Azores Archipelago: sport tourism development toward sustainability

Abstract

Sport tourism, and particularly nature sport tourism, is a strategic sector for the Azores archipelago. Despite all, few studies analyzed the sustainability of sport tourism in the territory, although some studies researched the demand, the offer, and the impacts of sport tourism particular products or services. Within the IRNIST research framework produced specifically for this project, outlining the contribution of sport tourism for local sustainable development in several small island territories, the main goal of this chapter is to present an overview about sport tourism in the Azores archipelago. This chapter presents results essentially from the analysis of secondary data, resulting from scientific publications, as well as technical documents prepared with the support of governmental bodies. Considering the image and tourist resources of the archipelago, the enhancement of sport tourism must be transversal to all islands and, at the same time, must be considered a differentiation and a vision that allows the creation of clusters, contributing to tourists staying longer in the destination and visit various islands.