1999_C. Pigeassou_Epistemological Issues on Sport Tourism

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Epistemological issues on sport tourism: challenge for

new scientific fieldC. Pigeassou, G. BuiXuan & J. Gleyse

Available online: 28 Mar 2007

To cite this article: C. Pigeassou, G. BuiXuan & J. Gleyse (1999): Epistemological issues on sport tourism: challenge for a n

scientific field, Journal of Sport & Tourism, 5:2, 18-27

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other by specifying, mo re or less quickly, their sub jec t. This is a generalised process from which no sector ofknowledge escapes which seeks to be autonom ous. This a situation th at spo rt tourism mu st face today. Can spor ttourism be considered as an independe nt scientific d oma in ? Do the activities of sport tourism fall within thecategory of spor t tourism ? If various historical, sociological, psychological and economical approach es a re likely toshed light on the various aspects of sport tourism , these approaches a re n ot able to specify its domain. Only carefulthoug ht on how knowledge is structu red in this dom ain can provide a critical an d constructive view on theframework of spo rt tourism . In this perspective, the purpo se of this article will be to identify the re cur ringquestioning on this subject. Thr ee types of questions will be addresse d.The first type concerns the bound aries of the field of sport tourism. W hat are the elements that define andcircumscribe this field ? From their listing to the classification of their activities, a concern for thoroughness hasbeen overpres ent. Nevertheless, to question what m ay constitute this dom ain's relevance is legitimate. The n atu re ofthe activity, the context, its duration a nd the interactions it produ ces ar e such that they differentiate the produc tionsof spor t tourism from those of sport and those of tourism .The second type of questioning concerns the natu re and the type of relations th at link sport tou rism to o thersactivities that relate to sport or to tourism . On the one hand sp ort tourism contribu tes to the expansion of spo rt andtourism in general and on the other h and it trends to occupy a unique economical niche from the stand p oint of amanagem ent or a marketing perspective.The thir d type concerns the analysis of various processes and m echanisms th at occur in this domain. From a generalperspective, economical and sociological mechanisms determine t he ou tputs of sport tourism , but th e evolution ofthese outpu ts is characterised by processes of innovation, massification a nd diversification. These elem ents tend toindicate that spo rt tourism rep resents a specific domain of service produ ction connected to tourism a nd sport.

1. An inhe ritance that will bear fruit

With the creation of the Jour nal of Spo rts Tourism in October, 1993, the first found ations of the sports tourismidentity were laid down in a series of articles with a m onograph ic or ana lytical aim . Since the 1980's it has also beenpossible to find several isolated mon ograp hs in magazines such as "Esp aces" (in Fren ch), or the "A nnals of Tou rismResearch" , "Leisure Ma nagem ent", the "Jou rnal of Leisure Research ", or the "Jo urna l of Travel Research" (inEnglish). But mo st of these works only deal with sport in relation to tourism as a comp lementary activity th at widensthe range of services, bringing ex tra benefits to tourism . This statement rem ains valid for present-day articles a ndthe studies which confine sports tourism to a more general category: tourism . According to the par ticul ar trea tm entgiven by each country (Th e Ministrj' of Tourism or internation a] organizations such as OCD E, OM T), this ap proa chwill domina te. The status within and the relationship of sport to the tourist field m ust be precisely analyzed andweighed up in relation to the development of tourism a nd sp ort over the last thirty yea rs and ac cording to theresearch already accomplished (K urtzman, 1993,1995; Gammon and Robinson, 1997).

The aim of this article is to bring to light through epistemological considerations the way in Which the accum ulatedknowledge and the renew al of the theses have had a tendency to make spo rts tourism independent of sport, on th eone hand , and of tourism , on the other . We believe that a new discipline is being created, and its originality lies inthe questions it raises and in the research it encou rages.2. Remarks on epistemologyIdentifying sp orts tou rism as a new field of knowledge requires th e reconstruction of the history of this idea. Thiswill allow its identity to be defined and its affiliations determined. This quest with its epistemological direction aims


