Nostalgia Sport Tourism: An Examination of an Underestimated Post-event Tourism Proposal

Abstract

Sport has been the predominant incentive in numerous expressions of the tourism demand and offer. Despite the gigantic and comprehensive literature produced during the last few decades related to the sport tourism phenomenon, the ‘nostalgia’ sport tourism type has been overlooked and thus is in need for further analysis. Sport events historical sites, venues’ magnitude and architectural significance, and more vividly, funs emotions constitute a complex but also an appealing tourism proposal especially after the completion of large sport events. With the contemporary inclusion of technology, the sport nostalgia experience could be enhanced further leading to new tourism development paths combining different leisure industries. The study investigates the role of the sport bodies, the local cultural/historical organizations, and the tourism business that consist the policy community needed to materialize related proposals especially post-events. Paradoxically, this sport tourism approach despite its powerful role in creating cultural, societal, sport, and tourism synergies around the historical sport events areas, venues, and legacies remains underestimated by scholars, policymakers, and the industry. The present study uses cross-case analysis and theoretical paradigms to conceptually set the basis of a generalizable platform for future planners through the understanding of all critical aspects involved in the development of nostalgia sport tourism post-events.