Labex Item (Laboratory of excellence: Innovation in mountain territory) with IRNIST and Laboratory SENS (Sport and Social Environment) organise the 4th Sport Tourism Conference (STC) 2017 on January 11 – 13, 2017 in Grenoble, France.
Conference Theme
Sport tourism and mountainous areas are facing major changes in a globalized world, where climate change and digital technologies growth, require from its players to take on new challenges. Depending on the stakeholder’s responsiveness, the societal, economic, cultural and technological changes we can observe in the Alpine region and in other extra-continental mountains regions may be considered as consequences or adaptations. Sport and mountain tourism, which represent a significant economic and social weight, are no exception to this trend and call adaptive and innovative responses. Companies, resorts, sportsmen, consumers, institutions and territories (in the sense of tourist destinations open to the world) should find solutions through individual and collective innovation. They have to adapt their strategies, organizations and governance models to remain competitive and attractive. Otherwise, the risk relating to these major changes and their social consequences (insecurity, inequality, loss of employment, etc.) become larger and menacing.
The adaptation to changes raises questions relating to specific characteristics of sport tourism and mountainous areas as recomposition of territories and economic or professional activities; the dynamic of the actors (companies, consumers, and institutions), society evolution; the role and types of innovation, and the way researchers approach these interrogations. Indeed, in this new context, questioning the practices of scientific research and the revival of theoretical approaches appears to be an important point to be developed.
In this context of major changes, we also need to consider the new needs of societies, individuals, businesses and institutions. The matter of the evolution of sports tourism markets in mountain areas, in the socio-economic and geopolitical sense, deserves to be debated, even enlightened on this occasion. Indeed, it should examine the factors and models of competition between territories, destinations, European and international regions not only in economic terms (quantity and price…), but also in sociological terms (social logic of actors and organizations…), marketing (attractiveness of destinations…), historical (dynamic of occupations and skills…), geographic (territorial recomposition…), geopolitical (impact of conflicts…), technology (mastery of digital…), etc.
Setting out from this, the call for papers is open to all disciplines and researchers that may contribute to further enlighten the general theme of change in sport tourism in mountains areas. The multidisciplinary proposals, combining theoretical viewpoints and innovative methodological approaches arising from the interaction between social sciences and humanities or between the latter and other sciences (e g. environmental, information, etc.) will have a particular attention.
Conference Topics
This conference favours the proposals which contribute to advance the theme of sport tourism in mountains areas. The contributions out of this topic will be accepted if they open new comparative perspectives and if they show a conceptual and methodological advancement. Accordingly, the following themes seem as priorities to be addressed during this conference on sports tourism in the mountains.
- Innovation in the ecosystem of the sport tourism and mountain tourism
- New strategies for living in mountain areas and from trades of sport tourism
- New business models, new patterns of production and new marketing strategies
- New occupations and new skills in sports tourism and especially in mountain sport tourism
- New digital technologies in sports tourism and mountain tourism and especially in mountain sport tourism
- Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs and enterprises in sport tourism and especially in mountain sport tourism
- Models of governance of tourist destinations, the new leverage for action of political or sporting institutions
- Consumers (Tourists and sportsmen), new behaviors, new forms of practicing and consumption
- Women as entrepreneurs or consumers dealing with changes
- Importance of summer and/or winter sport tourism for the development of mountain destination
- Sustainable development models in sports tourism and for the high and medium mountain
- Role of sports tourism events and facilities in the development of tourist destinations
- Comparative studies between mountains of Europe and extra continental
- Other themes
Conference Committee
Organising Committee
- Malek Bouhaouala (Université Grenoble Alpes)
- Michel Raspaud (Université Grenoble Alpes)
- Anne Dalmasso (Université Grenoble Alpes)
- Clémence Perrin (Université Savoie Mont Blanc)
- Christophe Gauchon (Université Savoie Mont Blanc)
- Dominique Kréziak (Université Savoie Mont Blanc)
Scientific Committee
Co-Presidents
- Malek Bouhaouala (Université Grenoble Alpes-France)
- Claude Sobry (Université Lille 2-IRNIST-France)
Members
- Allan Williams (University of Surrey-UK)
- Anne Dalmasso (Université Grenoble Alpes-France)
- Brahim Allaoui (Institut Royal de Formation des Cadres de la Jeunesse et des Sports-Maroc)
- Bruno Sarrasin, (Université du Québec à Montréal-Canada)
- Christophe Gauchon (Université Savoie Mont Blanc-France)
- Christophe Gibout (Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale-France)
- Clémence Perrin (Université Savoie Mont Blanc-France)
- Derek Van Rheenen (University of California Berkeley)
- Dieter Hillairet (Université Clermont Auvergne-France)
- Dominique Kréziak (Université Savoie Mont Blanc-France)
- Fanny Dubois (Université Toulouse 3-France)
- Jean Harvey (Université d’Ottawa-Canada)
- John Saunders (Australian Catholic University-Autralia)
- Katherine Dashper (Leeds Metropoltain University)
- Kristina Bucar (University of Zagreb-Croatia)
- Michel Raspaud (Université Grenoble Alpes-France)
- Mike Weed, (Canterbury Christ Church University-UK)
- Mohamed Kaach (Institut Royal de Formation des Cadres de la Jeunesse et des Sports-Maroc)
- Mohammed Matmati (Grenoble Ecole de Management-France)
- Pascale Marcotte (Université Laval-Canada)
- Patrick Bouchet (Université de Bourgogne-France)
- Ricardo Mélo (Université de Coimbra-Portugal)
- Sanela Skoric (University of Zagreb-Croatia)
- Shawn M. O’Rourke (Canisius Colleges-USA)
- Sorina Cernaianu (Université de Craiova-Romania)
- Vincent Mangematin (Grenoble Ecole de Management-France)
- Yann Abdourazakou (California State University, Dominguez Hills-USA)