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at going beyond the construction of "a spon taneous philosophy" (Althusser, 1974), in order to reach an "elabo ratedcode " (Douglas, 1970) or to satisfy at once a herm eneutic interest and an "em ancipa tory inte rest" (Ha berm as, 1973)."T he construction of reality" (Berger & Luc km ann, 1967) in sports tourism can only operate with reference to thesocially constructed meanings that are sp ort and tou rism . Spo rts tourism only developed at a particu lar stage in theevolution of tourism and sport in the social and economic environm ent of western societies. Tourism a nd sport havebeen associated historically since the birth of winter sports in the Alps at the beginning of the 20th cen tury inEu rop e. But spo rts tourism as an entity in itself only came into existence in the 1950's. The term "sp orts tou rism "only appeared in the middle of the 1970's in France an d Eu rope. In m odern tunes, sport and tourism a ppeared inthe 19th century and have since undergone the metamorphoses and transformations that place them now at theheart of the social life of western societies. Numerous works - social, historical, sociological, economic, geographic -have con tributed decisively to the unde rstandin g of these phenomen a by trying to grasp the major processes tha torganize and struc ture the m. Their aim is to define a field of knowledge partic ular to these phenome na. Theseefforts at widening the field of knowledge have established both sport and tourism as scientific subjects.Sports tou rism has today reached a stage of eman cipation and autono my tha t separates it from the field of tourismand of spo rt. The different studies published, the nu mb er of which has multiplied over the past ten year s, havecreated the "scientific subject" specific to this field. They have aimed a t setting out the rules that, as a whole,stru ctur e sp orts tourism and define its objects. It is a question of establishing how the corp us of knowledge isorganized. In other words, the stage reached today in the development of knowledge in sports tourism would seem tobe tha t of the recognition and Iegitimization of th at knowledge organized ar ou nd a method of appre hend ing it and aseries of predeterm ined hypotheses. These elements give body to th e knowledge th at is being constituted. They forma m ental stru ctur e, conscious or subconscious, that allows the world to be classified and ordered so tha t we are ableto tak e pa rt in it (Kuhn, 1970; Barne s, 1982). W ha t is emerging with sp orts tourism is a new way of consideringtourism and sp ort and , hi a wider context, the world. This new method is constructed in harmon y w ith the c ultural,economic and social conditions of an age.3. From sport and tourism to sports tourismIn the context of sports tourism, the rules, principles, norms and instruments that stru cture the phenomena as awhole must be defined, and this will be achieved by following the ins piration p rovided by both sport an d tourism .Before studying these phenom ena in m ore dep th, it will be necessary to set out the fundam ental distinctions th atcreate the classifications and categories tha t will allow the development of the c orpus of knowledge. This o rderingprocess is in itself articulated aroun d the organizing principles that define the object for study . Different proposa ls(K urtzm an, 1 995,1997; Gamm on & Robinson, 1997; De Knop, 1987; Pigeassou, 1997) define sports tourismaccording to the objective and subjective dimensions hi relation to the num erou s and diverse definitions of sport,and the even more precise definitions of tourism as set out by such official organizations as the World TourismOrganization, the World Travel and Tourism Council, the European Economic Union, National Govern men t Thedifficulty in defining th e field lies in the objectivity of its dimensions an d in the ir artic ula tion . As it is in direc tcontact w ith tourism, sports tourism h as borrow ed from that field two of the dimensions that define it: space, whichis transposed into the disciplinary field as the notion of displacement or journ ey, and time, which is transposed as astay. A relationship of interdependence is established between these two dimensions. A short journe y do es not enta ila stay away from the usual place of residence. On th e other h and , a long jou rne y will necessarily entail a stay of the"to uris t" ty pe. These objective elements can und ergo a process of evaluation that w ill set out the d iscriminatorythresholds th at will help in determining the boun daries of the subject. If different organizations retain thresholds ofdifferent dura tion according to their aim , a scientific basis cannot be established unless pertinent m ark ers areadopted by all alike. The thresholds used to define a tou rist stay which are m ost commonly observed in Eu rop eantourism statistics are the following minimum thresholds of:-- one day (the UK, Portugal, Austria),- four days (Europ e, Belgium, Spam , Fran ce, Ireland , Italy, the Nether lands, the UK)


