Sports tourism in Antalya: Determination of the current situation

This work aims to identify the conceptual framework of the sports tourism and provide information for the decision makers about how to develop the sports tourism practices in an organised manner with the application research which covers Antalya. In this work, It is intented to contribute this newly research area by discussing the sport, tourism and sports tourism concepts in sections. For the practice section, Antalya is especially selected as it is so advanced in this area. Practices on tourism businesses are done at hotels which have rich sport tourism activities in Belek and Kundu and tour operators and travel agents which are specialized on sports tourism in the province. In addition, actors such as public institutions and non-governmental organisations which have various tasks in realization of sports tourism have formed an other format of the practice. Data collecting method is face to face interviews with the authorized managers in the field of sports tourism in their own institutions. As a result of the interviews including 27 questions (open ended and closed ended), the results are interpreted by the graphics and tables. Percentages and frequencies of obtained data are interpreted for statistics. Another aim of this work is trying to answer some questions like: how do administrators perceive sports tourism concept in public and private sector, who are stakeholders for the sports tourism in our country and what are their responsibilities, what is the current level of the sports tourism in Antalya, substructure and security status and future of the sports tourism. Information collected by literature research and practices reveals what should be done to develop the sports tourism in Turkish tourism and compete with large and small countries that are ahead of us despite having various sources and service quality. For developing the sports tourism in our country, It would be appropriate to complete the deficiencies identified by the participants from Antalya and prosecute the studies by a scientific committee. Keywords: Sports, Sports and Tourism, Sports Tourism, Sports Tourism in Antalya