Sport Tourism Development

James Higham, Tom Hinch

• Publisher: Channel View Publications
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781845416577
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

This book critically explores sport-related tourism drawing on the fields of sport management, the sociology of sport, consumer behaviour, sports marketing, economic, urban and sports geography, and tourism studies. It presents multidisciplinary perspectives of sport tourism, as structured by the geographical concepts of space, place and environment. The volume offers a comprehensive update of the discussions presented in the two previous editions, recognising the significant growth in sub-elite participation sports and addresses spectator-based sport events, participation-based sport events, active sport, and sport heritage activities. It aims to advance theoretical thinking on the subject of sport tourism development and critical thinking on the interplay of local and global forces in sport and tourism development. It continues to be an important text for students and researchers in tourism studies, human geography, sports geography, sociology of sport, sports management, sports marketing and history of sport.

Part 1

Introduction

1 Sport Tourism in Times of Change

In terms of popular participation, and in some aspects of practice,
(sport and tourism) are inextricably linked... and there are sound
reasons for those links to strengthen.

Glyptis, 1989: 165

Introduction

In June 336 BC, Philip of Macedon (382–336 BC) made preparations for the wedding of his daughter Cleopatra to King Alexander of Epirus. He intended, according to Green (1992), to make the wedding a lavish and ostentatious display of propaganda, in order to impress the Greeks into reimagining Philip as a ‘civilised and generous statesman’, rather than a military tyrant and autocrat. Philip gathered his Macedonian barons and invited all manner of distinguish Greek visitors. No expense was spared in hosting banquets and entertaining his visitors with musical performances and extravagant sacrifices to the Gods (Green, 1992). Interestingly, in the context of this book, public games and displays of competitive sporting excellence were other important elements of Philip’s strategy, although the celebrations were cut short by his violent assassination.

Two years later, in 334 BC, Philip’s son and successor, Alexander the Great (365–323 BC) hosted the ‘so-called “Olympian Games”, a nine day festival in honour of Zeus and the Muses held at Aegae or Dium’ (Green, 1992: 163). His intentions were to dispel rumours of Macedonian financial ruin with splendid banquets hosted in enormous marquees set against the backdrop of Mount Olympus, and to impress and win the favour of his senior officers and Greek city state ambassadors on the eve of his great Persian campaign. But, above all, Alexander sought through hosting the ‘Olympian Games’ to impress upon all onlookers his (self)image as a golden demigod of Hellenism, beyond mortal scale. Clearly, hosting sport competitions, as well as royalty, politicians, ambassadors and dignitaries, all seeking some form of association with sports events, is historically longstanding (Green, 1992; Keller, 2001).

Sports, particularly large-scale sporting events dating back to the ancient Olympian Games, have long influenced travel (Keller, 2001). However, few definitions of sport adequately express its diverse and dynamic nature and its changing functions in different societies over time. While sports are as old as civilisation (Coakley, 2017), and the defining qualities of sports are well established, few definitions of sport capture the changing place of sports in societies. As Andrews (2006: 1) observes, ‘although physically-based competitive activities are a feature of virtually all human civilisations, the popular myth of sport as a fixed and immutable category is little more than a pervasive, if compelling, fiction’. Instead, Andrews (2006) recommends interpretive approaches to understanding sports, whereby the study of sport and sport experiences are firmly anchored in an understanding of socio-historical context. Sports, then, are a reflection of their historical and social circumstances. This point is rooted in Bale’s (1989) simple but useful notion that sport is defined by what features on a day-to-day basis in the sports section of local newspapers. The content of any daily newspaper will be a reflection of its historical and social context. If nothing else, scrutiny of the sports pages of local newspapers confirms the vast diversity of sports relative to their situation in place and time (Higham & Hinch, 2009), although the function of newspapers as a local voice has been diluted by the growth of online newsfeeds, blogs and social media that are far less spatially defined.

