ABSTRACT
Sport tourism is a driver of community and tourism development through visitor expenditure. Research suggests that sport tourism provides social (e.g. cultural identity, lower crime), environmental (e.g. increased parks, restoration) and economic (e.g. job creation, small business) benefits to a host community (e.g. Hirtz & Ross, 2010; Taks, Chalip & Green, 2015). As a result, the process of organizing, bidding and hosting events such as the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and other major international sport events is a complex but highly sought after endeavour for destinations seeking to leverage sport event tourism for community development. Many of the destinations involved in these bids are interested in drawing spectator interest not only for onsite visits, but also for television broadcasts, media reports, other word-of-mouth discussions and destination image enhancement. These events, however, focus mainly on passive sport participants, that is, those that either attend the event to watch in person or those that watch, read and hear about the event away from the event site. Conversely, the role of physically active sport events and activities in creating positive impacts for communities and destinations is often overlooked. Perhaps the perceived relative community impact of active sport events is thought to be smaller and less prestigious than large-scale spectator-focused events. However, small-scale events provide positive community impacts that are created at a fraction of the cost.
