Journal of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, vol.

1/2013
Section I - Tourism

Active Sport Tourism

A Survey of Students of Tourism and Recreation
by
Rajmund Tomik1
1

Department of Sport and Tourism Management, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice

Abstract

The primary aim of active sport tourism is travelling to participate in different sport activities, ie., to
be physically active (Gibson 1998). When trying to define this type of tourism some authors have
emphasized engagement in favourite sport activities by individuals on vacation. The aim of the present
paper is to characterize the participation of the students in active sport tourism. The component
questions concerned the following issues:
1. What types of active sport tourism are the most popular among the students?
2. How often and in what seasons of the year do the students participate in this form of tourism?
3. How do students organize trips aimed at participation in active sport tourism?
Undergraduate and postgraduate students of residential and nonresidential Bachelor's and Master's
Degree Programs volunteered to participate in the study. They were all students of Tourism and
Recreation at the Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice. Of the total number of 987
students, 298 completed the survey (147 women and 151 men). The research tool was a diagnostic
questionnaire which the students completed anonymously. The most popular forms of active sport
tourism among the students surveyed were Hiking (especially mountain hiking), biking trips and skiing or
snowboarding. Most students who declared frequent participation in active sport tourism favoured
summer or weekend trips. Students usually preferred to participate in group tourist activities and to
arrange the trips themselves; they did not often use travel agency offers.

Key words: active sport tourism, students, survey

Introduction
Literature classifies Sport Tourism into
three areas, ie., Active Sport Tourism, Event
Sport Tourism and Nostalgia Sport Tourism.
The primary aim of active sport tourism is
travelling to participate in different sport
activities, ie., to be physically active (Gibson
1998). When trying to define this type of
tourism some authors have emphasized
engagement in favourite sport activities by
individuals on vacation (De Knop 1990;

Gibson, Attle, Yiannakis 1998; Nogawa,

Yamguchi, Hagi, 1996). Active sport tourism
includes all types of backcountry
hiking/trekking, biking, canoeing, sailing,
horse-riding, skiing and other outdoor
physical activities associated with all
benefits resulting from contact with the
natural environment. World literature on
tourism adds holiday trips during which
tourists play golf or tennis (Gibson, 1998a;
Schreiber 1976).

Rajmund Tomik
The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, 40-065 Katowice, Mikoowska 72a, Poland
tel. (+48) 32 207 51 69; e-mail: r.tomik@awf.katowice.pl
Accepted for printing in Journal of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management vol. 1/2013 on May 2013

13

Tomik R., Active Sport Tourism A Survey of Students of Tourism and Recreation

Scholarly publications on active sport

tourism are fairly scarce. Quite noteworthy
are theoretical considerations of H. Gibson
(Gibson, 1998; Gibson, 1998a) as well as
investigations aimed at identyfying the key
characteristics of individuals participating
in active sport tourism (Schreiber, 1976; De
Knop, 1990; Delpy, 1998; Gibson, Attle,
Yiannakis, 1998; Chang, Gibson, 2011). All
these reports seem to suggest that the
typical active sport tourist is between 18
and 44 years of age and (frequently) male.
Active sport tourists tend to be healthy,
financially secure and well educated, and
usually prioritise the play element in their
lives (Delpey, 1998; Gibson, Attle, &
Yiannakis, 1998). De Knop (1990) reports
that the most popular physical activities for
Europeans on vacation are walking,
bicycling, and skiing.
Active sport tourism is among the most
dynamic forms of tourism. A Polish
document,
Strategies
for
tourism
development in the years 2007-2013 (2007),
indicates that increasing interest in high
quality offers of active sport tourism for all
age groups is one of the most important
trends in world tourism development.
According to I. Jdrzejczyk and W. Mynarski
tourism involving exposure to intensive
physical activity, ie., active sport tourism, is
the most frequent form of movement
recreation among working age population
and pensioners (Jdrzejczyk, Mynarski,
2008 p. 34).
Active sport tourism involves physical
activity of long duration and low intensity.
These features are of significant importance
in the prevention of civilization diseases,
and especially diseases of the circulatory
and respiratory systems. Contact with
nature, an inherent element of active sport
tourism, positively affects the tourists body
through sunlight, atmospheric pressure and
air humidity variations and temperature
changes. These factors help fortify the
bodies , especially the bodies of the presentday people who are embedded in work,
change places more often and usually take a
14

