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

Abstract

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.