Motorsport tourism development in Greece: An alternative for economic development.

Abstract

Tourism has been a driving force of economies since its birth as an industry. New forms have been emerging although mass tourism remains the dominant form. These new forms (niches) serve multiple purposes; differentiating tourism destinations, augmenting the tourism product, reinventing the tourism product (product life-cycle) and addressing tourism’s most important feature of seasonality (Eadington & Smith, 1992; Higham & Hinch, 2002). One of the niches that have been proven very popular is the sport tourism, elements of which can be traced back to the dawn of civilization (Standeven & DeKnop, 1999; Ritchie & Adair, 2004). Through the progress of technology motor-sport tourism has emerged and has claimed its share especially with the help of international events such as F1, WRC, MotoGP etc. Such mega events have been used in the past to kick start economies either be repositioning a destination in the tourism market or by providing an enhanced motive to visit the destination (see Malaysia, Abu Dhabi) (Henderson, 1999; de Sausmarez, 2007). The aim of this paper is to examine the requirements for the development of such a form of tourism. The case of Greece will be reviewed to determine whether the country can successfully organise and host an event and whether such and investment could be viable and even help drive the economy back to positive development figures especially by mitigating the exigent problem of seasonality in the Greek tourism industry. The social and environmental aspects of this unique form of tourism will also be explored and assessed under the prism of sustainable tourism development. The research carried out was based on both primary and secondary sources. A survey questionnaire was compiled and distributed to a random sample of potential motorsport tourists. An interview with a (former) deputy Minister of Tourism with substantial experience of the motor-sport related tourism product was conducted. Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved with tourism development and planning, provided the researcher with secondary data concerning legislation issues and investment plans in Greece. The multi-method and data triangulation approach where selected in an effort to remove possible bias and provide a more complete picture of the situation to be assessed. The research concludes that an investment on that form could be proven beneficial for Greece on both economic as well as social level. However, the event has to be a successful cooperation between the motorsport tourist organizers and other tourism providers to produce profits of any kind. The findings suggest that an unsuccessfully organised event may impact negatively on the economy of the event. Due to the double-razor nature of mega events extreme caution during planning, implementation and strategy has to be exercised. Additionally, planning and organization is found to be the major weakness of Greece despite the proven successful experience of previous endeavors (WRC Rally Acropolis, F1H2O, Olympic Games).