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The role of small-scale sports events in developing sustainable sport tourism – a case study of fencing
17-22Views:1887Promoting sports and sport tourism is considered as a strategic development objective at the local, regional and national levels in Hungary. However, sport tourism is present in many different forms, depending on the type of sport activity, the related sport events and its participants, therefore it is challenging to decide on the type of sports and sports events that should be supported to ensure long-term social and economic benefits for a local community. The scale of sports events ranges from the small, local competitions to the international mega sports events. Although the economic benefits of mega sports events are generally appreciated, there has been growing critique about their negative social and environmental impacts. Smallscale sports events also have important potential for tourism, and they may have more advantages for the local community than the mega events by providing additional incomes, using the already existing infrastructure, raising local pride and community spirit. Sport tourism related to small-scale events is generally considered to be a more sustainable form of tourism. The purpose of this paper is to examine the tourism development potential of small-scale sports events, particularly focusing on fencing competitions. It highlights the demand side of the sport tourism market, investigating the behavioral profile of the participants of an international fencing tournament. A questionnaire survey was conducted at the Budapest WestEnd Women's Epee Grand Prix 2014. The data revealed that participants of the sporting event spend only a short period of time at the destination, and shopping and eating out are the most preferred free time activities. The paper identifies and discusses issues regarding the role of sports organizations and tourism agencies in cities hosting such events to increase the tourism potential of small-scale sports events in the future.
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Differences in travel behaviors of small and large cycling events participants
77-82Views:293Tourism has been and will continue to be one of the biggest and most profitable industries in the world. Sport is obviously a very important aspect of society in many different ways: culturally, economically and socially. Like in the past, local authorities continue to regard all sporting events as a way of promoting and positioning their destination. Participation in sport events relates to tourism because it also involves travelling to host destinations. Therefore, the aim of our study is to compare participation in small and large sport-for-all events in relation to tourism in Slovenia. We analysed the factors determining differences in the travel behaviours of sport event participants and certain aspects of participation (travel behaviour, frequency of sport event participation, reasons for participation) at the largest cycling event in Slovenia (the Franja cycling marathon) and two smaller cycling events (the “Three hearts Radenci” recreational cycling marathon and the “Around the region of Prlekija” recreational cycling marathon). The study analysed the active participants of different cycling sport events. The sample of respondents consisted of 382 participants. We found that over the third of the participants take on the role of a sport tourist in their travels. They are also very sport-active in their leisure time. The majority of them are engaged in sport activities more than three times a week. The results indicate differences in travel behaviour and sport-active lifestyles among the participants of different types of small and larger sport events.
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Examination of the sustainability of the sport facilities in the Northern Great Plain Region of Hungary
111-117Views:320Developing sport into an industry has become a fundamental interest and a noticeable approach in Hungary in recent years. A socalled economic orientation can also be observed in the field of leisure time sports, which was made into law in Hungary in 2011 allowing the support of sport organisations and resulting in a number of infrastructural developments in Hungary. A wide range of development opportunities remain open in sports. This evaluation aims to introduce what significant sport-investment projects have been implemented in the Northern Great Plain region in recent decades and what effects these investments have had. Surveys have been used to reveal whether these facilities originating from years of sport developments are sustainable and to what extent these are exploited for organising sport events. Based on responses provided by a number of sport facilities – including ones built in the past and also ones opened recently – it can be concluded that sport in itself cannot solve the issue of operation and possible economic growth. Considering these aspects, it is important to incorporate, not only in operation but also during planning, the idea that current facilities must „serve” not solely sport events as these in themselves will not make them profitable but they must remain open for all sorts of social events as well.
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CHANGE LEADERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL SPORT– BASED ON INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL EXAMPLES
Views:226Accelerated and turbulent changes – partly driven by external operating environment – are determining day-to-day operations and operational decisions of organizations. They need to be able to respond appropriately, in line with their strategy, yet proactively, in order to maintain competitiveness and future prospects. This is also the case in the world of sport. Our focus is on professional sport – on a domestic sport federation and on one of the most successful clubs in Hungary. The study attempts to adapt the change management theory to professional sport to make it strategic and proactive by creating adapted basis for change management rather than change. Primary and secondary sources were processed using qualitative methods. We investigated three areas of change management / leadership: financial strategy, organization of international sport events and facility management. We conclude that change leadership can be identified in practices of the sports organizations studied, and the theoretical framework can be adapted and applied.
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Success factors of international sporting events in different regions of Europe
25-29Views:435Sport events always played an important role in human life from the ancient Olympics and marathon races to today’s modern Olympics, World and continental championships. In our days these remarkable sport events come to the fore because participants of the sporting world effectuate even more, greater and more varied ones. Furthermore, the competition for organisation between cities and countries is becoming more and more intense (Zeman 2005). The organisation of international sporting events is an extremely complicated and multiple task. The organising committee has to manage the duties and activities, to co-ordinate the participants’ work, to satisfy the needs of international sport association(s), sponsors and other stakeholders. Within the frame of the research we reveal the success factors of international sporting events in different segments of Europe, and in addition to this compare the event organization practices of analysed regions along the identified success factors. In this study we represent the results of a quantitative research, where organizers of World and European Championships – organised between 2000 and 2008 in different European countries – were asked and statistical analyses have been applied. According to our results beside the essential technical and task oriented areas the human aspects of organisation, the partnerships, coordination and communication are all-important factors. Especially in countries of East-Central Europe, where organisers have to pay more attention on selection, control of partners as well as on continuous communication with them in order to assure accurate performance in time.
