<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><bold>Background:</bold> Sport tourism plays an important role in the tourism industry and consequently in the economy. Sport tourism centres as providers of sport services need to be familiar with the basic needs of their customers and tailor their services accordingly. <bold>Objectives:</bold> The aim of the paper is to determine the models for customizing sport tourism services to address the needs specific for an individual sport. <bold>Methods/Approach:</bold> A questionnaire has been created and sent electronically or physically to top athletes from Slovenia, Central and Eastern Europe. Respondents were mainly from Slovenia and mostly representatives of national sports federations. The Mann Whitney and the Kruskall-Wallis tests were applied in order to test differences among sport groups. <bold>Results:</bold> The conducted Mann-Whitney non-parametric tests show that representatives of different sport groups have different perspectives on sport tourism services. <bold>Conclusions:</bold> The results of the study can be used by sport tourism centres in the process of tailoring their services, planning marketing activities or developing strategic projects.</p></abstract>

Background: Sport tourism plays an important role in the tourism industry and consequently in the economy. Sport tourism centres as providers of sport services need to be familiar with the basic needs of their customers and tailor their services accordingly. Objectives: The aim of the paper is to determine the models for customizing sport tourism services to address the needs specific for an individual sport. Methods/Approach: A questionnaire has been created and sent electronically or physically to top athletes from Slovenia, Central and Eastern Europe. Respondents were mainly from Slovenia and mostly representatives of national sports federations. The Mann Whitney and the Kruskall-Wallis tests were applied in order to test differences among sport groups. Results: The conducted Mann-Whitney non-parametric tests show that representatives of different sport groups have different perspectives on sport tourism services. Conclusions: The results of the study can be used by sport tourism centres in the process of tailoring their services, planning marketing activities or developing strategic projects.

Sport Tourism Centres from Top Athletes’ Perspective: Differences among Sport Groups

Faculty of Commercial and Business Sciences, Celje, Slovenia & Unlor d.d. Tourism Programme, Zreče, Slovenia

Business Systems Research Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Background: Sport tourism plays an important role in the tourism industry and consequently in the economy. Sport tourism centres as providers of sport services...

Sport Tourism Centres from Top Athletes’ Perspective: Differences among Sport Groups

Published Online: Sep 10, 2014

Page range: 97 - 109

Received: Dec 02, 2012

Accepted: Feb 12, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bsrj-2014-0013

Keywords
sport tourism centre, top athletes, tourism offer, perceived value, customer satisfaction, sport service

© 2014 Anze Polanec

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Sport Tourism Centres from Top Athletes’ Perspective: Differences among Sport Groups

Published Online: Sep 10, 2014

Page range: 97 - 109

Received: Dec 02, 2012

Accepted: Feb 12, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bsrj-2014-0013

Keywordssport tourism centre, top athletes, tourism offer, perceived value, customer satisfaction, sport service

© 2014 Anze Polanec

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
sport tourism centre, top athletes, tourism offer, perceived value, customer satisfaction, sport service