Sport tourism has a long tradition in the Upper Savinja Valley. Tourism in this area started to develop as a sport tourism namely as mountaineering. The Upper Savinja Valley offers good opportunities for sport tourism and its further development, and natural features and preserved natural environment mostly contribute to this. The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to find out the presence and importance of sport tourism in the Upper Savinja Valley. The survey research showed that sports and sport recreational activities are one of the reasons why visitors decide to visit the Upper Savinja Valley, and the most popular sports activities among visitors are hiking, followed by cycling and skiing. Sports activities represent relaxation, retreat from daily obligations and better well-being to visitors. The connection of sports and tourism is seen in the relation of associations and organisations, events and in the formation of the tourist offer, a part of which are often sports activities. Sport tourism affects the environment, traffic infrastructure and the income of the Upper Savinja Valley. Tourism and sport are co-dependent and multidimensional phenomenons, the progress of one area meaning the progress of the other, too.
|
