Sustainable Sport Tourism Research Articles

Abstracts from the 3rd International Scientific Conference on “Novelties in Sport Science”

<p>It is our pleasure to invite you to the 3rd International Scientific Conference “Novelties in Sport Science”. This conference provides a perfect opportunity for all the researchers, practitioners and the people who have a keen interest in learning about the new advancements in sports science to come together and share their knowledge. The variety of topics presented in this collection of papers shows how alive and developing this field and is how it can benefit the health, performance, and education of people. The present proceedings of this year’s conference reveal novelty and interdisciplinarity of the research. From exploring the role of probiotics in athletic performance and intestinal health to the ethical contrasts between martial arts and Western sports, these studies reflect the rich interplay between tradition and innovation. Groundbreaking tools, such as the "Ski Easy" methodology, and transformative findings in areas like injury prevention and active aging illustrate how science can shape the future of sports and physical activity.<br />This year, a special emphasis is placed on sustainability and inclusivity. Presentations addressing sustainable sports tourism in Vojvodina and global initiatives for environmentally responsible sports practices showcase the role of sports science in advancing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Equally compelling are the contributions that explore how education and technology are transforming sports, from teaching English to sports professionals to leveraging wearable devices for cardiovascular health.</p>

Optimization Model of Multi Criteria Decision Analysis for Smart and Sustainable Sport Tourism Planning Development Problem

Optimization Model of Multi Criteria Decision Analysis for Smart and Sustainable Sport Tourism Planning Development Problem

Identifying Opportunities for Developing Nature-Based Sport Tourism to Improve Health in Papua: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Over Ten Years

Objectives. This study aimed to examine research trends around nature-based tourism, event-based sports tourism, and their relationship with government policies to identify potential opportunities for sustainable sports tourism development in Papua. Materials and methods. The methodological approach comprised using a bibliometric analysis by reviewing 997 scientific articles sourced from Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases from 2014-2024. Harzing’s publish or Perish software was used to sort the articles, and VOSViewer software was used to analyze the articles. The review included the number of cluster groups, research themes related to sports tourism in the year groups, research trends around nature-based sports tourism, and gaps in sports tourism development. Results. There were eight cluster groups and five groups. The current research trends in the field of sports tourism comprise event-based sports tourism, nature tourism, the tourism industry, and social media. The research trends related to nature-based sports tourism include six keywords, namely nature-based tourism, nature connectedness, nature sport, nature-based events, nature-based recreation, and nature. Visitors, managers, communities, and governments benefit from the health and economic advantages of nature-based sports tourism. In developing nature-based sports tourism, it is essential to consider the sustainability of nature, cultural characteristics, and the form of activities offered. Local governments need to take part in efforts to develop and preserve nature-based sports tourism. Conclusions. The development of nature-based sports tourism with traditional sports activities has a great opportunity to be enhanced. This innovation certainly needs careful planning from determining goals, human resources, risk factors, and presenting an effective promotional strategies. The involvement of local government can facilitate the implementation of this planning.

Towards an integrated framework for sustainable sport tourism development in Central Africa

ABSTRACT This study develops an integrated framework for the development of sport tourism, using Cameroon as a case study. A qualitative research approach was used to critically analyse existing sport tourism frameworks in the Global North and Global South contexts to draw key comparisons for the contrasting economies therein. Documentary analysis with in-depth semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in sport and tourism was conducted. Findings reveal that the sport tourism sector has great potential to make a meaningful socioeconomic contribution to economies in the region through interlinkages. For sustainable sports tourism to contribute to government priorities around regional development, global competitiveness, infrastructural development and community development, an integrated framework is needed. The study has implications for policy and planning.

The Study for the Analysis of the Development trend of sports tourism

The purpose of this study is to analyze the development trend of sports tourism by content analysis and the results are as follows: (1) sports tourism are diversified; (2) improve the hardware facilities of sports tourism destinations to improve the quality of service and tourists' satisfaction; (3) health tourism improves the quality of life; (4) the integration of sports tourism and education is of great significance. (5) the combination of sports tourism and ancient architecture can promote the local economic development and cultural heritage, and provide tourists with new experiences and feelings. The suggestions are: (1) develop personalized and customized sports tourism projects; (2) develop sports tourism projects combining scientific and technological applications; (3) develop sustainable sports tourism projects; (4) develop professional and standardized sports tourism services; (5) combine sports tourism with historical old buildings.

