Enhancing Sport Tourism in Heraklion, Crete. Case study of Pankritio Stadium

Abstract

Heraklion city is located on the biggest Greek island, Crete. Its economy is mainly based on tourism’s entire ecosystem including the people, businesses and services. Therefore, sport tourism as a fast developing sector of tourism is of high value.

The aim of the present research study was to investigate the existing state of sport tourism in Heraklion with a special focus on Pankritio Stadium since it is the biggest sports facility in Crete island region. By focusing on the management actors this study aimed at determining the areas that need improvement for future sport tourism development to be feasible. Island tourism and island sport tourism hinders some challenges compared to mainland destinations, regarding the logistics of travelling, the services the general among other things.

For this study qualitative research framework was chosen and six semi-structured interviews took place in Greek language in person at each participant’s’ workplace. The interviewees stakeholders from Heraklion municipality were purposefully selected, based on their role in sports tourism industry. The interviews were recorded on the mobile phone. The data was coded and categorized afterwards into themes that occurred from the research questions and the theoretical framework. The data also provided information on shared or different views of the different stakeholders.

The results showed that at a local level, tourism stakeholders promote the sport tourism without a concrete strategic plan among the Ministry of Sports, the Region of Crete Administration and the Heraklion city municipality. The main obstacle for future development seems to be the promised funding from the govern-ment which is needed to build and maintain the facilities and the technical infrastructure of Pankritio Stadium at a competitive level.

The data from this research provides information on the importance of sport tourism for Heraklion city and the infrastructure development needs which will lead to sport tourism flourishing in the city.