Sanela Škorić

The objective of this study is to carry out a qualitative analysis of the ratings of tourists and residents attending the road cycling sporting event "La Vuelta" held in Spain in 2019, 2020 and 2021 editions. Methods: The sample consisted of 1,203 comments/observations from tourists and residents in the in situ and post-event phase of each edition. For this qualitative analysis, an open question was used at the end of a quantitative questionnaire on social and tourism impact. Once each comment had been categorised, a summary was made of the responses and frequencies of each idea according to each category, positive and negative comments and the words most used in each type of comment. Nvivo v.10 software (QSR International, Burlington, MA 01803, USA) was used to analyse the comments and frequencies of each idea. Results: Most of the positive comments focus on the positive feelings and emotions generated by attending the event (emotion or enjoyment; 12.4%), great experience (14.8%), atmosphere of the event (10.4%), good organisation of the event (12.1%) and future intentions to return and recommend the event (7.4%). Negative comments mainly refer to the COVID-19 pandemic (11.8%), the advertising caravan (7.4%) and traffic and parking problems (5.9% of comments). Among the words associated with negative comments, the word "advertising caravan" stands out, while the most used words in positive reviews were "experience" and "emotion". Conclusion: Most of the positive comments focus on positive feelings and emotions generated by attending the event (emotion or enjoyment) and the great experience and atmosphere surrounding the sporting event. In the 2020 edition, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the event, although parking problems and traffic congestion are the worst-rated categories.

Cilj je ovoga istraživanja utvrditi povezanost između dvanaest stavki olimpijskog programa (pripreme natjecanja, stipendije i drugo) i ostvarenog uspjeha sportaša na XXXI. Olimpijskim igrama u Riju de Janeiru 2016. Istraživanjem su obuhvaćeni sportaši u 20 ljetnih olimpijskih sportova (17 individualnih i trima ekipnim sportovima), čije su sportske aktivnosti i nastupi u promatranom razdoblju ciljano financirani kroz četverogodišnji olimpijski ciklus Rio 2013. – 2016. Rezultati jednostavne regresijske analize ukazuju na postojanje statistički značajne povezanosti između pojedinih stavki olimpijskog programa i ostvarenog uspjeha za deset varijabli (stavki), dok za dvije varijable nije utvrđena statistički značajna povezanost. Pet varijabli ukazuje na linearan tip povezanosti, četiri kvadratni, a jedna logaritamski. Na temelju dobivenog tipa povezanosti i koeficijenta determinacije (R2) može se preporučiti Hrvatskome olimpijskome odboru, radi postizanja što boljih rezultata na OI-ju, da znatno poveća vrijednosti varijabli koje imaju linearni odnos, umjereno poveća vrijednosti varijable koja ima logaritamski odnos i do određenog iznosa poveća vrijednosti varijablama koje imaju kvadratnu povezanost.

The aim of this paper is to determine the types and intensity of connection between the amount of state funding for various programmes in sport invested by Croatian Olympic Committee from 2001 until 2016 and international sporting success of Croatian athletes. A connection between 12 independent variables (funds invested in 33 summer Olympic sports (24 individual and 9 team sports) broken down in 8 specific programmes, as well as the number of athletes and coaches in different programmes) and international sporting success was tested using regression analysis. The results show statistically significant logarithm connection between success and total funds invested (ACR=0.160,R2=0.319, p=0.001). Additionally, three variables showed linear, eight logarithm and one quadratic type of connection. Applying different regression models contributes to better understanding of connection between the amount and direction of investments in high performance sport and result of those investments in the form of achieved international sporting success.

Sport events represent a popular motive for travel and can bring a huge influx of visitors with multiple benefits for a destination. The purpose of this article is to analyze the effect of previous experience with the destination on future behavior in the form of intention to visit/revisit it and to shed more light on the relationship between visitors’ satisfaction and their future revisit intentions depending on their previous experience with the destination and the sporting event. The research setting was EuroBasket 2015, Zagreb, Croatia (EB), the largest and the most important basketball competition for national teams in Europe. A face-to-face survey with visitors of each of the 15 played games was conducted on site. In total, 765 questionnaires were collected. For the purpose of this paper, only foreign visitors (461 questionnaires) were included in the analysis. The connection between past experience and future intention to visit was tested with Pearson’s chi-squared test, differences in satisfaction levels—using the t-test for independent samples. In the next step of the analysis, we performed an analysis of impact asymmetry (IA) and of impact range (IR). The necessary input data were obtained through an OLS regression model with binary-coded dummy variables. The results showed that repeat visitors are more likely to express an intention to revisit the destination than first-time visitors, but the level of total satisfaction with EB was the same for both groups (first-time visitors and repeat visitors). The most influential event attributes for overall satisfaction were organization of EB in general, layout of the arena, and preparation of the city for the event. The study expanded the theoretical understanding of the visitors’ satisfaction with sporting event attributes as well their intention to revisit the destination.

Researching tourist expenditure is of great importance since it represents a starting point when calculating possible economic effects. The aim of this paper is to identify the primary drivers of expenditure among active sport event tourists. Various socio-demographic and travel-related variables, as well as motivational factors, were included in the multiple regression analysis to explain total expenditure patterns of active sport event tourists in two sports, mountain biking and trail running. Although seven motivational factors were common to participants in both sport events, the motive related to nature was the only motivational factor that influences (negatively) overall spending of participants in trail running events while the factor related to stress relief positively impacts spending of participants in mountain biking events. The influence of socio-demographic variables on spending is event specific and should not be generalized to other events.

The topic of sport financing has always attracted the attention of researchers, as well as other stake-holders in sport, mainly public. This is mostly due to a fact that the majority of sport organisations in Europe, and Croatia as well, are non-profit organisations. Also, the abundance of financing sources represents a significant factor for the development of sport, especially top level sport in all European union countries, which is of interest for every country. This topic receives special attention in time of crisis, when governments are faced with budget cuts, and private sector thrives to minimize its business expenses. Consequently, sport organisations are affected by these circumstances. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the structure of incomes in Croatian sport organisations in the period of 2008 until 2013 in order to see which sources of financing are most affected by economic crisis.