A New Paradigm of a Sustainability-Balanced Scorecard Model for Sport Tourism

An integration between the principles of supply chain management in sport tourism and a sustainability-balanced scorecard leads to the development of guidance and assessment criteria for a city to be a sustainable sport tourism destination. This paper aims to present a sport tourism sustainability management model (STSM) for the development of assessment indices when selecting a city to be developed as a sport tourism city. The model consists of five perspectives, namely the financial perspective, customer perspective, internal process perspective, learning and growth perspective, and sustainability perspective. By using the Delphi technique to obtain a consensus from experts, university lecturers, independent organizations/associations, and business entities in relation to sport tourism management, the researchers define elements to assess complex perspectives for the sustainable development of sport tourism. The results show that there are five perspectives and eighteen elements in relation to the sustainable development of sport tourism. All perspectives and elements have a high consensus, as measured by Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance (W), of 0.488. To validate the model, the researchers examined the correlation among the five perspectives using a structural equation model and found that both the absolute fit and the incremental fit are satisfactory. As the model aligns and explains empirical data, it can support decision making for management teams, be used to effectively and efficiently draft a strategy for sustainable development in sport tourism, and improve the livelihoods of residents.

The role of the international Tour De Banyuwangi Ijen event in increasing the number of tourists for Banyuwangi Ijen crater destinations

The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of the International Tour de Banyuwangi Ijen (ITdBI) championship in increasing tourist visits to the Banyuwangi Ijen Crater destination. Respondents amounted to 100 tourists, including 80 domestic tourists and 20 foreign tourists. This study uses quota sampling. The data was processed using crosstabulation analysis and chi-square test, then continued with logistic regression. The research instrument is a questionnaire. The limitations of the research are the number of respondents and the willingness of respondents to fill out the questionnaire. The results showed that the role of sports championships analyzed on indicators of information, level of satisfaction, visiting enthusiasm, and recommendations contributed 75.9% to the increase in the number of tourists. Thus, the role of these major sporting events for tourists is as a medium of information, travel satisfaction, enthusiasm for repeated visits, and the willingness of tourists to recommend potential visitors. Future research is expected to include other factors involved in increasing tourist visits, especially tourists with sports motivation. The implementation of the next model and strategy is how to develop sustainable sports tourism in the Ijen crater tourist destination adapted to the concept of sustainable tourism development by considering environmental, socio-cultural and economic aspects.

Towards the Development of an Innovative Sustainable Sports Tourism Management Framework for Portugal

Sport tourism assumes an increasingly important role in the world tourism panorama, being seen by several nations as a strategic catalyst for the individual and collective emancipation of territories and their communities. The growing synergy between sports and the tourism sector and its potential as a strategic tourism product for the sustainable development of destinations has long been acknowledged; so much so that it has given rise to the positioning of a highly competitive and complex sector, transcending far beyond the organization of sporting events. In Portugal, Sports Tourism has experienced profound growth over the last decade, now estimated to be worth between 10% and 25% of total international travel and tourism revenues (PwC, 2021). While sports tourism presents valuable opportunities for further destination development and growth driving many positive outcomes in local economies, it can also be viewed as an important factor for the promotion and international recognition of these same territories. As a result, Destination Management Organizations (DMO) and other key stakeholder have begun to place an increased focus on the use of sports to promote and improve Portugal's positioning as a sports tourism destination. This research, while in its early stages, recognises a current gap in knowledge in relation to the development of existing frameworks or strategies implemented and applied by DMO’s or policy makers within destinations to effectively develop and manage a sustainable and competitive sport tourism offering. However, in light of the challenges faced by destinations during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a necessity that destinations look to develop and plan for sports tourism in a sustainable manner. This research therefore sets forth to contribute to new knowledge in relation to the development of an innovative Sustainable Sports Tourism Management Framework for Portugal with the aim to propose a new comprehensive conceptual framework for the effective sustainable development and management of sports tourism in Portugal.