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- five days (Germany, D enm ark).In ord er to take into consideration the spo rts tourism environm ent and its specificity, the threshold that would seemto best define a spo rts tourism stay is a stay of at least 24 hou rs, that is to say, a stay th at w ould imply at least onenight spent away from h om e. This minimum stay is the most imp orta nt objective element which characterizes aform of tourism . The 'jo urney ' element is accessory, and yet essential, because of the consequences brou ght a bou t bythe stay itself. Th e distance travelled o r the duration of the jou rne y is a source of man y phenom ena linked toconsumerism.The essence of sports tou rism, how ever, cannot be confined to these elements alone. It also includes some of thedimensions of spo rt. At this level it is absolutely essen tial to solve a double p rob lem . In th e definition of tou rism , theunde rstand ing of the phenomeno n a nd its limits is based on two elem ents: the du ration of the stay and the m otivebehind it. Tourism is defined as a leisure activity tha t has been freely chosen and organized a ccording to individualchoices determine d by motive and the cultu ral env iron m ent By focusing on this subject, a psychological approac h isfavoured, which enliances the subjective element or a rationalization a posteriori in the ana lysis of this practice . Thisobservation is a stumbling-block, an obstacle to the validation of tourism as an ob ject of scientific stud y.In the context of sports to urism , the objective dimension of sport is concentrated a nd condensed in the links ofsubordination that sport imposes on the tourist object. Without this subordination, sports tourism would not existand th e activities described o r observed would be confused with tourism p henom ena. The obstacle arises when thislink of subordination is transform ed into a simple relations hip, or interrelation ship. The link of subordinationdefines at once the sense of the relationship and the stren gth of that relation ship: w ithout the existence of sport, itwould not b e possible to ma ke sp orts tourism objective. If this methodological choice could seem debatab le, it wouldnevertheless seem to be the only scientific d irection tha t would determ ine the pheno mena of sports tourism in arational m ann er. An othe r stumbling-block is the difficulty in limiting or defining the concept of sport. If historiansand sociologists have risked pu tting forward definitions with a historical basis, the con temp orary "expa nsion" of thesports phenom ena h as enlarged a nd complicated th e concept of sport. Nevertheless, it would be impossible to graspthe concept of sports tourism without taking into account th e limits of the field of spor t. By remaining within th efield of the social sciences, the sports p henom ena illu strate a series of facts th at are visible in society and that can bestudied and researched. This empiric approach is opposed to a normative approach so that the contemporarydevelopments in sport will be enhanced . According to this appr oac h, the concept of sport can be defined as a seriesof phenom ena, outw ard signs and p roduction s generated by and associated with the practice of physical activitieslocally or universally recognised and adop ted. This methodological choice has been guided by a desire for clarity andobjectivity so tha t the frontiers dividing facts from p heno men a ca n be trace d. It may be considered debatab le in thesense that it is based on observation , it does not hav e a struc turin g pu rpose an d it does no t organize the field of sportbut lays emphasis on the heu ristic power of a dynam ic app roach to the activities concerned. It opens up ways ofunderstanding sports tourism. The birth of sports tourism as a discipline demands the adopting of a matrix that willallow the phenom ena for stu dy to be determ ined. The first op erators of this matrix can be described as follows:- a stay that combines two variables: a journey and a duration,- a link of subordina tion to socially identifiable pra ctices tha t ma kes u p- a group of phenomena under the heading of sport.These three op erato rs, functioning toge ther, mar k o ut the field of sports touris m. They oper ate in such a way as toproduce a rupture of an epistemological type, that is to say, a break that divides the phenomena and prevents anyconfusion b etween sport and tourism and sports tourism . This separatio n, which m ark s the first stage in theconstruction of the object, constitutes what Bac helard has called " the epistemological ru pt ur es " (1971), tha t is to


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say, the ru ptu res t ha t bring a c ertain knowledge. This separation also allows a series of questions to be eliminated asthey are no longer considered valid, in particu lar those which situated sport w ithin tourism . Th e idea of sportstourism is not an ideologically neu tral on e, it depend s on a vision of the world an d of society in general an d of sp ortand tourism in partic ular . Sports tourism h as ma rked out for itself a field of practices in which the sportsphen ome na a re the basis for the tourist project. The sports medium is the first charac teristic of and th e mostimp ortant element in sports tourism.

