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GREECE: The Impact of Economic Crisis on the Private Sport Sector

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The Private Sport Sector in Europe

Part of the book series: Sports Economics, Management and Policy ((SEMP,volume 14))

Abstract

This article aims to present information and discussion about private sport sector in Greece. Since Greece is one of the countries that do not collect specific data about the economic activities in sport, several formal and informal sources have been used, together with personal estimations in order to be able to present some quantified figures. The material presented has been discussed with reference to the severe economic crisis that Greece has faced during the last eight years. This is the reason why this article begins with some financial information about the country. Furthermore, specific references have been made about the influence of the economic crisis of sport in Greece. The private sport sector in Greece can be defined as consisting of three fields: participatory sport, sport goods, and sport / recreation education. This article concludes that private sport sector in Greece produces economic activities of about 1.0 billion euros per year. Sport goods is the largest field, which however has been badly influenced by the economic crisis. Health and fitness clubs represent the largest part of the participatory sport field, which interestingly has not been strongly influenced by the economic crisis. Finally, it is concluded that sport tourism is a fast developing area in Greece, which can contribute to the future growth of the sport sector.

Selected country facts (in 2013)

Capital

Athens

Geographical size (km2)

131,957

Population (million)

11.00

GDP (euro per capita)

16,500

GDP (per capita in PPS)

72

Annual net earnings average (€)

15,397

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Correspondence to Kostas Alexandris .

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Alexandris, K., Balaska, P. (2017). GREECE: The Impact of Economic Crisis on the Private Sport Sector. In: Laine, A., Vehmas, H. (eds) The Private Sport Sector in Europe. Sports Economics, Management and Policy, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61310-9_10

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