Conclusion: Current Trends in Small Scale Sport Tourism Events and Local Sustainable Development. A Comparative Approach

This book aimed to outline the importance of sport tourism, particularly the contribution of small scale sport tourism events for local sustainable development. This final chapter synthesizes the findings and current trends of nine countries across three continents that participated in this international research project. As illustrated in the nine case studies, sport tourism has increased in importance over the last two decades, representing one of the fastest growing tourism sectors. Of the most important sport tourism activities, scholars cited nature sports, cycling and football tourism as the most popular categories. Authors also highlighted the areas of greatest growth among sport tourism events, recognizing small scale sport tourism events, such running events or races, as exceedingly popular. The growth of sport tourism around the world has also brought both positive and negative impacts to local communities, their economies, environment and social life. In response to negative impacts, local and national governments in most of the countries presented in this book are aware of these potential problems. The analysis carried out in this chapter compares the geographic and socio-demographic characteristics of the cities or municipalities hosting these half marathons, the characteristics of the event’s organizers, demographic profiles of race participants and perceived and actual impacts of such events on the local community. Finally, the chapter presents some concluding remarks and future directions in small scale sport tourism events research.