Научная статья на тему 'Sports tourism as territorial social geographical system'

Sports tourism as territorial social geographical system Текст научной статьи по специальности «Экономика и бизнес»

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European science review
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SPORT TOURISM / RECREATION TERRITORIAL SYSTEM / GEOSYSTEMIC APPROACH

Аннотация научной статьи по экономике и бизнесу, автор научной работы — Kolotukha Oleksandr Vasilovich

The methodological and spatial features of important segment of recreational and touristic activity, namely sports tourism, are examined in the article using geosystemic approach. Detailed analysis of all components of the sports tourism territorial system has been done and their relationships with each other have been displayed.

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Текст научной работы на тему «Sports tourism as territorial social geographical system»

Секция 9. Регионоведение и социально-экономическая география

cent ofinvestment share to one ofevery 16 jobs seat. At the early ofthe independence year in our Republic, tourism appeared as a basic politics of state. After all important organization-law mechanism had created, the important normative documents were declared.

So, Deeping of the of the markets attitude, liberating of economics is base to a new activity and methods on the process of the globalization.

On the condition of the markets’ economy is entering to our life, specialists are studying on the service’s branch must be a solid to their works, capable to do an discussions’ activity and a smart knowledge. According to it, it causes to effective grow of hotel’s services of every region on the tourism branch.

The meaning of touristic services are explained as following on the substance of the “About tourism” law of the Uzbekistan Republic: Touristic services is a services belong to satisfy necessity of tourists. We may develop and form touristic activity by it. So, we can say again to growing effectively by using ideas on activity.

Generally, we must use following recommendations on effective growing of hotel’s services by increasing numbers of foreign and local tourists to the region:

- to check suitable needed certificate and licensing in all hotels two times a year;

- to facilitate and accelerate mechanism of forming hotel’s household and to organize the mechanism to manage oh the hotel;

- to economize motivate activity of the hotel during touristic season and provide coming of tourists to the hotel;

- to process programs of tourism development and to control it by the “region administration and to do a monitory making the program”;

- to define problems on the household of hotels, to create offer to develop and solve activity.

Except them, growing hotel services’ effectivement in the region according to that opinion it defines future ofUzbekistan and helped to do program oftourism development.

Kolotukha Oleksandr Vasilovich, Kirovograd state university, associate professor E-mail: okolotuh@ukr.net

Sports tourism as territorial social geographical system

Abstract: The methodological and spatial features of important segment of recreational and touristic activity, namely sports tourism, are examined in the article using geosystemic approach. Detailed analysis of all components of the sports tourism territorial system has been done and their relationships with each other have been displayed.

Keyword: sport tourism, recreation territorial system, geosystemic approach.

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Sports tourism is one of the most effective types of recreation and tourism activities. Its development displays the typical trend of our time, when outdoor activities, combining rehabilitation with cognitive activity, become preferred.

The geography of tourism only recently emerged as an independent geographic discipline with its own object and subject of study. In the middle of the twentieth century, there was a need for common methodological framework that would allow combining different scientific approaches within this important branch of social geography into the general concept.

Today, tourism-geographical studies are conducted according three main approaches, namely systematic, spatial and cluster. More advanced theoretical and methodological interdisciplinary models, used for a study of tourism, include the concept of socio-cultural environments proposed by D. Nikolayenko, the concept of absolute and relative benefits of tourism, the concept of sustainable recreational nature etc.

The topicality of the topic stems from the lack of scientific basis of sports tourism as a socially important branch of recreation and tourism activities, and also from the need to define a paradigm of its scientific investigation, to provide the theoretical and methodological studies of its spatial organization and development in accordance with the requirements of the modernity, to predict the development of sports tourism in Ukraine and in the world.

