perspective of managers, and will be useful in developing consensus in both the Chinese and international sport tourism industries.