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Sportovní cestovní ruch je v České republice známý již dlouho a aktivně se jej zúčastňuje mnoho lidí, jeho akademický výzkum je však zcela minimální. Zkoumanou destinací cestovního ruchu je mikroregion Ladův kraj s hlavním centrem městem Říčany. Tato oblast nabízí veliký potenciál rozvoje sportovního cestovního ruchu, který však zatím jen velmi málo využit. Jedná se buď o nevyužívání dostupných zdrojů nebo o špatnou alokaci prostředků do jejich využívání.

Trail running is thriving as a niche sport and lucrative sport tourism concept around the world. Whether it is for personal conquer, the experience of pure nature or just to stay healthy it is growing as a sport. The purpose of this exploratory study is to give an insight to the essence of trail running and what regulates the sport in Sweden. It also aims to investigate the impact of sport tourism and analyze trail race organizers perception of trail running as a potential lucrative business in Swedish mountain areas.     Data was collected and interviews were held with six different trail race organizers. This study gives an insight to the sport trail running itself, what rules regulate it, the impact of sport tourism on local tourism and investigate trail running event organizers  perception of trail running as a potentially successful niche of sport tourism in Swedish mountain areas.    This study show that trail running is an autonomous sport practiced in diverse terrain with not more than 20% hardened surface. The sport is regulated by ITRA and as a niche sport it can benefit both tourism and society. The interviews performed indicate that most of the organizers believe in trail running as a potentially successful niche of sport tourism when the right conditions are in place. Tough there are several indications why this could be difficult in certain areas in northern Sweden. This study is valuable for the development of niche sport tourism, like trail running, in Swedish mountain areas.

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The aim of this diploma thesis is to analyse conditions for sport tourism in the region of Liberec. First, the terms sport, tourism and sport tourism are defined. Thesis also handels with the relationship between sport and tourism. The author defined a typology of sport tourism attractions and used this typology in the practical part of this thesis. Second, the Liberec region is characterised so as conditions for tourism development - geografical position, accessability, accomodation, tourists meanings on region Liberec and attractions for sport tourism. All the information are summarized in the form of SWOT analysis (analysis of strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).

Increasingly, communities in regional areas are turning to sports events of a small scale to bring new money into their local economy, provide employment, and provide intangible benefits such as increased community pride. Sports events held on an irregular basis can attract visitors from outside a host community, thus resulting in an increase in business during slow periods and possibly promote the host region as a tourist destination after an event has been staged.In many instances, sponsorship has proven to be the financial lifeblood of sport tourism events held in regional areas, and often provides a majority of the revenue necessary to sustain the successful staging of such events. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) frequently provide the sponsorship necessary to stage such events, owing to the fact that large businesses are sparse in regional areas.The academic community has paid little attention to the sponsorship nexus between SMEs and regional sport tourism events, which this study aimed to address. Grounded in the interpretivist social sciences paradigm, this qualitative study examined five case studies through interviewing five SME owner/managers and five managers of regional sport tourism events. Areas examined included perceptions of sponsorship, reasons why SMEs provided sponsorship to regional sport tourism events, sponsorship leveraging, evaluation of sponsorship effectiveness, and how sponsorships were initiated between SMEs and regional sport tourism events.The results of this research found that the event managers and SME sponsors shared differing perceptions of what constitutes ‘sponsorship’. Volunteer event managers tended to view sponsorship in a somewhat philanthropic manner, while professional event managers were well aware of the importance of reciprocating a return on investment to their sponsors. Sponsorships in this context were initiated either through formal request or networks of personal contacts between SMEs and event organising committees. The sponsorships studied were found to be highly informal in nature and bound by gentlemen’s agreements, as opposed to legally binding contracts.The primary reasons driving SMEs to sponsor such events were related to supporting their local community and to be seen as socially responsible. Engaging in sponsorship to achieve bottom-line objectives were secondary to community involvement, which confirmed findings from similar studies conducted previously.The results also indicated that sponsorship leveraging and evaluation of sponsorship effectiveness did occur, albeit with varying degrees of success. Both sponsors and event managers tended to exhibit low levels of proficiency in being able to carry out effective sponsorship leveraging and evaluations, and as such leveraging and evaluation techniques employed in these sponsorships tended to be unsophisticated and inexpensive to execute. Only one of the five events studied provided any written post-event feedback to their sponsors.

