The relation between sport and tourism at the beginning of
tourism development – the case of Croatia

Jasenka Kranjčević^1*

Received: 15/06/2015 Accepted: 21/11/2016

¹Institute for Tourism, Vrhovec 5, Zagreb, Croatia, E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
^*Corresponding author

This paper aims at contributing to the discussion whether functional relationships existed between tourism and sport in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea in the late 19th and early 20th century as they do today and whether they were interconnected. After the introduction, the paper describes tourism opportunities of the time and draws conclusions based on the research on built sports architecture, sports disciplines, sports associations and sports events that were linked to tourism. In addition to contributing to the knowledge of the history of functional relationships between sport and tourism, the paper raises the question of how much the relationship between tourism and sport has changed in the last hundred years. The research contributes to a better knowledge of sport tourism history, sport tourism heritage and sport as a tourist attraction.

© 2017 Varna University of Management. All rights reserved

Keywords: interfunctional relationships, sport tourism history, Croatia, Adriatic coast.
Citation: Kranjčević, J. (2017) The relation between sport and tourism at the beginning of tourism development – the case of Croatia. European Journal of Tourism Research 16, pp. 19-31