Analysis of previous studies. Development of recreational geography (and later of tourism geography as its branch) as a new scientific discipline started with theoretical models of recreational system put forward by Russian scientists V Preobrazhensky in 60th of the twentieth century. In addition, particularly significant contribution to the rationale and development of systemic categories has been done Yu. Vedenin, M. Myronenko, I. Tver-dokhlebov, E. Kotlyarov et al. The systematic approach to the study of recreation and tourism was further developed in the works of V. Azar, A. Aleksandrova, V Kvartalnov, I. Zorin, L. Mazhar, M. Sarancha et al. Elements ofthe systematic approach appears in the works of foreign authors, among them D. Harvey, P. Hugget, R. Haken, M. Bochvarov, S. Smith, B. Wlodarczyk. Due to the fundamental works of these scientists, dealing with methodological and theoretical problems, social dynamics, resource development, functional and geospatial structures of recreational systems, the geosystemic concept is today one among the thoroughly developed approaches of geographical studies of tourism.

The study aims to investigate the methodological and spatial characteristics of important segment of recreational and tourism activities, namely sports tourism, in terms of geosystemic approach, to develop the social-geographical pattern of functioning and development of this important segment of the tourism industry.

Geosystemic approach to the analysis of the territorial organization of tourism and recreational activities, in our opinion, is one of the most productive approaches to the study of the spatial aspects of recreation and tourism.

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Geosystemic analysis of human territorial organization in general implies schematic and simplified reflection of the actual situation at a certain level of organization to explore the most essential elements, relationships, properties and patterns of development. Theory of geographical systems forms the basis for techniques of geosystemic analysis, applied to the study of human territorial organization.

The term “geographic system”, or geosystem (do not confuse with geographic information system) was introduced by Russian geographer V. Sochava to emphasize the systemic nature of complex geographical objects in geographical reality. V Sochava considered geosystem as a natural formation [8].

Later Yu. Saushkin considered geosystems as complex formations on the Earth surface, comprising both elements of nature, people and economy. The integrity of these structures is determined by the direct and inverse transformed relationships between economy, people and nature [6]. V. Gokhman linked the concept of geosystem with territorial systems: natural, social, socio-economical, natural, technical and others [2]. Tourism and recreation systems represent the type of social geosystems.

The concept of territorial recreation systems, designed by V Preobrazhensky in 60th years of the twentieth century, long time played the role of the basic (virtually unopposed) conceptual and theoretical model for national recreational and geographical studies [4]. Today, this concept has not lost its attractiveness, but gradually concedes the place to the modern theoretical and methodological interdisciplinary research models of tourism.

Then Yu. Vedenin substantiated two types of cognitive models of territorial recreation systems: subject centric and object centric. Subjects (tourists) are put in the center of consideration according to the first model, while the object (area on which the recreational activity takes place) should attract the primary interest according to the latter [1, 22-23]. Also it is possible the holistic approach that considers these two models in their dialectical unity.

Territorial recreational system (TRS), which reflects the relevant sector of socioeconomic geographical space, represents a schematic and simplified model of tourism and recreational activities. The heart of this category is formed by the concept of recreation system as the base model (exterritorial in nature), reflecting the recreational activities at any level and of any character, aimed at restoring the physical and spiritual powers of people, both individuals and society as a whole. Russian geographer L. Mazhar considers TRS as a special case of the universal recreation system, transposed into “geographical dimension”: all elements of recreation system are topologically referenced in the geographical space [3].

Thus, TRS is a set of elements in the field of recreation and tourism, united by spatial relations and linkages. It is known that recreation covers a wider range of recre-

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ation opportunities to meet people’s needs for rest, and tourism is a type of recreational activity associated with the travel and stay of people outside the place of residence. A «sports tourism» version of recreation system is mainly characterized by multifaceted tourist and sports activities, not excluding the satisfaction of cognitive needs and the needs of rest in the process of sports tourism travelling.