rest in closed spaces (frequently airconditioned or heated). A tourists psyche

also benefits from direct contact with
nature qualities such as esthetics and
culture of the landscape, unique flora and
wildlife watching. All this facilitates
relaxation and prevents depression and
mental unrest resulting from civilization
progress. Numerous authors of empirical
studies have found that outdoor physical
activities allow people to experience the
advantages of biological stimuli (including
those provided by air, sun and water); the
resultant mental stimulation reinforces the
effects of physical effort undertaken. Thus,
natural adaptive mechanisms become
activated and the bodys resistance to
thermal, mechanical and light effects builds
up. Consequently, the more and more
commonly observed hypersensitivity to
physical and mental stimulation is
counterbalanced
(Ferguson,
2007;
Kouchowski, 2005; Kwilecka 2006).
Contact with nature provides unforgettable
esthetic impressions which awaken respect
for nature and help keep distance to
everyday routines. Participation in active
sport tourism is consistent with the idea of
recreational activities getting back to nature
(Hoda, Dohnal, 2005; Toczek-Werner
2005).
The awareness of the need to participate
in health-enhancing physical activities has
been increasing, which also relates to
motives for tourism. When answering the
question of What is your favourite holiday
pastime?, included in the 2012 Barometr
Providenta Telephone Survey, the results of
which were published in eGospodarka.pl,
48% of the Polish people mentioned
participation in sports or hiking. Other,
much less popular holiday pastimes
included sunbathing and doing nothing or
visiting interesting places (17%) (Plany
wakacyjne, 2012). Numerous investigations
have indicated that health benefits
associated with physical activity constitute
the basic motive underlying engagement in
movement recreation during leisure time

Journal of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, vol. 1/2013

(Baker at al., 2000; Marcus, Forsyth, 2003;

Sallis at al., 2003; Sport and Physical
Activity, 2010). It has also become
recognized that physical activity, and
especially physical training outdoors, is
beneficial for health. Fast development of
active sport tourism can and should be
intensively promoted as this particular form
of tourism encourages engagement in
physical activities that enhance physical
fitness and health.

Measures
The research tool was a diagnostic
questionnaire
which
the
students
completed anonymously from their own
computers and at a convenient time. The
questionnaire was saved to the Google
Server using a survey-software application
for creating and implementing online forms.

Material and Methods

Questionnaires were distributed along

with a cover letter explaining how they
should be completed; also, the term active
sport
tourism
was
unambiguously
explained. The questionnaire consisted of 4
parts.
All
respondents
completed
demographic questions and 10 survey
questions regarding participation in
movement recreation. Those who declared
participation in active sport tourism were
also requested to answer 5 questions on the
forms and organization of this form of
tourism and comment on 49 statements
concerning the motives for participation in
active sport tourism. The content validity
ratio was determined according to Lawshe.
Questionnaire questions are related to
respondents life experience so statistical
analysis of reliability was omitted.

Participants

Statistical Analysis

Undergraduate
and
postgraduate
students of residential and nonresidential
Bachelor's and Master's Degree Programs
volunteered to participate in the study.
They were all students of Tourism and
Recreation at the Jerzy Kukuczka Academy
of Physical Education in Katowice. Of the
total number of 987 students, 298
completed the survey (147 women and 151
men). Statistical analysis included 191
questionnaires (64.1%) of those students
who declared having participated in active
sport tourism during 6 months preceding
the survey. The remaining participants
admitted they had not been participating in
active sport tourism. The overwhelming
majority of the respondents (76.5%) lived
in cities with a population of over 25,000.
Others were residents of small towns and
rural areas (a little less than 12% each).

A structural coefficient test was used to

determine statistical significance of the
differences between the answers of female
and male respondents. The level of
significance was set at =0.05 (p<0.05).

The aim of the present paper is to

characterize the participation of the
students of Tourism and Recreation in
active sport tourism. The component
questions concerned the following issues:
1. What types of active sport tourism are
the most popular among the students?
2. How often and in what seasons of the
year do the students participate in this
form of tourism?
3. How do students organize trips aimed at
participation in active sport tourism?

Results
One
hundred
and
ninety-one
respondents (64.1%) declared having
participated in active sport tourism during
6 months preceding the survey. The
majority
of
active
sport
tourism
participants were women (106, ie., 72.1%)
compared to men (85, ie., 56.2%). The most
popular forms of active sport tourism were
hiking (mountain hiking prevailing over
lowland hiking), skiing and snowboarding,
biking and other, not specified here, forms
of physical activity (eg., extreme sports).
Significant dimorphism has been observed
15

Tomik R., Active Sport Tourism A Survey of Students of Tourism and Recreation

in lowland hiking, which significantly

predominated among women respondents

(Table 1).

