Host and Guest Relations and Sport Tourism

Sports tourism activities have the potential to enrich the lives of host community members by promoting economic prosperity, providing further social and recreational opportunities, and developing new infrastructure. However, such activities may be adversely affected by confusion, noise, environmental damage, etc. if not properly managed. This article outlines some of the theories and methods to better understand the impact of sports tourism on the host community and to better manage these impacts to ensure sustainability of the activities . It also shows the results of a series of empirical case studies investigating the impact of major sports events.

The Canadian Sports Tourism Alliance (CSTA) was established in 2000 to introduce Canada as a preferred sports destination to the Canadian market and to develop sports tourism in Canada. The purpose of the alliance is to increase Canada's ability to attract and host sports tourism activities. The alliance has more than 400 members, including 142 municipalities, more than 200 national and state sports associations, and various products and service providers within the industry. For more information, please visit the Canada Sports Tourism Alliance website. http://canadiansporttourism.com

The next economic impact that major international sports events can bring to host countries is the development of tourism. Today, "large-scale sports events" like the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup are supposed to be big tourist spots to attract a large number of people. As a result, millions of people from all over the world are participating each time they are detained. During the "Large Sports Event", millions of people can go to host countries to watch games. Hotel rooms, meals, drinks, transportation, game tickets, competitions and more can also be purchased. This means that tourism has increased expenditure and promoted retail growth, which is very beneficial to the host economy. In addition, foreign tourists will definitely be interested in famous historical attractions of the host country. That means that there are many tourism activities. Today, sightseeing is the most reliable element to achieve huge economic growth.

It is very important to be able to raise the awareness of the host country as a tourist destination when holding the "Large Scale Sports Games". To do that, media participation is necessary. Morphet (1996) confirmed that the media is a very important part in advertising the host as a tourist destination (as described in Malfas, Theodoraki and Houlihan, 2004, p. 213). The reason is that media related advertisements and commercial advertisements not only attract tourists but also attract foreign sponsorship and investment. In other words, this is very beneficial to the host country's economy.

Sports tourism activities have the potential to enrich the lives of host community members by promoting economic prosperity, providing further social and recreational opportunities, and developing new infrastructure. However, such activities may be adversely affected by confusion, noise, environmental damage, etc. if not properly managed. This article outlines some of the theories and methods to better understand the impact of sports tourism on the host community and to better manage these impacts to ensure sustainability of the activities . It also shows the results of a series of empirical case studies investigating the impact of major sports events.