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Experiencing Tourism Journal of Sport & Tourism. .

Article  in  Journal of Sport Tourism · May 2012

DOI: 10.1080/14775085.2012.729897

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Experiencing sport tourism

Richard Shipway & Nancy Stevenson
Published online: 23 Nov 2012.

To cite this article: Richard Shipway & Nancy Stevenson (2012) Experiencing sport tourism, Journal
of Sport & Tourism, 17:2, 81-84, DOI: 10.1080/14775085.2012.729897

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 Journal of Sport & Tourism
Vol. 17, No. 2, May 2012, pp. 81 –84

GUEST EDITORIAL

Experiencing sport tourism

Richard Shipway & Nancy Stevenson

One particular area that sport and tourism have in common is that they provide con-
Downloaded by [University of Westminster - ISLS] at 00:30 08 January 2015

sumers with experiences. An understanding of the ways in which tourists experience

the places and people they visit and the activities they undertake, is therefore funda-
mental to the study of the consumption of sport tourism. According to Ritchie et al.
(2011), the essence of tourism in today’s world is the development and delivery of
travel and visitation experiences to a range of individuals and groups who wish to
see, understand, and experience the nature of different destinations and the way
people live, work, and enjoy life in those destinations. In this context engagement
in sporting or adventure activities is one of many ways in which people chose to
experience places and people. However the relationship between the sporting and
travel aspects of sport tourism is complex and motivations of participants vary.
Research by Kirkup (2012) considered Olympic spectators/tourists and identified
the importance of social interaction with other tourists who share a common interest.
In this case the sporting event itself and the sense of belonging and social identity
derived from supporting the event appears to predominate. Experience of the wider
destination and its people is secondary.
As sport tourism has continued to expand in both scale and scope, and as sport
tourists’ needs and expectations have become more diverse and complex, so too
have their sport tourist experiences. As such, one approach towards understanding
the interaction between sport and tourism is to consider sport tourism as an experi-
ence. Sport tourism experiences are subjective and emotional, laden with symbolic
meaning. From the perspective of the sport tourism consumer, a focus on experiences
has arisen in response to the limitations of seeing consumer behaviour purely in terms
of cognitive information processing (Morgan, 2007). Similarly, within the context of
the development of the more youthful area of sport tourism research, it has previously
been suggested that focusing on sport tourism as an experience can assist with addres-
sing the concerns expressed by both Gibson (2005) and Weed (2006), respectively, that
there should be a greater focus on understanding rather than describing sport tourism
behaviours. It is with this in mind, and with an aim to assist with the academic pro-
gression from description to explanation, that this special issue follows this emerging
path and continues to move studies beyond the profiling of sport tourists to a deeper
understanding and a more meaningful explanation of the factors underlying their
engagement.

ISSN 1477-5085 (print)/ISSN 1029-5399 (online) # 2012 Taylor & Francis

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14775085.2012.729897
 82 Guest Editorial
The papers in this special issue seek to explore experiences of sport tourism. They
present and reflect upon research which is situated within specific localities. Three use
ethnographic methods to explore the feelings and motivations of participants of sport
travel and tourism. These experiences are touristic but reflect the blurring of bound-
aries between the concepts of travel, recreation, and tourism. Two papers present auto
ethnographies illustrating and exploring participants’ internal feelings and emotions
as they experience a particular event. They illustrate personal and localised experiences
of sport tourism activities which enable exploration and reflection upon the nuances
tensions and paradoxes arising in the inner worlds of the participants. These latent
feelings in both papers include anxieties and fears which are influenced by wider
life experiences. These negative feelings are largely internalised and less visible than
Downloaded by [University of Westminster - ISLS] at 00:30 08 January 2015

positive feelings which are more easily shared.

The first paper in this special issue by Jillian M. Rickly-Boyd employs the concept of
existential authenticity (Wang, 1999) to examine findings of an ethnographic study of
the hypermobile subculture of rock climbing. This conceptual framing enables her to
explore the nuances of rock-climbers travel and sporting experiences identifying the
feelings, emotions, sensations, relationships and sense of self. Rickly-Boyd argues
that authenticity is performative as she explores the bodily practice and flow of
climbing, the liminality of travel, life in the outdoors, the camaraderie of fellow
lifestyle climbers, and the (re)discovery of a sense of self. She suggests that while a
passion for climbing is the primary motivation for taking up this lifestyle, moments
of existential authenticity are the result of experiences, challenges, and accomplish-
ments of travel.
The second paper by Coghlan adopts a thematic/analytic autoethnographic
approach to explore some of the themes present in the author’s experience of a
three day cycling charity challenge event in Queensland, Australia. The results establish
both the manifest and latent aspects of the cycling experience using diary entries
recorded during the event. Coghlan’s paper provides insights into one event that
occurs at the boundaries of cycling tourism, sports and charity events, whilst advocat-
ing for an understanding of the nuances that permeate participants’ experiences of
such events. Her findings also raise questions about how to understand some of the
unspoken facets of the tourism experience. Topics such as fear and anxiety are
identified as difficult to discuss with external researchers, or to capture in their entirety
through more prescriptive research methods, such as surveys, structured or semi-
structured interviews.
The next paper in this collection by Houge Mackenzie and Kerr is a second auto-
ethnographic study that provides a deeper understanding of mountaineering adven-
ture tourism experiences in Bolivia. Drawing from psychological theory the authors
provide a multifaceted view of the author/participant’s feelings and risk perceptions.
Their findings explore paradoxical desires for risk and safety in adventure tourism.
They discuss the emotional and motivational fluctuations experienced by a mountai-
neer adventure tourist during a three day guided climb. This study illustrates the
negative psychological outcomes that arise from a difference between a participant’s
expectations and experience. It highlights the importance of a ‘protective frame’ to
 Guest Editorial 83

