Russian Artistic Gymnastics as a Sports Tourism Product: Some Observations and a Research Agenda

Tourism and its importance to the Russian Federation are very much in the headlines at present. Considering the huge investment made in facilities for the Winter Olympics, the building of new sports facilities for such mega events as the Football World Cup, and the status of St Petersburg as a candidate city for the 2028 Olympics, it is clear that Russia has long term plans to attract visitors to their sporting events. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research agenda to explore the potential of artistic gymnastics, a sport in which the Russian Federation has excelled for many years, as an agent of tourism development. The paper will take a case study approach, considering the nature of fandom and identifying features of artistic gymnastics as cultural heritage and sports tourism product. The national and international environment within which it is set are examined, prior to the development of a research agenda. A detailed review of literature on the historic, current and emerging trends in Russian artistic gymnastics; the place of artistic gymnastics in tourism development and sports tourism in Russia will be carried out. The paper’s findings will include considerations of: • The nature of gymnastics fandom, both in Russia and internationally • The nature of sports tourism development in the Russian Federation • The nature of gymnastics as a sport and its competition cycle • Artistic gymnastics as cultural heritage, and its potential as an autonomous means of promoting Russian national identity • The relationship between Russia’s sometimes fading gymnastics competition results, and its potential to leverage the sport for tourism interest • The potential for tourism product development linked to artistic gymnastics in the Russian Federation. The paper contributes to the literature on the nature of sports tourism as it relates to artistic gymnastics in the Russian Federation in particular

Countryside and water recreation Urban outdoor activity resource centers

CWR 7; facilities factfile 3SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:MFE 1169(CH--92.3314)(microfiche) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Countryside and water recreation Countryside sports and recreation in urban areas

CWR 6; facilities factfile 3SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:MFE 1169(CH--92.3313)(microfiche) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Information and research Urban outdoor activity resource centres

Fiche copy of SC/90/CWR--7SIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Water related recreation Participation, trends and issues

Research contractor: Loughborough Univ. of Technology (GB). Dept. of Physical Education, Sports Science and Recreation ManagementSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Starting a sport in the Netherlands:A life-course analysis of the effects of individual, parental and partner characteristics

<p>In this article we investigate the effects of parental, individual and partner characteristics on the starting of a sport. Employing event history models we analyze 72,491 person-years of 2276 individuals from the Family Survey Dutch Population 1998 and 2003. Our results show that growing up in a family in which sport is common increases the likelihood of starting a sport. We further conclude that parents from the higher social classes more often stimulate their children to start participating in a high status sport. Our results also indicate that a respondent's educational attainment is positively related to enrollment in sports. The importance of a spouse is particularly demonstrated, as a sport-playing partner expresses a positive influence on a respondent's sport participation. Moreover, in starting a sport it is more favorable not having a partner, even than having a non-sporting spouse.</p>