Rural sports and local games: missing link between sports tourism development and sustainability

ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to design a model for the development of sustainable sports tourism based on rural sports and local games (RSLG) in Mazandaran province of Iran. The study was conducted using a mixed-method comprised of qualitative and quantitative phases. The qualitative phase utilized grounded theory and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed in three stages of open, axial and selective coding and a model was developed based on the derived codes. The findings indicated that sustainable sports tourism development based on RSLG is influenced by six different categories: ‘policy-making’, ‘marketing’, ‘finance and support’, ‘religious and social participation’, ‘infrastructure’ and ‘management and planning’. In the quantitative phase, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to validate the model. The statistical population of this phase included the organizational staff operating in the fields of tourism and sport, organized coaches, referees and athletes of rural sports in Mazandaran. The findings of this phase revealed that the categories of ‘policy-making’ (0.461), ‘marketing’ (0.351), ‘financial and supporting’ (0.303), ‘religious and social participation’ (0.318), ‘infrastructure’ (0.166) and ‘management and planning’ (0.506) affect the independent variable sustainable sports tourism development based on RSLG.

Sports event portfolios: an innovative tool and a new management paradigm

PurposeThe organization of several small-scale events throughout the year is called event portfolio and may contribute to the development of the city strategy in the touristic, social and economic fields. The organization of a set of sporting events represents an important innovation in the development of city marketing. This paper analyzing the scarce literature on event portfolio provides the main elements to benefit from this innovative strategy to achieve sustainable sports tourism for host cities. Among the innovative strategies, the inclusion of leverage and cross-leverage approaches in the management of event portfolios is studied in depth.Design/methodology/approachThe study is divided into two phases. First, the Web of Science (WOS) and SCOPUS databases are searched using keywords. Once the selection of scientific studies that analyze the phenomenon of event portfolios has been obtained, an exhaustive review is carried out, allowing us to obtain novel findings on the field of study.FindingsThe work provides a classification of the portfolios of sports events analyzed in science considering the configuration (formal vs informal) and whether there is an integrated strategy. Second, the delimitation of the deficiencies and the most important aspects to be developed in sports-events portfolio management.Originality/valueThis study contributes with a summary of the main elements to consider when managing sports events portfolios. Moreover, the importance of integrated strategies is underlined, as well as the relevance of leveraging the strategies. The contributions are of interest in being a novel field with room for scientific development and with an eminently practical nature.

The role of a mega-sporting event in attracting domestic tourists: the case of Seoul

PurposeMega-sporting events reportedly can offer many tangible and intangible benefits to the host country and regions, such as job creation, image improvement, local pride enhancement, social overhead capital investment and tourism business development. However, a paucity of studies in the literature have developed integrative models or have explored domestic tourist behavior in a general, or the sports tourism, context. To address this gap, the present study investigates the relationships between event quality, personal involvement, destination image and destination loyalty in the context of event sports tourism in order to provide sporting destination managers with valuable information for sustainable sports tourism development.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected information from 365 domestic tourists who attended the 100th National Sports Festival held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2019. Construct validity of the measurement scale was verified by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), factor loadings, average variance (AVE) extracted and construct reliability (CR). Reliability of the measurement scale was verified by Cronbach's alpha analysis. The authors utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation to analyze the predicted relationships.FindingsThe findings display the positive impacts of (1) event quality on destination image, (2) personal involvement on destination image, (3) personal involvement on destination loyalty and (4) destination image on destination loyalty. The findings indicate the key roles for event quality and personal involvement in improving destination image and the important roles of personal involvement and destination image in building destination loyalty.Originality/valueThe present study (1) contributes to the recent debate in the sports tourism literature over the relationship between the destination image and destination loyalty and (2) shows that there is no mediating role of the destination image on the relationship between the event quality and destination loyalty, and personal involvement and destination loyalty.