Figure n.l: The characteristics of sports tourism (Pigeassou, 1998)Th e integration of the sports object is at the root of the touris t project and is not ju st a simple element o r addition. Atourist holiday th at includes a sports dimen sion defined in adv ance goes beyond the field of spo rts tourism . In thiscase, the stay will be rega rded as tourism with a sports dimension or with spo rts characteristics o r a multi-activity o rspo rts discovery holiday. This distinction is based on the role of spo rts mediation in the to urist project as opposed tothe sports element as integrated in the wider project withou t any determining function and as a substitute activity.(Figure n 2)The goal to be reached in taking this direction is to bring to light the stakes that s urro un d th e birth of the field ofknowledge in relation to sports tourism . In this pre-p aradig ma tic perio d, methodological choices are essential toidentify an d clarify the limits of the field. This contribu tion, like so many others before it, only repres ents one steptowa rds the future autonom y of the corpus of knowledge. At this stage of its development, legitimate questions arebeing asked about the n ature a nd form of the relationship that unites sports tourism to othe r practices tha t belong tothe fields of spo rt or tourism . Clarifying the notion does not necessarily mean th at the phe nom ena defined by spo rtstourism could not be analyzed through transversal methodologies used in the study of tourism an d s po rt In anycase, the paradigms of sports tourism could be defined and emphasized by the light that can be thrown on them by


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SPORTS TOURISM

ACTIVITIES WITH A CORPORALMEDIATORExamples:- the practice of sport at competition level- the techniques of discovery andcorporal education- the practice of fitness through sport- the practice of adventure sports

ACT.IVJT.ES WITH A CULTURALAND/OR ARTISTIC MEDIATORIN THE FIELD OF SPORTExamples:- manifestations, shows, events- lectures, semina rs, congresses- visits (monuments, museums...)


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SPORTS TOURISM

TOURISM"The relationships and facts as a wholethat are made up of the journey and stay ofpeople outside their usual places ofresidence, in so far as this stay and journeyare not motivated by an y profit-makingactivity whatsoever".(Hunziker & Krapf, 1942)

STAYA stay of at least 24hours away fromhome.

SPORT"The phenomena, manifestations andproductions as a who le that aregenerated by and associated with thephysical activities locally or universallyrecognized and adopted".(Pigeassou, 1998)

LINK OFSUBORDINATION(The object and aimof the stay aredetermined by)

SOCIALLYIDENTIFIEDACTIVITIES


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Figu re n. 2: Th e generic forms an d declensions of sports tou rism (Pigeassoti, 1998)different scientific fields. But sports tourism offers many aspects, each scientific domain focusing its analysis on areading of the phenomenon that favours one aspect to the detriment of the others: geography, history, economics,psychology, sociology are som etimes in conflict over the inter preta tion of the phenomenon . Diversity of ap pro achcan throw a conceptual shad ow: a source of confusion and ap proxim ation which could har m th e emerg ence of aspecific body of knowledge.This study is pa rt of a w ider reflection, the aim of which is to build u p a specific status for s ports touri sm . Th efoundations of this field of study, though still a little disorganized, have been laid over th e last ten yea rs in n um erou swritings, often in the form of monographs. In these works, sports tourism can be grasped generally as tourism andsport in the form of consum er objects whose aim is consumer satisfaction. The question of the m eaning of spo rtstourism would tend to fade away in relation, on the one hand, to social function, and on the other, to its economic orma nage rial aspec ts. The question seems to us fundam ental, ho wever, in three of its aspects: the relationship tooneself, to others, and to space. The furth er exploration of these three aspects should give a firmer anthropolo gicalbasis to these fields of knowledge whose dom inant registers are today economic.In th is initial phase, it is necessary to set out the different types of axes tha t could be used to direct resear ch with aprog ram ma tical aim in ord er to favour the questions that would orient the analysis of the different processes andmecha nisms th at interven e in this field. The work s already published have attemp ted to set out the characteristics ofthe economic mechanisms rather than describing them or analyzing them, or debating the sociological orpsychological elements that ar e at the root of the produ ctions belonging at once to tourism and to sp o rt How everinteresting and necessary these works may be, they illustrate the limits of the questions that recur and that are attheir b ase. The setting out of a specific fram e to define the field of knowledge, a pre- parad igm atic stage, should onlybe the starting point for a more ambitious project which would aim at developing an academic subject All thatremains to be done is to promote a research p rogram me which w ould encourage m ore thematic studies, thusavoiding the stumbling-block of descriptive mono graph s tha t are a t once too subjective and too general, orcollections of generalized statistics. Fo ur axes could be used to organize this resea rch: an an thropolog ical one , asociological one, a ma nageria l axe and an economic axe. For each of these axes, some phenomena should b e favou redin the research as the dynam ic elements to be used to constitute the subject (Table n 1). The list is neitherexhaustive, nor restricting. Between these phenomena, relationships of proximity or even interdependence exist.