Let us consider sports tourism in terms of classical basic models of recreational geography. It is known that basic model of recreational systems includes tourists, natural and cultural systems, technical systems, staff and governing (regulatory) body. Among these basic model elements in sports tourism resting people (sports tourists) are fully presented with a partly presence of natural and cultural systems. Technical systems, staff and the governing body is underdeveloped. Technical systems belonging to other sectors of the economy are widely used. The functions of staff and the governing body, to a greater extent, are performed usually by tourists and created by them public tourist organizations (tourist clubs, sports tourism federations, etc.).

Analysis of sports tourism activities as an important and socially significant component of recreational and tourism activities give the right to say that sports tourism is a specific territorial system consisted by three main agents joined in the interaction process: the sports tourists, the sports tourism resource base and the system of sports tourism institutions and facilities. The main agents of “sports tourism” system are represented in Fig. 1.

According to Russian geographer V. Sveshnikov, unlike other forms of recreation sports tourism development does not lead to the formation of territorial recreation systems [7]. The concept of recreational resources experiences substantial transformation for purposes of sports tourism. According to the traditional approach, consideration of such resources has sense only in terms of recreational facilities and is meaningless from the standpoint of individual tourists or groups of them. In sports tourism, these differences are largely erased.

I beg to differ with the statement of V. Sveshnikov. I believe that sports tourism is a specific territorial recreation system. In our opinion, the sports tourism territorial system (STTS) is a social geographical system which consists of two interconnected subsystems:

- subsystem «Subject of sports tourism activities» — the main part of the system, including sports tourists, who have chosen sports tourism activities to meet their specific needs in the sports improvement, health improvement, knowledge of the world, and physical development and

- subsystem “Object of sports tourism activities", which includes tourism resource potential of a certain area, the social prerequisites for the formation of sports tourist activities, physical infrastructure, human resource potential for sports tourism, regulatory bodies of the system.

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Fig. 1. Main agents of sports tourism system (Author: Kolotukha O. V., 2012)

This system is characterized by a functional (state of subsystems is defined by the function of the whole system) and territorial integrity. All subsystems are united by forward and backward linkages ensuring the integrity of STTS. The scheme of this system is shown in Fig. 2. As rightly argues O. Topchiyev, “if such a scheme is imposed on a real recreational area, it should have its own name and should be called “territorial” [9, 175].

Components of STTS act as its subsystems — «Subject of sports tourism activities» and «Object of tourist and sports activities».

Subsystem «Subject of sports tourism activities» stands in the center of the system, i. e. the system is centered on the subject. This subsystem defines the requirements for the subsystem «Object of sports tourism activities». These requirements are due to the specific recreational needs of sports tourists. Requirements are influenced by factors such as a person’s age, gender, social identity, preferences, state of health etc. This subsystem is characterized by the size and structure of the recreational needs of sports tourists, selectivity and geography of tourists’ demands, diversity and seasonality of sports tourism streams. Specialized recreational needs and selectivity are factors that determine the basic function of STTS.

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Fig. 2. Sport tourism as a specific territorial recreation system (Author: Kolotukha O. V., 2012)

STTS is an open system that has input (social needs) and output (performance indicators of its functions).

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Potential of tourism resources, the main component of which is the resources for recreation and tourism, acts as a substrate of the system. In the sports tourism this segment of the system is specific and extremely important.

The system of sports tourism includes professionally trained human resources — tourism instructors, managers of tourist trips, guides and group leaders, mountain rescues, and others.

Sport tourism facilities are represented by the material base of tourist clubs and sections, rental tourist equipment, control and rescue services and others. Material resources of other economy sectors are widely used: transport, catering, commerce, culture etc. Considerable part of the sports tourism material base is represented by the property of tourists, i. e. tourist equipment, inventory, food.

Regulatory bodies of sports tourism: federations of sports tourism, their commissions for different kinds of tourism, rout qualification commissions, hiking clubs and sections. Both facilities and relevant regulatory bodies are situated at considerable distance from the place of outdoor activities, i. e. sports tourism objects and tourist routes, and have little impact on the use of recreational resources. However, one of the most effective regulatory elements, the head of the tourist group, is immediately included into the tourist group.