Sustainable Sports Tourism Performance Assessment Using Grey-Based Hybrid Model

The development of sports tourism is gaining momentum around the world, with many tourism industries combining sports events and programs to attract more domestic and overseas customers to promote economic and culture. Sustainability awareness has been gaining attention from many international organizations, resulting in the rise of sports tourism that incorporates sustainability. Therefore, the development of a valid and applicable sustainable sports tourism (SST) assessment model is an important task. In this study, a hybrid Multiple Attribute Decision-Making (MADM) model is proposed to measure the development performance of SST. The aims of this study include developing a SST assessment framework, identifying the mutual influential relationships among attributes, generating attribute influence weights, and calculating the performance of the evaluated items. The proposed model is divided into three stages. First, a cause-and-effect diagram is generated using the Grey Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (GDEMATEL) to describe the interactions and feedback among the attributes. Then, the GDEMATEL-based Analytic Network Process (GDANP) is applied to generate the influence weights of the attributes and their rankings. Finally, the expanded Probability-based Grey Relational Analysis (expanded PGRA) was applied to calculate the performance of the evaluated items and to determine the gap between evaluated items and the aspiration level. This study improves the original PGRA technique by introducing the concept of aspiration level into the PGRA calculation process, thereby replacing the traditional concept of “relative satisfaction” with “aspiration level”. In addition, the expanded PGRA can assess a single rated item without being limited to at least two items. We used the Sun Moon Lake Scenic Area in Taiwan as a model demonstration. The results show that the top three attributes that need to be strengthened are disease prevention and treatment, local social welfare and protection, and sports diversity. In the Sun Moon Lake, intersection control should be set up to ensure the health status of visitors and local residents. In addition to epidemic prevention, more measures and behaviors should be developed to deal with tourism diseases. We suggested that subsidies be provided to local residents to rebuild the fences around their homes to avoid disturbances caused by the influx of tourists. Moreover, the local government can create more sports events with special characteristics that can attract tourists to come again and again.

Challenges and Opportunities to Sustainable Sport Tourism Events: Insights from an Urban Host City

Sports tourism is viewed as an ideal tool for supporting the livelihood of the host communities in developing countries. As an alternative way of involving the host community in tourism activities, sports tourism aims to enable the hosts to earn income from tourism. Sports tourism events have been hosted in the country for decades but still facing challenges that has hauled its growth process. This article will shade light on the challenges and opportunities of hosting sports tourism in Nairobi as a way of enhancing sustainable tourism development. A cross-sectional research design is used in the study, 404 respondents form the sample size of the study. Questionnaires and interviews are used to collect data from informants in three stadia that frequently host sports tourism events. Descriptive, thematic analysis and inferential statistics are used for data analysis. Findings indicate that major challenges facing the hosting of sports tourism event are; poor planning, policy issues and security. Results also show that the main opportunities for sports tourism events are boosting of domestic tourism, diversification of tourism products and marketing of host cities. Key recommendations are made to policy makers to craft policies that will spur sustainable sports tourism development. Key words Sports Tourism Events, Challenges, Opportunities, Sustainable, and community DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/55-06 Publication date: March 31 st 2021

Factors Influencing the Tourist’s Future Intentions in Small-Scale Sports Events

Small-scale sports events are a good strategy for communities seeking to attract visitors and are one of the major attractions of sustainable sports tourism. The aim of this study to determine which factors influence the future intentions of the tourist involved in small-scale sports events. The sample was composed of 236 subjects who participated in a half-marathon in Spain. The results of the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) provide support for the applicability of the tourists’ perception questionnaire in the context of sports events. The results of both validity (convergent and discriminant) and reliability (internal consistency) analyses were satisfactory. The results indicated that this scale had 18 items distributed in six factors (communication, staff, electronic wordofmouth, destination image, satisfaction and future intentions). The proposal model revealed that satisfaction is a mediated factor between staff and destination image with future intentions of repeating the event. Electronic word of mouth and satisfaction were influencing factors that predicted the tourists’ future intentions. This finding suggests that this questionnaire can be a useful tool in measuring tourist perception on a small-scale sports events scale, allowing a better understanding of the reasons that lead a tourist to select a certain destination and sports event.

Sustainable development of sport tourism in Banyuwangi

This research has an aim to examine the role of Sport Tourism through the program of Banyuwangi festival (B-Fest) and the impact of local content and deciding sustainable strategy of Sport Tourism Development. This research uses descriptive associative research method with qualitative and quantitative approach. Data Collection method done by observation, direct interview, questionnaire and collect the data from related instance. The result of this analysis shows that: (1) Banyuwangi Festival Program (B-fest) successfully increase the number of visitor in Kawah Ijen and Pulau Merah within total contribution of 75.9%; (2) The effect of sport tourism toward the change of local community in Kawah Ijen, on economic aspect contribute 100%. On social aspect contribute 11.6%. Environmental aspect, edelweiss flower no longer to be seen, Javan lutung and deer are rarely to be seen. Social Aspect contribute 2.6% toward people prosperity, 0.2% toward local satisfaction, 12.7% toward people participation; (3) Development strategy on sustainable sport tourism using the model of Sport tourism Participation and oriented to tourism characteristic.

A Two-Stage MCDM Model for Exploring the Influential Relationships of Sustainable Sports Tourism Criteria in Taichung City.

