The World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships 2018 in Tomaszów Mazowiecki: A sports geography perspective

Abstract

The sports event sector has increased over the past decades, becoming a profitable part of the leisure and tourism industry. While there is no shortage of knowledge surrounding the legacies of large-scale sports events, little is known about the smaller competitions. The authors seek to fill this gap by establishing a profile of the spectators attending the 2018 World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships, hosted in Tomaszów Mazowiecki (Poland). The results were gathered from 349 intercept survey questionnaires. Over half of the respondents were from the host city or the region. The majority were women. The event attractiveness, uniqueness and novelty, including the venue were the main reasons for attendance. The respondents' willingness to attend a similar event in the future was another key finding. The conclusion and recommendations focus on the need for further research into the motives of those attending small-scale indoor, international age-group winter sports events.