I.2.4. The role and significance of recreation in Hungary:

From a sociological point of view recreation means the the restoration or recreation of working capacity and health. Consequently, recreation is the science of life quality. (Kovács, 2007)      

There are two approaches to recreation. According to one of these there are two types: relaxing and creative leisure time activities. Within the group of relaxation there are two types, the active and the passive. The passive type includes sleep and general relaxation while the active type includes going to the cinema, or theatre, or  to a concert, watching the TV and reading. Creative pastimes include learning, artistic acrivities, do-it-yourself activities, and gardening.

According to another classification there are intellectual and physical recreational activities, In the group of physical recreation  these can be angling, sunbathing, swimming, hiking,. sight-seeing etc. The category of sports recreation includes fitness, aerobics, jogging and skiing. All these activities involve the whole body, its cardiovascular and hormone system, all its bones and muscles. Based on well known health care data (Table 1 and Graph 2) the level of culture of leisure time activities is low and this feature is due to inactive lifestyle, watching  television  and sitting in front of computers and playing computer games.

Table 3. Recreational areas (own work)

Tourism can be part of both recreational areas, but usually it can serve people’s interests on its own.

Sports tourism is a special area of recreation. For people it means travelling to a destination different from their place of residence with the aim of doing some sports-recreational activity or to go to or participate in a sports event or visit sports sights, museums or stadiums. (Gibson, 1998).

Sports tourists can be divided into two groups- One is those people, whose primary aim is sports, and those for whom sports is only a secondary aim during their travel. (Gammon – Robinson, 1997).

Elements of sports tourism:

1. 1. Fitness tourism
   2. Learning a type of sports (tennis and/or ski courses)
   3. Health tourism
   • • Medical tourism
     • Thermal tourism
     • Wellness tourism

For further details see: Gáldi (2011) A rekreáció elmélete és gyakorlata