Many countries advocate sports for all to cultivate people’s interest in sports. In cities, cross-industry alliances between sports and tourism are one of the common practices. The following two important issues need to be discussed, namely, what factors should be paid attention to in the development of sports tourism, and what are the mutual influential relationships among these factors. This study proposes a novel two-stage multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model to incorporate the concept of sustainable development into sports tourism. First, the Bayesian best–worst method (Bayesian BWM) is used to screen out important criteria. Bayesian BWM solves the problem of expert opinion integration of conventional BWM. It is based on the statistical probability to estimate the optimal group criteria weights. Secondly, the rough decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (rough DEMATEL) technique is used to map out complex influential relationships. The introduction of DEMATEL from the rough set theory has better practicality. In the calculation program, interval types are used to replace crisp values in order to retain more expert information. A city in central Taiwan was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model. The results show that the quality of urban security, government marketing, business sponsorship and mass transit planning are the most important criteria. In addition, in conjunction with local festivals is the most influential factor for the overall evaluation system.

IMPLEMENTATION OF GOVERNMENT POLICY, EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AND ENGAGEMENT OF QUALIFIED PERSONNEL AS KEY INDICES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPORT TOURISM IN NIGERIA

Development of sport in Nigeria has taken the centre stage in public discuss most especially at different sport event fora. The need to facilitate and engender sustainable sport development through implementation of sport policies, effective leadership and engagement of qualified personnel to drive this money-spinning industry is becoming a recurring-decima as the sector is seen to be politicised through the engagement of unqualified personnel to run the affairs of the sector thereby creating chaos and instability while the resultant effect has been that of blame game culminating in the failure of our athlete to excel at the international level despite the raw talent available in the county that boasts of over 180 million population. It is on this premise that the study examines the implementation of government policy, effective leadership and qualified personnel as key indices for the development of sport tourism in Nigeria. The study suggests that policy should be implemented to the letter to ensure continuity and sustainability. The study also suggests that effective leadership is not only paramount to sports development but also germane in the drive for a sustainable sport tourism industry. The study also suggests that qualified personnel should not be compromised for mediocrity if development is to be achieved and sustained in the sport tourism industry. Article visualizations:

Establishing a Sustainable Sports Tourism Evaluation Framework with a Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model to Explore Potential Sports Tourism Attractions in Taiwan

In recent years, the awareness of sustainable tourism has risen around the world. Many tourism industries combine sports to attract more customers to facilitate the development of the economy and the promotion of local culture. However, it is an important task to establish a comprehensive tourism evaluation framework for sustainable sports tourism. This study proposes a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) model to discuss the above issues, using the Bayesian Best Worst Method (Bayesian BWM) to integrate multiple experts’ judgments to generate the group optimal criteria weights. Next, the modified Visekriterijumska Optimizacija i Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) technique is combined with the concept of aspiration level to determine the performance of sports attractions and their priority ranks. In addition, this study adds a perspective of institutional sustainability to emphasize the importance of government support and local marketing. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed model is demonstrated through potential sports tourism attractions in Taiwan. A sensitivity analysis and models comparison were also performed in this study. The results show that the proposed model is feasible for practical applications and that it effectively provides some management implications to support decision-makers in formulating improvement strategies.

The Antecedents of Tourists’ Behavioral Intentions at Sporting Events: The Case of South Korea

Mega-sporting events can bring diverse benefits to the hosting areas, such as job creation and image improvement. However, only a handful of studies have explored the antecedents of destination image—which plays a crucial role in eliciting certain tourist behaviors—and personal involvement. To fill this gap, this study evaluates the relationships among personal involvement, destination image, place attachment, and behavioral intentions in the context of sporting event tourism to provide destination managers useful information for sustainable sports tourism development. We gathered information from 374 international tourists at the FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation—International Swimming Federation) World Masters Championships Gwangju 2019 in South Korea. We used structural equation modeling was used along with maximum likelihood estimation to examine the predicted relationships. The findings show the positive impacts of (a) personal involvement on destination image, (b) destination image on place attachment, and (c) place attachment on behavioral intentions. Furthermore, (d) place attachment dictated the relationship between destination image and behavioral intentions. The findings confirm the significant role personal involvement plays in the improvement of a destination’s image. To ensure sustainable sports tourism, destination managers are advised to pay close attention to research findings on destination image in the development of their plans.

Sustainable sport tourism development in a semi-mountainous area

Sustainable sport tourism development in a semi-mountainous area