Alexander’s use of the ‘Olympian Games’ as a display of personal godliness has, since 1896, thrown up many political and commercial parallels in the modern Olympic Games. It is also clear that the scale, complexity and potential of sport tourism, as well as the expanding mutual interests of the sport and tourism industries that have developed as a consequence, demand critical academic attention (UNWTO, 2017). This book is about sport tourism and its manifestations in space and time. It articulates the defining qualities of sport that explain its unique contribution to tourism. It then applies tourism development concepts and themes to the study of sport tourism. Three key questions structure our discussions of sport tourism development in this book: ‘What makes sport unique as a tourist attraction or activity?’, ‘How is sport tourism manifest in space?’ and ‘How do these manifestations change over time?’

The chapters that comprise this book are organised into five parts. This chapter (Part 1: Introduction) introduces the purpose and structure of the book. It describes the development and growth of sport tourism, and then raises questions that are intended to demonstrate the relevance and challenge the assumptions that the reader may have on this subject. Part 2: Foundations of Sport Tourism Development comprises Chapters 2–4. This section is intended to provide the reader with fundamentals in the study of sport tourism, sport tourism markets and development processes and issues relating to sport tourism. Much progress has been made in the study of sport and tourism in recent years (e.g. Fyall & Jago, 2009; Gammon, 2015; Gammon et al., 2013; Gibson, 2005; Hallmann et al., 2015; Higham & Hinch, 2009; Lamont, 2014; Preuss, 2015; Taks, 2013; Taks et al., 2015; Weed, 2007; Weed & Bull, 2012; Weed et al., 2014). Chapters 2–4 provide an opportunity to review current insights into sport tourism as a basis for the discussions that follow.

Part 3: Sport Tourism Development and Space (Chapters 5–7) focuses on the spatial elements of sport tourism development. These chapters examine sport tourism development in relation to space, place and the environment. Each of these topics represents important geographical aspects of sport and tourism development. Part 4: Sport Tourism Development and Time (Chapters 8–10) examines sport tourism development in relation to time. The short-term, medium-term and long-term time horizons provide a temporal framework that frames our considerations of the immediate sport tourism experience; sport tourism and seasonality; and the dynamic interrelationship between sport and tourism within long-term evolutionary frameworks. Part 5: Conclusions (Chapter 11) concludes by reviewing the preceding discussions to serve as a platform from which to consider the future of sport and tourism, and sport tourism research. This structure provides a framework that raises questions relating to sport tourism development in space and time and to address these questions through the application of relevant theory.

Sport Tourism in Times of Change

The Football World Cup, hosted in recent years by Germany (2006), South Africa (2010) and Brazil (2014), is one of the world’s truly mega sports events. It is a month-long showcase of football skill, and a stage upon which collective identities are forged and nationalisms are expressed (Giulianotti, 1995a, 1995b, 1996). Indeed, it is a stage that is shared by individual players and national teams, as well as politicians, civic leaders, multinational corporate actors, media corporations, spectators and tourists (Cornelissen, 2010). Events such as the Football World Cup and the Olympic Games represent the apex of elite competitive sport. However, they exist upon a superstructure of ever-expanding and diversifying participation in sport and recreational activity, and as one part of an ever-evolving global tourism industry. Once, sport-related international travel was the domain of elite athletes, representing their countries in international competition. With expanded personal mobilities in developed societies has come sport-related travel that extends across all spatial scales, levels of competition and competitive–participatory, serious–casual and active–passive dimensions of engagement (Higham & Hinch, 2009). Thus, the Football World Cup and mega sports events more generally, must be recognised as but one of the manifold diverse forms of sport-related tourism.

