Sports tourism in Russia: essential aspects and development problems

Abstract

The article examines the concept of such an activity as “sports tourism.” This category is considered both as a type of tourism and as a type of sport. The authors formulate their definition of the concept of “sports tourism” and consider the difference in approaches to the definition of sports tourism by Russian and foreign scientists, proposing to understand sports tourism as a temporary departure of a traveler from their home destination for the purpose of active or passive participation in activities, in one way or another related to sports. Problems in the development of sports tourism in the Russian Federation are formulated, to which the authors attribute its poor infrastructure, lack of state support, inaccessibility of some destinations and lack of dedicated specialists.