Sport Tourism International Council
Research Unit of Greece

Since 1960, important trends have been observed in the areas of sport and tourism. These were recently developed and formed profitable industries in the world economic forum.
The term "sport tourism" was first mentioned in the late 1960s or early 1070s to describe the special form of tourism which was combined with sport activities. Sport tourism is perceived to be a modern area of endeavor for academics as well as professionals and managed to attract significant numbers of people. As a consequence it is characterized by important growth ratio.
Some authors define sport tourism as all forms of active or passive involvement in sport activities be it for professional purposes or for the sake of amateurism. Prerequisite is, however, travelling away of the place of permanent living.
It is probably self evident that sport tourism is a complex and wide area of endeavor. Sport tourism development demands for high quality infrastructure in terms of physical environment, services, transportation, housing, entertainment, facilities, and organizations.
The very first attempts toward the academic development of the area were done in Universities in Canada and the United States whereas the first undergraduate programme was initiated by the University of Luton in the United Kingdom.
In Greece, sport tourism does not exist as an established academic field. There are at the moment no undergraduate nor postgraduate programmes in the Greek Universities or Polytechnics. There are however, modules, related to sport and tourism.

In the Higher Technological Educational Institute of Crete (T.E.I. of Crete) , a research unit was created. It was officially named, "Sport Tourism International Council - Research Unit of Greece" (STIC - RUGR).
For constitution purposes a contract was signed with the Sports Tourism International Council; more information can be found in the following addresses: www.sptourism.net and www.sport-tourism.com.

The main objective of the STIC-RUGR is the development of sport tourism as a new area of academic and professional endeavor in Greece. Specific objectives can be described as follows:

• Development of research programmes and studies in the area of sport tourism and related fields.
  
• Development of consulting projects.
  
• Creation and development of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in collaboration with higher educational institutions in Greece and other countries.
  
• Creation and development of vocational qualification courses.
  
• Involvement in projects of the European Community and organizations of the public as well as the private sector. This could include programmes concerning the Olympic Games. Those projects may be contacted in collaboration with the Sport Tourism International Council.

Responsible for the Sport Tourism International Council - Research Unit of Greece is Prof. Dr. Dimitris Terzakis, Professor of Statistics and Econometrics at the T.E.I. of Crete and Vice President of the T.E.I. of Crete (e-mail: dterzaki@acn.gr).

For any further information, please contact us by e-mail at: info@sport-tourism.com