SPORT TOURISM AND EVENT MANAGEMENT
- To strengthen current understanding of sport tourism and event management, primarily as it relates to consumer behavior, destination image, and service quality.
- To assess the impacts (social and economic) of sport tourism and event initiatives on local, national and international communities.
- To understand tourist involvement in and behavioral patterns in different types of sport tourism.
- Active sport tourist behaviors and motivations
- Event tourists motivations and decision-making behaviors
- Image of destination and sport events
- Event volunteer motivations and management
- Event and sport tourism marketing and sponsorships
- Sport tourism and event management
- Social and economic impacts of events and sport tourism
- 2010 FIFA World Cup: Resident and Visitor Perspectives (2010-2011)
- Examining the Importance of Olympic Games Legacy Aspects Among Host City Residents: A Temporal Approach (2010)
- 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games: The Importance of Legacy among Stakeholders (2010)
- AAU Track & Field Junior Olympic National Qualifier Survey (2009)
- Esynchro US Age Group Synchronized Swimming Championship Survey (2009)
- Babe Ruth Softball Tournament Survey, Florida (2009)
- Gator Soccer Showcase for Girls Event Survey, Florida (2009)
- Gainesville ASA Pro/Am McKenzie Tour Survey, Florida (2008)
- Perceptions of the 7th Annual Gainesville Senior Games, Florida (2008)
- Paddle Florida Survey (2008)
- Florida's First Coast of Golf Proposed Strategic Plan (2008)
- Gainesville Five Points of Life Marathon and Half Marathon (2007)
- Bike Florida Survey (2005, 2006)
- Visitors and Festival Impacts in North Central Florida (2005)
- Economic Impact of Gainesville Sport Organizing Committee Events, Florida (2003)
- Evaluation of Visitors to the Gainesville Arts Festival, Florida (2000)
- Additional Research Projects
- Sample Reports
Dr Heather Gibson is one of the leading researchers in sport tourism. Her work is widely cited in this area and her book Sport Tourism: Concepts and Theories, a collection of original essays on this type of tourism is top seller in the Sport Social Science Series (Routledge Publishers). Her work focuses primarily on sport tourist’s behaviors whether they are active participants such as Bike Florida or the Senior Games or if they are traveling to watch a particular sports event. Dr Gibson is currently working on a series of event surveys for the Gainesville Sports Commission and has included data on the travel patterns, activities while in town for the event, expenditures and event evaluation. She has also co-directed a project for Visit Florida studying the visitors who attend rural festivals in Florida providing information on their behaviors, spending patterns and their motivations.
- The relationship between Active Leisure and Active Tourism (Seohee Chang, Ph.D. Research: 2009)
- Community relations: A state of affairs in intercollegiate athletics (Francis Simone, M.S. Research: 2007)
- Relationship among image, perceived risk and intention to travel to China and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games among US college students (Xueging Qi, M.S. Research: 2005)
- The relationship between consumer role socialization and nostalgia sport tourism: a symbolic interactionist perspective (Amanda Wilson, Ph.D. Research: 2004)
- An investigation of the determinants of festival attendees’ satisfaction: A study of the Gainesville Downtown Festival and Arts Show (Erin White, M.S. Research: 2002)
- Graduate Student Research (All Program Areas)