Table 1.
Types of active sport tourism in which students participated
Types of active sport tourism

Total (191)
N

Women (106)
N

Men (85)

Lowland hiking
69
34.85
47
44.34
Mountain hiking
107 54.04
59
55.66
Mountain trekking
24
12.12
9
8.49
Rock climbing
22
11.11
12
11.32
Caving and potholing
7
3.54
4
3.77
Canoeing and kayaking (canoe, etc.)
23
11.62
13
12.26
Rafting
9
4.55
5
4.72
Inland sailing
8
4.04
5
4.72
Sea sailing
2
1.01
1
0.94
Windsurfing
7
3.54
4
3.77
Diving
13
6.57
6
5.66
Downhill skiing
48
24.24
28
26.42
Snowboarding
40
20.20
22
20.75
Cross-country skiing
4
2.02
1
0.94
Ski touring
0
0.00
0
0.00
Horse riding
4
2.02
2
1.89
Biking
41
20.71
24
22.64
Airsports
4
2.02
3
2.83
Other extreme sports
46
23.23
23
21.70
* Differences were statistically significant at 0.05 (all tables)

N
22
48
15
10
3
10
4
3
1
3
7
20
18
3
0
2
17
1
23

p
value

25.88 0.008*
56.47 0.911
17.65 0.058
11.76 0.924
3.53 0.929
11.76 0.916
4.71 0.997
3.53 0.684
1.18 0.875
3.53 0.929
8.24 0.483
23.53 0.648
21.18 0.943
3.53 0.215
0.00
2.35 0.823
20.00 0.659
1.18 0.428
27.06 0.389

Table 2.
Frequency of participation in active tourism
Frequency of participation in
active tourism
Once a year
Twice a year
Once a quarter
Once a month
More frequently
No answer

Total (191)

Men (85)

p
value

25
43
51
25
44
3

13.09
22.51
26.70
13.09
23.04
1.57

13
25
26
16
25
1

12.26
23.58
24.53
15.09
23.58
0.94

12
18
25
9
19
2

14.12
21.18
29.41
10.59
22.35
2.35

0.706
0.692
0.448
0.359
0.841
0.436

The majority of the respondents

participated in active sport tourism once in
three months (26.7%); the remaining
participants admitted partaking in this form
of tourism more often than once a month
(23%) or twice a year (22.5%). No
statistically significant differences were
found between the answers of female and
16

Women (106)

male respondents (Table 2). Eighty per cent

of the respondents participated in active
sport tourism in summer. Women were
involved in active sport tourism in autumn
significantly more frequently than men.
Most respondents preferred weekends as
the time to participate in active sport
tourism (Table 3).

Journal of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, vol. 1/2013

Table 3.
Seasons of the year, parts of the week and the duration of active sport tourism trips
Time periods of active tourism**

Total (191)

Women (106)

Men (85)

Spring
Summer

79
153

41.36
80.10

45
85

42.45
80.19

34
68

40.00
80.00

Autumn

56

29.32

38

35.85

18

21.18

Winter
One-day trips
Multiple day trips
Weekend
Weekdays

76
42
47
81
25

39.79
21.99
24.61
42.41
13.09

46
26
27
51
13

43.40
24.53
25.47
48.11
12.26

30
16
20
30
12

35.29
18.82
23.53
35.29
14.12

p
value
0.732
0.974
0.027
*
0.256
0.344
0.757
0.075
0.706

** Respondents could select more than one answer (All next tables)

The analysis indicated that students

preferred group to individual participation
in active sport tourism. They most often
arrange the trips themselves and only
rarely use the offer of travel agencies

(Table 4). Acquaintances and friends

encourage students to participate in active
sport tourism more frequently than family
and the school (Table 5).