Thus, analysis of sports tourism activities as an important and socially significant component of recreational activities makes it right to say that sports tourism is a specific territorial recreation system, the territorial system of sports tourism. Based on the studies of V Preobrazhensky and Yu. Vedenin, we try to develop our own ideas regarding the structure of such system and its specificity (Fig. 3).

In our opinion, the territorial system of sports tourism includes the following functional subsystems:

1) Consumers (sports tourists) — the central component of STTS. They with their specific sports tourist needs, desires and activities represent the system creating base ofSTTS, its operation and development. Thus, we believe that STTS is subject centered system;

2) Natural resource subsystem of STTS — includes components of nature, i. e. natural objects (serving, primarily, as obstacles) that are overcome in the environment by various means of transportation and serve for organizing of sports tourism activities;

3) Social subsystem of STTS, which is responsible for the development and implementation of public demand for sports tourism, the set of public relationships — sports and fitness, cognitive, moral, environmental, etc., forming the main sports tourism features of society;

4) Industrial subsystem of STTS, which combines all kinds of economic activities related to the organization of sports tourist activities (production and rental of tourist vehicles, special tourist equipment, tourist service, specific foods, etc.), the set of tourism enterprises producing tourist tours;

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Fig. 3. Functional structure of the sports tourism territorial system (Author: Kolotukha O. V., 2013)

5) Infrastructural subsystem of STTS is a set of sports tourism organizations and institutions, providing operating conditions of STTS;

6) attractions form the basic subsystem of STTS because they attract tourists to a particular territory. Any phenomenon, interesting to tourists and attracting them into the tourist district, can be considered as attraction (this category, in our opinion, should be viewed as subjective). This subsystem can be isolated separately and can be considered as a part of natural resource subsystem. But the role of attractions is very important in sports tourism, as they are attracting objects, forming centers of sports tourism areas (Hoverla Mountain — in the Carpathians, Elbrus — in the Caucasus, Mont Blanc — in the Alps, the Grand Canyon — in Crimea, Niagara Falls — in North America, South Pole, etc.).

Based on the conceptual understanding of tourism as a set of relations and phenomena that occur during movement and stay of people outside a fixed place of existence without relation to employment income, STTS from geographical position can be represented in the form of three geographical sub-systems: the territory generating touristic flows, transit territory, and the territory that fills specific sports tourists needs,

i. e. tourist destination. These systemic phenomena are sufficient for the development of basic/simple STTS (Fig. 4).

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Fig. 4. Structure of the sports tourism territorial system from geographic position (Author: Kolotukha O. V., 2013)

However, even within a single tourist’s trip STTS may act as multisystem formation, i. e. while travelling tourist can cross several transit human territorial systems (HTS) and visit more than one tourist destination, and the number of transit sites and tourist destinations will increase accordingly in the model.

So in the process of STTS development one can observe enriching of its elemental composition and system connections, emergence of more complex structures. Therefore, to fully consider the structure of STTS one must take into account all of the basic and essential components and connections, and the simplest STTS will also be reflected when using such an approach.

Geographic subsystems of STTS can be considered simultaneously in different scales and hierarchical levels, thus identifying characteristics occurred due intersystem structure of STTS. For example, in the process of any analysis of STTS, the area generating tourist flows can be regarded as a great metropolis, transit areas — can be viewed in terms of individual countries or large regions and tourist destinations as sports tourism region. Sports tourism destination is an extremely important subdivision of STTS.

Thus, sports tourism destination is a territory that serves as the aim for sports tourist’s travelling, which because of its specific (primarily natural) properties is able to satisfy his/her sports tourist demands. Sports tourism destination includes the following functional subsystems: sports tourism resources (obstacles), attractions, and transport and regulatory subsystems (Fig. 5).

Sports tourism resources (obstacles in the specific kind of tourism) — their overcoming is the aim and the main motivator for travel.

