Source: Goggle image

This article expands the article on KOMPAS that encourage the thinking for sports activities to be developed together with tourism. KOMPAS as the prestigious Indonesia newspaper published the article to transmute the 2000 people spirit and thinking through collaboration of sport and tourism activities, which wrapped in Borobudur Marathon 2016 event. Charless Pigeassou in his publication on journal of sports and tourism, gave a straight definition of sport tourism as an economic and social activity at the crossroad of sport and tourism. Thus, sport tourism is understood as part of tourism market that characterized by numbers of offering sources from diversified services. By law, Indonesia tourism business sector of meeting, incentive travel, conference and exhibition organization understood as the tourism business that providing service for a group of people, organizing the travel for employees and business partners as the compensation for his achievement, as well as organizing the exhibition to disseminate the information and promotion of a goods and service with national, regional, and international scale.

Indeed, the annual international event of Borobudur Marathon is translation of the Indonesia sport tourism. Practically, the event contributes to the country’s both economic and social development, especially for Borobudur surrounded area. The next coming event will deliver the themes of “reborn harmony”, which aimed to restore the spirit of togetherness of runners and the people of Central Java that could enhance the value of Borobudur as world’s heritage tourism destination in Indonesia.

However, although the sport tourism in Indonesia has been well acknowledged by Indonesia Tourism Minister and the local and international industry sectors through the succesful event of sport tourism of cycling namely Tour de Flores, Tour de Ijen and Tour de Singkarak that has significantly boost the image of their local tourism destination (Kompas article on 26/07/2017). Thus, Triathlon Ironman 70.3 Bintan and Tour De Bintan, Moon Run (Kompas article on 13/07/2017), which boost up Bintan island revenue and international tourist arrival. But, the idea of rejuvenate sports and tourism activities in the economic and social impact seems to have less attention from Indonesia tourism educator since it is rarely to find the tourism school that offer sport tourism as a program study, streaming or even stimulate its’ academic conversation apart from event study. This small talk want to serve the educational actor and institutional thinking for their thought concerning sport tourism conceptual framework for tourism education.

Gammon and Robinson provided the model thinking that can be capitalized for Indonesian tourism and educational stakeholders’ conceptualization. The model could stimulate tourism educator to enhance the sport tourism academic discussion that just managing and operating of mega events. But, it also caters both concerns of one’s participation a specific needs and motivation/ reason offered to sport and tourism related services and experiences. The model broke down sport tourism concept into two intellectual discussion to endure academic interest and development, which are sport tourism and tourism sport. First, sport tourism is the place for discussing the topic of individual/ and groups of sports/ and traveller who actively or passively engage in competitive or recreational sport activity outside their usual environment. Whereas, tourism sport dedicates to capture one’s related needs and services for their secondary interest, actively or passively, in a competitive or recreational sport while travelling to/ and or staying in places outside their usual environment. These two-fold ideas of sports tourism might be translated to the academic future of tourism program study or even just stand-alone streaming offered in a tourism institutional. Pic. 1 provide the sport tourism academic concept visualization to inform a wider tourism shareholders.

Pic. 1 Sport Tourism Education

 

Source: Adapted from Gammon, S., & Robinson, T. (2003). Sport and Tourism: A Conceptual Framework. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 8(1), 21-26. doi:10.1080/14775080306236

Moreover, in term of academic research framework, Hinch and Higham join the conversation in the continuing examination of sport-focused tourism education. The research framework inquiry and development emerge from two perspectives discussion. First, conceptual domain of sport tourism that decode the contextual territory into three such as hallmark event (Olympic games, Worlds Cup), health and fitness (Therapeutic spa of eastern & Mediterranean), and outdoor recreation (Camping, picnicking). Second, the discussion that place the sport as a tourism attraction, which comprise of three critical elements topic such as human elements (need and wants of leisure), nucleus (the site where the consumed product will take place), and marker (the information that is potential nuclear in a tourist attraction). Hence, those two theoretical arguments provide the backbone of three-dimension sport tourism research framework in order to tourism educator to make sense the broad range of the research interest as well as distinguish the future direction. Additionally, Picture 2 showed the graphic illustration for sport tourism research framework.

 

Picture 2. Sports Tourism Academic Research Framework

 

 

Source: Hinch, T. D., & Higham, J. E. (2001). Sport tourism: A framework for research. The International Journal of Tourism Research, 3(1), 45.

 

The picture 2 provide the sport tourism researcher to focus into three-dimension discussion that can be described as follow:

  • sports dimension:
    1. rule structure: focus on management and design of sport attraction
    2. physical competition: focus on level or types of competition associated with sports as well as influence factor to the nature of travel experience
    3. playfulness: focus on research inquiry towards sport outcomes, sanctioned display, and the utility and seriousness of sport
  • spatial dimension: (associate with geography of tourism)
    1. location: locate sport facilities, determination of threshold level of player and/ or spectators needed to sustain a given sport, team, or facility
    2. region: relating to the influence and scale of sport, team, or an individual athlete on the image of a destination
    3. landscape: discuss both in terms of dependency of particular sports on the presence of definite physical assets and the effect of sport on tourism landscape
  • temporal dimension:
    1. duration: determining a day visitor and long-stay visitor
    2. seasonality: identify significant fluctuation in tourism activity throughout the year that influence to a challenge such as professionalization, globalization and/ or technology
    3. evolution: sustainable sport tourism, life cycle associate with evolution of various types of sport

To this end, the article expects to accelerate the way forward for Indonesian tourism educator and institution in concern sport tourism education and research development.

Bibliography

Gammon, S., & Robinson, T. (2003). Sport and Tourism: A Conceptual Framework. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 8(1), 21-26. doi:10.1080/14775080306236

Hinch, T. D., & Higham, J. E. (2001). Sport tourism: A framework for research. The International Journal of Tourism Research, 3(1), 45.

Pigeassou, C. (2004). Contribution to the definition of sport tourism. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 9(3), 287-289. doi:10.1080/1477508042000320205