III.5.4. Market conditions
On the demand side of sport tourism there are the active sportspeople, sport managers, coaches, supporters, spectators, and all those persons, who do sport only occasionally. Their demands are related to those destinations, where they can pursue their activity. In order to accomplish their aims – considering the given type of sport – there are other conditions to be met, too. These extra conditions include the professional context, the work of coaches, physicians, specialists of recreation. Safety issues and good organization are also important. Not counting professional sport tourism the most important aims of sport tourism are joy and entertainment. (Bokor 2009).
On the supply side of sport tourism there are the active sportspeople, too (as spectacle, or, adversary), the active participants (managers, promoters), tour operators, producers and suppliers of sport equipment, and other related businesses on the peripheries (hotel owners, caterers etc.) . The infrastructural supply (e.g. sport facilites, vehicles for transport, information offices), the suprastructure, as well as the various human and natural resources also play significant roles. (Turco et. al. 2002).
The most important feature of athe tourism product is that it includes a variety of services. Sport tourism products, depending on tha aim, might also vary. They include competitions, training camps, sport excursions, hikes, cycling tours, water cruises, caving, nordic walking or geocaching. There are cases when sport tourism offers are ’pre-packaged’, for example they are parts of a health tourism package. (Michalkó 2011). In the market of sport tourism the product to be purchased and to be sold is distinctive from the one we can find in spectacle or recreational sports. Spectacle sport is based on he idea of watching other people’s sport achievements, that is the supporter is willing to pay for being able to see other people run, swim or play tennis. In recreational sport, on the contrary, participants pay to experience the joy of doind sport, the joy of exercising, exhaustion or of scoring a goal. (Kiss G. 2009).
„Having examined the demand and supply side of tourism it can be stated that the demand for sport can exist Independently of the main goal of travel. This is why sport infrastucture, to be found in the vicinity of the destination of travel, can influence tourists when choosing a place to go to. For this reason swimming pools, fitness centres, wellness services are important in those regions, too, which are popular with business people. (Gáldi 2011).