Investigational axes in sports !tourism j Types of pheno men a or heuristic processes for the jdevelop men t of a disciplin ary field j


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Anthropological \

Sociological \

Managerial ;

Economic

Phenom ena associated with the subject's experience |Phenomena of motive and representation }Cultural and intercultural phenomena (identity, banalization, world- jwide application) |Historical phenomena . ' jPhilosophical phenomena \Phenomena of the masses !Phenom ena of localization, delocalization and relocalization |Innovatory phenomena (in the activities or in the productions) \

Appropriation phenomenaDifferentiation phenomena (sociological and economic aspects) [Production phenomena 1Management phenomena [Marketing phenomena (products, range of products, places) [Com petitive phenomena (between customer zones, reception zones) iEconomic repercussion phenomena \Development phenomena 1Project conception phenomena ;Development and economic situation phenomena |

Table n c 1: Markers for a prospective development of knowledge in the field of sports tourismIn this organizational scheme, the dominant disciplmary matrix gives the angle for entry into the research subject.The developm ent of research in the directions here laid out would allow a fuller body of knowledge to be establishedand would mark the beginning of the paradigmatic period in the disciplmary field known as sports tourism.4. A challenge to be taken up


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At th e end of this epistemological analysis of the crea tion of a field of know ledge in spo rts tour ism , it would be wiseto measure the distance covered and that remaining to be covered before the paradigmatic stage marking itsestablishment is reach ed. The present stage is characterized by the absence of answers to the re cur rent foundationquestions of the field. Reluctance to dissociate and sep arate the phe nom ena h as become an obstacle that hasprevented fu rther reflection. This pap er, starting with an analysis of the key elements in the phenomen a, has createda rup tur e, the aim of which is to define the limits of the field of knowledge in question. This operation, th at w asbegun in the different research pap ers already published, represen ts the birth of a discipline called sports tourism .In this pre-pa radig ma tic pha se, it is necessary to trace the elements of the disciplinary ma trix and to set down aprog ram ma tic table of the research to be accomplished to help sports tourism achieve the status of an establisheddiscipline. Th e growing interest for this field mak es us believe tha t with the arr ival of new research ers in the futureand the increase in the num ber of research pap ers, this aim should be achieved in the coming years.

REFERENCESAlthusse r, L. 1974. Philosophie et ph ilosophie spo ntane des sa vants. Maspero. Paris.Barnes, B. 1982. T.S. Kuhn and S ocial Science. MacMil lan Press. Lond on.Berger, P. & Luckma nn,T. 1967. The Social Co nstruction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology ofKnowledge. Anchor Books. New York.De Knop, P. 1987. Some Tho ughts on the Influence of Spo rt on To urism . In Proceedings ofInternational sem inar and worksh op on o utdoor recreation and spor t tourism . Netanya. Pp. 38-45.

Douglas, M. 1970. Natural Symbo ls. Barrie and Jen kins. Lond onGam mon, S. & R obins on, T. Sport and Tourism : a Conceptual F ramework , Jou rnal ofSp ort To uris m , Vol. 4, n3, 1997Habermas, J . 1973. La science et techniqu e com me idologie . Ga ll ima rd. Paris.Kuhn, Th . 1970. The Structure of S cientif ic R evolutions. U niversity of Chicago Press. Chicago.Kurtzman, J . Inaugural Add ress, Sports Tou rism International Coun cil , Jou rnal of Sport Touris m ,Vol . 1, n1 , 1993Kurtzma n, J . Spo rts Tou rism Categories Revisited , , Jou rnal o f S port To urism , Vol. 2, n3, 1995.Kurtzman, J. & al . Global Un derstanding, Appreciat ion and Peace throug h S port Tourism , Journal ofSp ort To uris m , Vol . 3, n4, 1997Pigeassou, C. Sport and To urism : the Em ergence of Sport into the O ffer of To urism . Between Passionand R eason. An Overview of the French Situation and Perspectives . Jou rnal of Spo rt To urism , Vo l. 4,

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