The Journal of Sport & Tourism is approaching its 20th Anniversary Year. To mark this anniversary four special issues of the journal are planned over the next two years focusing on The Big Questions for research into sport and tourism. The first of these special issues focuses on the theme of active sport tourism.
Active sport tourism was proposed as a category of sport tourism to describe people traveling to participate in sport, as opposed to traveling to view sports. Much of the early work on active sport tourism was associated with golf and skiing, but in recent years with the growth of participatory sports events, studies on cycling, triathlon, and running have been added to the body of knowledge related to active sport tourism.
While the existing literature provides some knowledge about what active sport tourists do, there is less understanding of how active sport tourists make choices about what activities and destinations to choose, or about how different sport tourism activities interact within individuals’ sport tourism ‘careers’ or participation profiles. There is a need for diverse, international and theory driven perspectives on active sport tourism. Similarly, outside the extant areas of research focus, golf and skiing, the partnerships and alliances needed to develop active sport tourism products, many of which tend to be small-scale, are not clear. Further, sports tours that create hybrid experiences combining active sport tourism with passive spectator experiences at major sport events, such as tours to the Tour de France (e.g., Lamont & McKay, 2012), have not been widely examined. It is also unclear whether national, regional, local or individual commercial stakeholders are best placed to take the lead on active sport tourism product development and promotion. Hence, the aims of this special issue are twofold:
- To expand theory driven understandings of active sport tourism by providing empirical insights on topics ranging from active sport tourists’ experiences to active sport tourism delivery structures, opportunities and challenges, in a range of international sports contexts.
- To consider possibilities for the future of active sport tourism and the research of active sport tourism.
For this special issue we welcome submissions on these topics and others related to furthering our knowledge about active sport tourism. The Guest Editors also welcome approaches from authors who would like to discuss potential papers for this special issue.
Guest editors: Prof Heather Gibson, University of Florida, hgibson@hhp.ufl.edu; Dr Matthew Lamont, Southern Cross University, matthew.lamont@scu.edu.au; Dr Millicent Kennelly, Griffith University, m.kennelly@griffith.edu.au
Deadline for submission: October 1st, 2015
Submissions are due on or before 1 October, 2015 via the Journal of Sport & Tourism online submission system.
Richard J Buning, PhD
Sport and Leisure Program
Department of Health & Sport Sciences
The University of Memphis
208 Elma Roane Fieldhouse
Memphis, TN 38152
901.678.3486
rjbuning@memphis.edu