Die fünf Publikationen dieser Dissertation beschäftigen sich mit dem Destinations-auswahlprozess von aktiven Sporttouristen in Mittelgebirgsregionen. Dabei werden zunächst aktive Wintersporttouristen im Erzgebirge untersucht, danach mit Winter-sporttouristen im Schwarzwald und abschließend mit aktiven Sommersporttouristen im Erzgebirge verglichen. Es zeigt sich, dass einige Typen von Sporttouristen in Mittelgebirgen bezüglich ihrer Destinationsauswahl mit Sporttouristen in anderen Destinationstypen vergleichbar sind. Gleichzeitig lassen sich jedoch auch mittelge-birgsspezifische Typen von Sporttouristen identifizieren. Wintersporttouristen ver-schiedener Mittelgebirge unterscheiden sich deutlich, während Sommer- und Win-tersporttouristen, welche die gleiche Destination wählen, annährend vergleichbar sind. Zukünftig sind deshalb destinationsspezifische und zugleich saisonübergrei-fende Marketingstrategien zu empfehlen. / The five publications of this dissertation deal with the destination-choice-process of active sports tourists in highlands. Firstly, active winter sports tourists of the Erzge-birge are investigated. Afterwards these active winter sports tourists are compared with tourists of the Schwarzwald. Finally, active summer and winter sports tourists of one highland are compared with each other. The results show, that some types of active winter sports tourists of highlands are comparable with sports tourists in other destinations. However, there are also highland specific winter sports tourists. At the same moment, there are more differences between winter sports tourists of different highland destinations than sports tourists in summer or winter within one destination. Destination-specific and all-year marketing strategies can be recom-mended to destination management organizations as a consequence of this work.

Increasingly, communities in regional areas are turning to sports events of a small scale to bring new money into their local economy, provide employment, and provide intangible benefits such as increased community pride. Sports events held on an irregular basis can attract visitors from outside a host community, thus resulting in an increase in business during slow periods and possibly promote the host region as a tourist destination after an event has been staged.In many instances, sponsorship has proven to be the financial lifeblood of sport tourism events held in regional areas, and often provides a majority of the revenue necessary to sustain the successful staging of such events. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) frequently provide the sponsorship necessary to stage such events, owing to the fact that large businesses are sparse in regional areas.The academic community has paid little attention to the sponsorship nexus between SMEs and regional sport tourism events, which this study aimed to address. Grounded in the interpretivist social sciences paradigm, this qualitative study examined five case studies through interviewing five SME owner/managers and five managers of regional sport tourism events. Areas examined included perceptions of sponsorship, reasons why SMEs provided sponsorship to regional sport tourism events, sponsorship leveraging, evaluation of sponsorship effectiveness, and how sponsorships were initiated between SMEs and regional sport tourism events.The results of this research found that the event managers and SME sponsors shared differing perceptions of what constitutes ‘sponsorship’. Volunteer event managers tended to view sponsorship in a somewhat philanthropic manner, while professional event managers were well aware of the importance of reciprocating a return on investment to their sponsors. Sponsorships in this context were initiated either through formal request or networks of personal contacts between SMEs and event organising committees. The sponsorships studied were found to be highly informal in nature and bound by gentlemen’s agreements, as opposed to legally binding contracts.The primary reasons driving SMEs to sponsor such events were related to supporting their local community and to be seen as socially responsible. Engaging in sponsorship to achieve bottom-line objectives were secondary to community involvement, which confirmed findings from similar studies conducted previously.The results also indicated that sponsorship leveraging and evaluation of sponsorship effectiveness did occur, albeit with varying degrees of success. Both sponsors and event managers tended to exhibit low levels of proficiency in being able to carry out effective sponsorship leveraging and evaluations, and as such leveraging and evaluation techniques employed in these sponsorships tended to be unsophisticated and inexpensive to execute. Only one of the five events studied provided any written post-event feedback to their sponsors.

Increasingly, communities in regional areas are turning to sports events of a small scale to bring new money into their local economy, provide employment, and provide intangible benefits such as increased community pride. Sports events held on an irregular basis can attract visitors from outside a host community, thus resulting in an increase in business during slow periods and possibly promote the host region as a tourist destination after an event has been staged.In many instances, sponsorship has proven to be the financial lifeblood of sport tourism events held in regional areas, and often provides a majority of the revenue necessary to sustain the successful staging of such events. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) frequently provide the sponsorship necessary to stage such events, owing to the fact that large businesses are sparse in regional areas.The academic community has paid little attention to the sponsorship nexus between SMEs and regional sport tourism events, which this study aimed to address. Grounded in the interpretivist social sciences paradigm, this qualitative study examined five case studies through interviewing five SME owner/managers and five managers of regional sport tourism events. Areas examined included perceptions of sponsorship, reasons why SMEs provided sponsorship to regional sport tourism events, sponsorship leveraging, evaluation of sponsorship effectiveness, and how sponsorships were initiated between SMEs and regional sport tourism events.The results of this research found that the event managers and SME sponsors shared differing perceptions of what constitutes ‘sponsorship’. Volunteer event managers tended to view sponsorship in a somewhat philanthropic manner, while professional event managers were well aware of the importance of reciprocating a return on investment to their sponsors. Sponsorships in this context were initiated either through formal request or networks of personal contacts between SMEs and event organising committees. The sponsorships studied were found to be highly informal in nature and bound by gentlemen’s agreements, as opposed to legally binding contracts.The primary reasons driving SMEs to sponsor such events were related to supporting their local community and to be seen as socially responsible. Engaging in sponsorship to achieve bottom-line objectives were secondary to community involvement, which confirmed findings from similar studies conducted previously.The results also indicated that sponsorship leveraging and evaluation of sponsorship effectiveness did occur, albeit with varying degrees of success. Both sponsors and event managers tended to exhibit low levels of proficiency in being able to carry out effective sponsorship leveraging and evaluations, and as such leveraging and evaluation techniques employed in these sponsorships tended to be unsophisticated and inexpensive to execute. Only one of the five events studied provided any written post-event feedback to their sponsors.

