engleski

An evaluation of the current state of sport tourism offer in Croatian coastal destinations

Sport tourism registers a significant growth in tourism flows which is witnessed by the growth of tourists who choose to visit a certain tourist destination in order to participate in a sport event as an active or passive participant, tourists who visit destinations to celebrate sports by visiting its attractions, or tourists who choose to participate in sports activities during their holiday. Participating in these sport activities may or may not represent the main motive of their visit to a destination. Through development of successful and competitive sport tourism offer destinations are able to achieve significant economic advantages as well as provide their visitors to satisfy their needs for sports activities that were denied to them due to the stressful and demanding way of life caused by family, business and other types of commitments. Through positive experiences during their stay in a destination as well as satisfying their needs for sports activity, there is a higher chance that visitors will decide to re-visit the destination in the future. Republic of Croatia has over the years initiated activities in developing this specific form of tourism, but for the time being sport tourism hasn´t reached its full potential, which is visible from the current Strategy of tourism development of the Republic of Croatia until 2020 according to which sport tourism belongs in the group of tourist products with an exceptional perspective of development. Within this paper the authors will present the positive experiences of international destinations in developing sport tourism offer, as well as present the state of Croatian sport tourism offer, with a particular accent on the profile of tourists who choose to participate in sport activities during their stay in Croatian coastal destinations. The main accent will be given towards determining how motivated are visitors to participate in sports activities during their stay, which sports activities do they prefer during their stay, and how satisfied are they with the current offer of sports activities in the destination. The results will provide a basis for rethinking the directions of future sports tourist offer development. Within this paper the authors will use the appropriate scientific and professional literature in sports tourism, as well as the empirical results obtained from secondary sources.

sport tourism ; sports tourist offer ; Republic of Croatia

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