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Infrastuctural background of the everyday physical education in Hungarian high schools
31-36Views:336The Hungarian government is dedicated to supporting a healthy and sporty life-style, thus in the past years the number of initiatives directed to publicizing and promoting sports has increased considerably. The new Law of Public Education has put the emphasis on physical education and on organizing other sport events in schools. This led to the introduction, in a phasing-out manner, of the every-day physical education (PE).
We were interested to know the infrastructural background of PE including the number and size of sports halls available for the students, how many classes can they accommodate at the same time, and when were they constructed. To this end a survey was conducted through telephone, contacting 200 high schools in 19 counties of Hungary. Do the schools have their own swimming pools, or do they conduct after-hours sports events. Data were analyzed using the EvaSys program.
The time of construction of the schools and their sports halls spans a wide range between the years 1530 and 2005. So do the number of students, between 150-1200. Nineteen of the schools have none, 67% has one, and 18.8% two sports halls. The size of these halls is also very variable, while in some schools it is only 25 m2, in others it can be as large as 2295m2. In most cases the halls can accommodate one or two classes in parallel. Afternoon classes are held in 87% of the schools, and include basketball, fencing, and soccer, among others. However, only eleven of the interviewed high schools have swimming pools. Research has called the attention to the fact that the exercise of Hungarian youth is too little. This puts the emphasis on the promotion of physical activity in schools. While there are large differences in the infrastructural background in the schools involved in the survey, they all strive to conduct after-hours sport events. -
Regional differences in the economical sustainability of sports halls
85-91Views:285The precondition of a health conscious behaviour in a community is establishing a healthy development of the community, an important part of which is the community’s attitude to sports and health. A basic manifestation of this is whether the leadership of a specific settlement is committed to developing sports facilities and, on the other hand, to what extent residents make use of these facilities. The aim of our research was to point out the number of sports facilities currently available for catering everyday physical education introduced in 2012, leisure sports and competitive sport events in two different regions of Hungary. We also examined the resources available for maintaining the facilities and the degree to which existing facilities are exploited. Existing sports halls of the Northern Great Plain and Central Transdanubia were included in the research. We wish to emphasise, in regards to the infrastructural developments of the coming few years, that it is essential to consider the fact, even in the planning phase of facilities, that sport events in themselves do not make the facilities economically sustainable.
JEL code: Z20
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The planned development’s effect on the performance in ice hockey
31-35Views:342The sports are growing everywhere in the world, so there is no other way to maintain or to increase the level of quality just the strategic planned development (GÉCZI, 2012), because thousands of specialist are working hardly on the better results worldwide. The aim of this study was to monitor the ice hockey players’ physical development in Hungary since 2007, focusing the results after opening the federations’ Methodical Center (MC). One can see a remarkable development during the last years in the domestic ice hockey, which is perceptible following the sport performance and results. The first step of the planned development was the reform of the curriculum in the coaches courses (from 2004 continuously) at every level, the second step was the opening our MC in 2010, where the Hungarian players and experts (coaches and officials) can develop their skills and their knowledge about the ice hockey. We examined the effect of the above mentioned procedures, comparing the national try-out test running events (10 m, 60 m, 6×9 m, 400 m, 1500 m) by the best twenty U18 players (N=80). According to the opening of the Methodical Center, we used the data from 2012, 2009, 2008 and 2007.
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Theory and practice in the management of university championships organized in Hungary
47-51Views:250After the 1989-1990 political changes the aim of the Hungarian University Sports Federation was to follow its traditions of nine decades in foreign policy as well, therefore the organization of international competitions in Hungary was promoted. Up to now the study of the management of these international events was neglected in the Hungarian scholarly literature, although all university sporting events held in Hungary were successful and they were highly appreciated internationally. Taking the example of three university world championships hosted by Hungarian towns, the objective of this paper is to analyze how the management succeeded to solve the major tasks of the organizational work and how some management theories were implemented in its activity. In order to collect data the following methods were used: analysis of documents, in-depth interviews and participant observation. The results are presented on the basis of some theses of the event planning theory, the event management theory, and the situational leadership theory. More specifically, the issues of motives-decisionactions, consistency- coherency- harmony and these of the quantity indicators of event organization in connection of the three underscored world championships organized in Hungary are discussed. In conclusion it is stated that in the management the situation theory had to be taken into consideration the most in the leading process. It was proven that despite preparations lasting often for several years and expanding to every detail of requirements, the flexibility of the management was crucial to search and to find response to every critical situation.
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Responsible Behavior and Environmental Protection – in Case of Football Clubs
64-74Views:865There has been a hotspot in sports industry these days that is becoming more and more wide-spread in sports organizations and among managers, namely CSR, that is corporate social responsibility. In the life of geographical regions, towns or villages, professional football clubs play a crucial role. Consequently, clubs tend to take responsibility for these communities in return for their support: whether it is the local population or the authorities, other businesses or the environment, they are ready to stand up for good causes. Nowadays sports centres with their regular events have a significant effect on the environment either regionally or globally. That is the reason why it has become vital in the management of sports facilities to respect environmental principles when designing and using sports facilities and to avoid producing pollution that could harm and deteriorate the environment. The aim of our study was on the one hand, to present the definitional and theoretical evolution of CSR, than the CSR concept in sport, special regard to environmental protection. On the other hand, to analyze what kind of CSR related issues do football clubs (Real Madrid C. F. – RM, Borussia Dortmund – BVB) and how they are addressing issues of environmental sustainability in the context of CSR. According to RM and BVB, we can say that they really try to do efforts to responsible behavior and environmental protection. They have special respect for the society and took big step to use different environmental management tools. It was easy to find information, reports and case studies about these activities.
JEL Classification: M14
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