CONDITIONS AND FACTORS DETERMINING THE DEMAND FOR SPORTS TOURISM IN THE WORLD

Abstract

Through the influence on the conditions and factors it is possible to affect the dynamic processes occurring in the territorial entities. Such entity is sports tourism which constitutes a kind of active recreation and tourism activity carried out in the natural environment and involves passing of tourist sport routes and overcoming various obstacles. The external environment in terms of sports tourism can be presented in the form of two constituents: natural and social. Natural geosystem serves as a base substrate system of sports tourism and is represented by the natural surrounding and ecological macroenvironment. General geosystem is represented by social, political, economic, cultural macroenvironments. Social and economic conditions of forming the demand for sports tourism in the world include an assessment of geographical location, transportation availability, and degree of provision of tourism with industries necessary for its service, degree of infrastructure development and completeness of package of services. Among the social conditions of tourism development it is necessary to emphasis on the increase of leisure time duration for population which in combination with rising standards of life means increasing the number of potential tourists interested in active forms of tourism. Based on research of Russian geographer L. Y. Mazhar, we identified factors forming the demand for sports tourism which can be grouped into two types: no localizing factors, that is tourist and recreational needs, organizational, managerial, economic, material and domestic, social, psychological, health care, environmental, innovation factors, staff assistance factors; localizing factors – geotorical, geopolitical, natural and recreational, historical and cultural, infrastructural, recreation and activity. The combined effect of determined conditions and factors form a stable growing demand for sports tourism in the world.