give adventure sport tourists the sense that they are protected from risk or danger
while they are undertaking challenging activities. The protective frame is created by
practices and behaviours of guides, the provision of appropriate safety equipment,
guidance and procedures, the group dynamic and the environmental conditions.
For a second time in this special issue the utility of autoethnographic research in
sport and adventure tourism settings is highlighted as a way of exploring inner feelings
and emotions that arise during a sport/adventure tourism experience.
In contrast, the fourth paper in the special issue by Hallmann, Feiler, Müller and
Breuer uses a quantitative methodological approach to investigate the influence of per-
formed sport activities on the perceived winter sport tourist experience. In the city of
Oberstdorf in Germany winter sport tourists were surveyed by means of a self-admi-
Downloaded by [University of Westminster - ISLS] at 00:30 08 January 2015

nistered questionnaire about their activities, behaviour and their perception of the
winter sport experience. Their findings revealed that the activities performed by the
tourists had an impact on their perceived winter sport experience, and that different
activities were found to drive different dimensions of the winter sport experience.
In this special issue all four papers focus on active participation in sport tourism
which involves a degree of adventure, danger and individual endeavour. A limitation
of this issue therefore is that we have not been able to present the experiences of those
involved in team sports or those who are more passively engaged in sport tourism such
as spectators. The first three papers engage directly in the bodily practice of doing the
activity. The engagement of the participants is active, performative and physical. The
experience engenders a range of feelings, both physical and psychological. Participants
in each of these papers experience an array of emotions. Some are positive and include
excitement, fulfilment and ‘flow’ and sense of achievement. Others are negative and
include fear and anxiety. These negative emotions and feelings are more difficult to
research as they are internal. They are explored in most depth in the two papers
using auto ethnographic methods.
The experiences explored in this issue highlight the link between the engagement in
sport tourism and identity. At an individual level these experiences provided an oppor-
tunity for participants to form, change or confirm ideas about themselves. These
experiences develop their sense of self and of achievement. They appear to be a part
of an evolving process of identity creation/confirmation. This process is not just
internally focussed and involves identification of the individual participants place
within a wider group of people engaged in that activity. The first three papers illustrate
a sense of belonging to a group and the importance of that group in shaping the
experiences. Two papers identify perceptions of the group as ‘outsiders’ occupying a
marginal place in wider society (climbers and cyclists).
These four studies illustrate that there is a need for more focused studies on sport
tourism that reflect the ever-increasing diversity and complexity of the interaction
between sport and tourism. They highlight the importance of developing more
nuanced approaches to understanding experience. The insight into the negative
emotions associated with some sport tourism activities has implications in terms of
the management and design of new experiences. In particular the discussion of the
protective frame and the need to create safe and supportive environments which
 84 Guest Editorial
enables people to experience a sense of thrill that arise from sense of achievement,
rather than fear. The links to the psychological literature raises questions about under-
standing the role of the sport tourism experience in developing a sense of self.
As argued by Shipway and Fyall (2012), sport tourism experience can only
genuinely be understood by exploring the specific sport tourism contexts within
which they occur. It is hoped that the papers in this special Issue illustrate that the
nature of the subject area being explored, ‘experiences’, is one that holds extensive
future potential to further encourage interdisciplinary contributions from a diverse
range of areas within the social sciences such as anthropology, cultural studies, psy-
chology, gender studies and sociology to name but a few. The articles clearly demon-
strate that providing tourists with high quality, extraordinary, memorable experiences
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lies at the heart of what constitutes sport tourism. Ultimately, it is hoped that future
studies that view sport tourism as an experience will lead to a deeper understanding of
the interaction between sport and tourism.

References
Gibson, H. (2005) Towards an understanding of ‘why sport tourists do what they do’, Sport in Society,
8(2), pp. 198–217.
Kirkup, N. (2012) Olympic tourists: Seeking a sense of belonging and the construction of social
identities, in: R. Shipway & A. Fyall (Eds) International Sports Events: Impacts, Experiences
and Identities. Chap. 13, pp. 169 –180 (London: Routledge).
Morgan, M. (2007) ‘We’re not the Barmy Army!’: Reflections on the sports tourist experience,
International Journal of Tourism Research, 9, pp. 361–372.
Ritchie, J. R. B., Tung, V. W. S. & Ritchie, R. J. B. (2011) Tourism experience management research:
Emergence, evolution and future directions, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 23(4), pp. 419–438.
Shipway, R. & Fyall, A. (2012) International Sports Events: Impacts, Experiences and Identities
(London: Routledge).
Wang, N. (1999) Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience, Annals of Tourism Research, 26(2),
pp. 349–370.
Weed, M. (2006) Sports tourism research 2000–2004: A systematic review of knowledge and a
meta-interpretation of methods, Journal of Sport and Tourism, 11(1), pp. 5–30.

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