Table 4.
Active sport tourism - arrangements
Active sport tourism arrangements
Individual active tourism
Participation in group activities
I arrange trips myself
I use travel agency offers

Total (191)

Women (106)

Men (85)

p
value

56
109
57
12

29.32
57.07
29.84
6.28

32
54
34
7

30.19
50.94
32.08
6.60

24
55
23
5

28.24
64.71
27.06
5.88

0.768
0.056
0.451
0.838

Table 5.
Individuals (Institutions) encouraging participation in active sport tourism
Individuals (Institutions)
encouraging participation in
active sport tourism
School
Family
Friends

Total (191)

Women (106)

Men (85)

p
value

53
72
119

27.75
37.70
62.30

31
40
63

29.25
37.74
59.43

22
32
56

25.88
37.65
65.88

0.606
0.990
0.361

Discussion
The investigations have shown that the
majority of students did participate in
different forms of active sport tourism. This
comes as no surprise since the study
participants have been students of Tourism

and Recreation at the Academy of Physical

Education, a higher education institution
the aim of which is to promote engagement
in physical activity. The objective of the
course is to provide the students with the
skills they need to arrange a wide range of
17

Tomik R., Active Sport Tourism A Survey of Students of Tourism and Recreation

movement activities to be used in leisure

time. The students have the opportunity to
get acquainted with numerous types of
physical activity which can then be included
in active sport tourism programs. The
selection of the Academy as an institution of
higher education gives evidence of holding
positive attitudes towards physical activity.
What does surprise though is considerable
predominance of women within the
population group engaged in physical
activity (McNeill, Kreuter, Subramanian
2006; Rtten, Ziemainz, Schena et al., 2003;
Sjstrom, Oja, Hagstrmer et al. 2006).
However, several reports seem to suggest
other tendencies. Sport and Physical
Activity investigations carried out in 27
European countries revealed that, as
opposed to the statistics for sport
participation, men and women in the 15-24
age group did very similar amounts of
physical activity. Among the Polish
population, the proportion of men and
women who declared taking part (1-4 times
a week) in physical activity other than
regular sport was 35% and 38%,
respectively (Sport and Physical Activity,
2010). It should be emphasized that the
vast majority of female students are still
unmarried; thus marital and paternal roles
and responsibilities do not limit their
physical activity which might be the case
later in life.
As relates to over 10 types of active sport
tourism mentioned in the survey
questionnaire,
significant
gender
dimorphism,
showing
female
predominance, has only been observed in
lowland hiking. Similar difference was
noted concerning sports and recreational
activities of the Polish population;
participation in marching-related forms of
movement (jogging, walking, nordic
walking) was declared by 38% of women
and only 15% of men aged 20-29 years
(Uczestnictwo Polakw w sporcie 2008).
This might be accounted for by the results
of B.A. Blanksby et al. (1996), who
demonstrated that women favoured low18

intensity physical activities associated with

lower risk of sustaining injuries. Lowland
hiking is exactly such an activity.
A majority of the respondents (23%)
declared participation in active sport
tourism more frequently than once a month,
which proves that this kind of activity has
become an important item in their leisuretime budget. Outdoor activities not only
enhance the students health and well-being
but also help them to meet the guidelines
for physical activity as recommended in
literature (Rahl 2010).
The students surveyed most often
participated in active sport tourism in
summer and at weekends which seems
well-justified considering their university
resposibilities during the academic year.
This model of tourist activity has also been
described
by
other
researchers
investigating the same population fraction
in Poland and in the world (Latosiska,
Ludwicka 2010; Dejtisak at al. 2009, Kim at
al. 2007).
For several reasons, most of the students
preferred group activities. Firstly, active
sport tourism might involve some risk, so
travelling alone is not recommended .
Secondly, university is the time of building
social interactions and relationships often
including finding a life partner. Active sport
tourism is an excellent opportunity to
develop the skills of decision making,
problem solving and working effectively
within a team to face challenges and
overcome obstacles arising under unusual
or even extreme conditions. Lastly,
numerous studies have shown that seeking
interpersonal relations, i.e., meeting and
spending time with people of similar
interests and life style also is an important
motive to participate in tourism (Kim et al.
2008; Lee 2007; Kurtzman, Zauhar 2005).
This is consistent with our respondents
admitting being encouraged to take part in
active sport tourism by their friends.
The survey results allow us to draw the
following conclusions:

Journal of Tourism, Recreation & Sport Management, vol. 1/2013

1. Hiking (especially mountain hiking),

biking trips and skiing or snowboarding
were the most popular forms of active
sport tourism among the students
surveyed.
2. Most students who declared frequent

participation in active sport tourism

favoured summer or weekend trips.
3. Students usually preferred to participate

in group tourist activities and to arrange

the trips themselves; they did not often
use travel agency offers.

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