Sports tourism is a newly faceted sector within tourism that is swiftly gaining popularity in Sweden. Today, a majority of the population know someone who has taken part in a fitness- holiday; thereby giving credence to its increased development. This study aims to analyze what the concept of sports tourism means to companies and customers, but also how this growing trend has affected the smaller companies in the Swedish tourism industry over the last five years. Both companies and customers postulate that fitness-holidays will continue to increase in demand as it gains traction. This essay aims to not only analyze the sorts of developments the customers are requesting, but also to see if their demands coincide with the developments that companies are looking to produce. A qualitative method has been applied to answer the questions posed in this essay; two interviews were conducted with smaller companies that sell fitness-holidays on the Swedish market. To examine the customers’ perspectives on the future developments; three additional group interviews were conducted with nine participants. The main theories that have been used for the analysis are the Service Supply Chain-model by Lisa Ellram, Wendy Tate and Corey Billington (2004), as well as the Tourism Industry Supply Chain by Xinyan Zhang, Haiyan Song and George Q. Huang (2009). The discussion on the concept of sports tourism is primarily based on a model created by Tom Robinson and Sean Gammon (2004). The results of the study reveal that it is difficult to extrapolate one general definition for the concept of sports-tourism; the definition varies in conjunction with the company and the customers’ experience. The developments in this sector has increased sales for the smaller companies who view their products to be unique offerings on the Swedish market; therefore, they feel they are not that affected by the other companies. The developments that consumers are requesting correspond quite well with the developments the companies are working to implement; both sides concur that flexibility and sustainability are the biggest challenges for the future.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-40690 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Gomér, Klara, Jansson, Amanda |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Turismvetenskap, Södertörns högskola, Turismvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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