Democratisation, the process of opening access to previously restricted opportunities, applies to the development of sport and tourism in recent decades (Standeven & De Knop, 1999). Participation in some sports remains defined by factors such as social class; ‘Irrespective of culture or historical period, people use sport to distinguish themselves and to reflect their status and prestige’ (Booth & Loy, 1999: 1). The existence of post-class egalitarian consumer cultures in sport is balanced by the fact that similar status groups generally share lifestyle and consumption patterns (Booth & Loy, 1999). The links that exist between socio-demographic status, lifestyle and consumption patterns in sport and tourism heighten the value and utility of defining sport tourism markets in practice.

That said, the forces of globalisation (Bernstein, 2000; Milne & Ateljevic, 2004; Thibault, 2009) and democratisation (Standeven & De Knop, 1999) have had significant implications for the consumption of sport and development processes in sport tourism (Chapter 4). The modern development of sport tourism, then, stands at the cross section of a wide range of contemporary trends in sports participation and tourism development (Table 1.1).

These processes have been driven by neoliberal economic and global political forces (Collins, 1991; Cooper et al., 1993; Gibson, 1998a; Nauright, 1996), as well as changing social attitudes and values (Jackson et al., 2001; Redmond, 1991). They have also been facilitated by technological advances, such as satellite television broadcasting and internet live streaming that have influenced the ‘sportification of society’ (Halberstam, 1999; Standeven & De Knop, 1999), and the forces of globalisation, which have had fundamental implications for personal and collective identity (re)formation (Higham & Hinch, 2009). The political events of 2016, including the Brexit vote (23 June 2016) and the US presidential elections (8 November 2016), which signalled new directions in economic protectionism and the strengthening of international border processes for visitors and migrants, will have significant implications for sport-related tourism and mobilities over the coming years, particularly sport labour migration. The global sports arena may become less global (Bale & Maguire, 2013), as some demonstrate resistance to the forces of globalisation and show signs of becoming less global in outlook.

Table 1.1 Contemporary trends in sports participation and tourism development

Sports participation

(1) The expanding demographic profile of participants in sports (Glyptis, 1989).

(2) Heightened interests in health and fitness in Western societies since the 1970s (Collins, 1991).

(3) Increasing demand for active engagement in recreational pursuits while on holiday since the 1980s (Priestley, 1995; Standeven & De Knop, 1999).

(4) Professionalisation of power and performance sports (Coakley, 2017).

(5) Rapid growth of participation and pleasure sports (Coakley, 2017).

(6) Expanding participation in lifestyle sports with interests in personal and collective identity formation (Gilchrist & Wheaton, 2011; Wheaton, 2004).

(7) Widening scope of performance sports participation beyond elite professional sportspeople, to now include semi-professional athletes and those who engage in amateur sports as a form of serious leisure (Kennelly et al., 2013; Lamont et al., 2014).

(8) Expanding spatial mobilities associated with all forms of engagement in sports (Higham & Hinch, 2009).

Sports and tourism development

(1) Recognition of the association between specific sports and unique tourism destinations (Hinch & Higham, 2004).

(2) Critical insights into the travel flows associated with sport events (Gratton et al., 2006; Preuss, 2005; Weed, 2007).

(3) The role of sports in urban regeneration (Gratton et al., 2005) and destination development (Mason & Duquette, 2008).

(4) The potential contributions of sport to destination image, intention to visit (Chalip et al., 2003; Kaplanidou & Vogt, 2007) and choice of destination (Humphreys, 2011).

(5) The potential for sports to offer destination marketing synergies (Harrison-Hill & Chalip, 2005) through branding (Chalip & Costa, 2005), leveraging (O’Brien & Chalip, 2007) and bundling (Chalip & McGuirty, 2004).

Nevertheless, it remains the case that ‘the geographical extent and volume of sports related travel has grown exponentially’ (Faulkner et al., 1998: 3). Glyptis (1989) was one of the earlier scholars to provide an indication of these trends. She notes in a study of western European countries that all had experienced strong growth in interest in recreational sport during the 1980s. Furthermore, participation was increasing in all social strata, most sports were receiving participants from an ...