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It is observed that many destinations are implementing sport tourism offerings to enhance their ability to attract visitors through satisfying their desires of new experiences. This has led to a highly competitive sport tourism market and as a result destinations engage in various marketing techniques and promotional tools to gain an advantage. For that reason this research was undertaken to acquire a greater understanding of the importance of promotional tools to successfully and efficiently market sport tourism experiences.

The construct of this study comprises of two stages. The aim of the first stage is to evaluate the specific tools used to promote sport tourism and sport tourism experiences in Barbados by examining the responses of various sporting and tourism bodies. The second stage of this research was conducted to present and analyze how marketing/promotional tools could contribute to better market sport tourism experiences.

The research found that many of the promotional tools implemented in Barbados during their marketing process correspond with those used internationally. However, problems of poor and insufficient sporting facilities as well as little collaboration between tourism and sporting entities, hamper the success of Barbados as a sport tourism destination. This further minimized Barbados’ ability to market favorable tourism experiences. This therefore shows that while promotional tools are essential in attracting tourists, other elements must also be taken into consideration to ensure sport tourists have positive experiences which would lead to a successful sport tourism destination.

Few studies in this area have been undertaken in the Caribbean. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the implementation of sport tourism offerings to attract visitors to Barbados.

The paper is focused on the sports tourism offer giving the example of Croatia. Emphasis is placed on the quality of the sports tourism offer — that considered being the key of success on the tourism market. The aim of the paper is to stress the need for developing sports tourism offer required by the tourists of today. Sport is a part of the health tourism offer. Health, recreation, sport, fitness, beauty and leisure time are the elements of the quality of life. Sport is not adequately represented in the Croatian tourism offer. This paper suggests measures that need to be taken in order to increase the share of sports in the tourism offer. Such measures should lead to aligning the supply with the demand, and to increasing financial effects. Tourism plays a very important role in the economic development of Croatia, and it deserves high priority in the development strategy.

Until now the majority of researchers of sports tourism have focused their research on the tourist and their characteristics, meaning, on the demand. Since the majority of authors (Gibson 1998; Seddighi and Theoracharous 2002; Hudson 2003; ?inch and Higham 2001) studied tourists and their characteristics we decided to focus on the providers of active sports holidays. According to Planina, Mihali_(2002, pg. 29) the tourism model is built on demand and supply. The supply side was analyzed by WTO (2004) in their research amongst European tour operators with the highest turnover in order to establish how sport features in products involving Latin America. Based on this idea we decided to carry out a research amongst providers of active sports holidays and asked them about a typical client. We divided the providers into segments according to the type of guests. The research was carried out to find the answer to the question “What do providers of active sports holidays offer in Slovenia and how they perceive their guests?” We were interested to know what they actually offer and the trend of the enquiries they receive from their visitors. The characteristics of the visitors are important to help providers decide how to develop their facilities to meet the demands of the market. We learnt that in Slovenia the majority of tourists are short‐length stays. We also researched the supply and demand and learnt that the providers expect the demand to be highest for skiing and cycling. In the largest of the segments the activities most frequently offered are swimming (water sports), tennis (racquet sports), the usual team sports and skiing. However, the demand for these sports is not growing. Amongst the activities which are in lesser demand but have been defined by the providers as growing are mountain biking and golf.

The purpose of this paper is to review the past 75 years of sports tourism and explore the potential of the next 75 years.

This is a personal perspective paper that reflects upon the emergence and development of the field of sport tourism, contemporary challenges and future pathways.

Research must extend to wider manifestations of sport, and sport-related tourism, in response to the growth of participation and pleasure sports and the increasingly important roles of those sports in addressing the growing social and environmental challenges of contemporary life.

This paper offers insights into the future of sports tourism.

Within tourism, the role of sport is taking an increasingly greater role. Professional sports require travelling of athletes and their accompanying teams for competition and training. Similarly recreational sports are carried out in many tourism destinations by visitors. Competitive sports is formal, rational, goal directed and provides or allows little opportunity for fantasy. On the other hand, recreational sport may be amusement and recreation, a pleasant time to play and enjoy (Kurtzman, 2001: 100). Many destinations develop specifically for sport recreational tourism as evidenced by the numerous ski resorts one finds in alpine areas, for example. At the same time they may also offer an infrastructure and base for professional athletic training. In some cases, sports activity (e.g hiking, tennis) may not be the main motive for visiting a destination, but is offered and consumed as additional supply in order to provide more of a the total tourism product and increase tourist spending in the destination.

This study examines the international literature on sports events published between 1981 and 2024 within the framework of specific parameters.

The data were analyzed using quantitative and bibliometric analyses. Studies related to sports events were scanned through the Scopus database, and 1,072 studies were evaluated.

It has been revealed that the highest number of studies related to sports events were published in 2021, with Tichaawa, T.M. being the author with the most publications. Griffith University conducted the most studies on this topic, and the United States had the highest number of publications. Additionally, the findings indicate that the number of studies on sports events is increasing, with more studies being conducted in business and social sciences. Regarding keyword usage frequency, the studies focus on destination image, economic impact, and sustainability. Clustering analysis results show that the studies are divided into four clusters, focusing on sports, tourism, and tourism development.

Due to methodological limitations, the results of bibliometric analysis generally focus on metrics related to articles, sources, and authors. Another limitation is the examination of studies in the context of tourism that are published in the international literature and accessible only through the Scopus database in English. An additional limitation is that the publications analyzed in this study are specifically on sports events. This study aims to fill a gap in the field by examining sports event studies in the international literature, thereby providing researchers with a holistic perspective. It is considered significant as it will offer a different viewpoint on bibliometric studies related to sports events and sports tourism in the international literature, both in terms of the parameters used in the study and the study’s focus.

It is believed to be important because it is the first bibliometric study explicitly conducted on sports events.