The central theme of this study is detraditionalization and differentiation of rock climbing in the UK. The type of climbing in the UK known as traditional climbing is taken as the "pregiven or natural order of things" (Heelas, 1996: 2) and how more contemporary rock climbing types interact with traditional climbing is explored. In line with detraditionalization, the study's premise is a loss of the 'traditional approach' to climbing in favour of more contemporary practices. For the purposes of this study rock climbing in the UK is differentiated by five climbing types; traditional climbing, sport climbing, indoor climbing, assortment climbing and bouldering. The study assumes the functioning of these climbing types to be underpinned by five cultural domains: ethics, practices, motivations, subcultural identity and lifestyle identity. Cultural domains are actions, behaviours and feelings associated with different types of rock climbing. The study explores the existence of the proposed cultural domains and hypothesises that different rock climbing types appeal to participants because within these more emphasis is placed on certain cultural domains. The study has four important theoretical pillars. First, detraditionalization and differentiation are justified as important concepts. Both are associated strongly with superficial and deeper meanings within the study. Second, an historical perspective adds context to the study and affirms the differentiated nature of UK rock climbing at a number of levels. Here, the 'great divide' (Donnelly, 2003) between traditional climbing and sport climbing is scrutinised and a history of traditional climbing developed. An exploration of values in rock climbing as well as its wider societal context forms the third theme. Subculture forms the final theoretical pillar where contemporary post-subcultural studies are explored and rock climbing differentiation aligned with a postmodern perspective. The study has two research phases: the quantitative phase is positivist in paradigm and seeks to establish a baseline for the study through establishing cultural domain existence. The qualitative phase observes their manifestation. A Liked style questionnaire was designed in the first study phase based on the initially identified cultural domains with 639 responses received from rock climbers categorising themselves into one of five given climbing types. Factor analysis did not substantiate the proposed five cultural domains. A more complex domain structure was evidenced with all sub-groups clearly showing differences in cultural domain priority. The qualitative phase observed cultural domain manifestations of fifteen climbers, twelve of whom may be described as primary subculture members (Donnelly, 1981). Four qualitative tools were developed: participant observation; recorded discussion; snapshot camera work and visual diaries. The qualitative phase tells the participants' story. Their life worlds are reflected upon using the four tools and a strong narrative exists that is the participants' climbing lives. Both research phases reveal complexity of cultural domain by climbing type and new taxonomies were offered as more accurate representations. Congruence between study phases was recorded developing three important cultural domain issues for future consideration. First, cultural domains of traditional climbing are markedly different because of the difficulty of focusing on the physicality of climbing given the nature of ascent. In contrast, contemporary climbing types (bouldering, sport and indoor climbing) easily identify with physicality and concentrated on climber's technical ability to complete difficult rock climbing sequences in relative safety. Physicality represented an important reward for contemporary climbers, whereas for traditional climbers, being in the outdoors, and the holistic experience associated with this, was held in high regard. The outdoor experience was less important in other types of climbing Second, skills of traditional climbing developed through an 'outdoor apprenticeship' are attached to specific outcomes embedded in the natural environment. It forms an essential element of safe traditional climbing practice, particularly if mountain crags are preferred. For sport climbing, indoor climbing and bouldering many of these skills are no longer necessities. This is linked strongly with a more utilitarian value base underpinning cultural domains in contemporary climbing. Finally, the complexity of the 'great divide' (Donnelly, 2003) involving other rock climbing types as well as sport climbing and traditional climbing is recognised. Assortment climbers are seen as the conduit through which climbers with broad experience may regularly bridge the great divide given the necessary skills and inclination. Assortment climbers are underrepresented in this study and account for a growing number of climbers with a flexible approach to rock climbing. Establishing cultural domains by climbing type in rock climbing remains complex. While there is a clear distinction of cultural domain manifestation in traditional rock climbing compared with contemporary rock climbing types, the common notion of what constitutes a legitimate ascent across all rock climbing types still rests within a traditional climbing interpretation. The study recommends further exploration of the interplay between identifiable rock climbing types in the UK.