Attractions in this model are closely related to the tourists because specific phenomena can be attractive only from the standpoint of subjects. Based on the functions and significance of attractions, a Russian geographer M. Sarancha (2010) distinguish among them the target (which are the goal and the main motivator for travel), concomitant (attractions of short and shallow interest that are widely used to make tourist programs more eventful), imposed (attractions that are not interesting and attractive for tourists, but tourists have to pay attention to them due to their inclusion in the tour program) and additional (which cause great interest among tourists just in the course

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of travel). Traditionally another division also is considered regarding the genesis of attractions: they can be natural, anthropogenic, and natural-anthropogenic.

Fig.5. Structure of sports tourism destination (Author: Kolotukha O. V., 2013)

The role of the transport subsystem is the crucial issue in delivery of visitors to the place of sports tourism travel, because such areas usually are hard to reach by transport. Often the cost of these entrances forms the lion’s share of the travel cost, which in turn is a limiting factor. A special role is played by the transport subsystem in the kinds of sports tourism where various means of transportation are in use: bicycles, cars, motorcycles, rafting equipment (kayaks, catamarans, rafts, canoes, etc.), sailing catamarans.

The role of the regulatory subsystem is also critical, because the majority of sports tourism trips are made on the edge of technical and physical abilities of participants and often involve a risk to life. Therefore, it is important to control the preparation for this trip and its immediate implementation. For example, in Ukraine sports tourism trips are controlled by Route Qualification Commission of the Federation of Sport Tourism. Sphere of its responsibilities includes the development of a travel route, the inspection of the leader’s and members’ experience for passage of the claimed route, checking availability of appropriate special equipment etc. Passing of sports tourism route by the group in popular sports tourism areas is controlled by special units of Control and Rescue Service. Such units are functioning in most mountainous regions. But in areas where they are not functioning the control functions lie at the very sports tourist group. If sports tourism routes run through protected or border areas, their passage is further controlled by the relevant authorities.

The following components are acting like STTS subsystems within the areas that generate tourism flows: potential consumers of specific sports tourism product, manufacturers and sellers of such tourism products, regulatory institutions. The role of the latter subsystem is to provide legal, economic and ideological foundations for interaction of actors and ensuring the interests of the territory, and in particular its subjects, providing the safety for people traveling with tourist purposes and so on.

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Despite the fact that STTS development is mainly defined by self-organization, regulatory institutions play an important role in their formation, operation and development. This is due to the fact that regulatory institutions (especially public authorities), providing the management of STTS geographic subsystems (e. g., national parks) must, above all, ensure the interests of the territory (“owner of tourism resources”), but also should take into account the interests of tourists.

Regulatory institutions, providing the management of STTS, should not be represented only by public entities, but also should include tourism associations representing various interested community organizations. In that aspect it is important for the tourist destination that in order to effectively manage the territory STTS subj ects should closely interact with each other and sought to create a unified management structure or at least a “platform” for constructive dialogue and decision making. Regulatory institutions, as well as production subsystem, in their activities should be guided by scientific base, the chosen philosophy, and articulated vision and mission, which, in turn, create the starting point for strategy, policy and planning development of sports tourism.

Conclusions. Analysis of sports tourism activities as an important and socially significant component of tourism and recreational activities makes it right to say that sports tourism is a specific kind of territorial recreation systems, i. e. sports tourism territorial system (STTS). STTS is a complex geosystemic entity that has social and natural origin. It is aimed to meet the specific sports tourism needs of people and to obtain health, sports, social, environmental and other desired effects.

So, geosystemic approach to the study of tourism and recreational activities reveals new opportunities for geography regarding comprehensive study of regional tourism and recreation systems, including the territorial system of sports tourism as an integral part of social geographic systems, which generally reflect the spatial organization of human life.

References:

1. Vedenin Yu. A. (1980): Social-economic and geographical aspects of the study of territorial recreation systems. Moscow, Nauka (in Russian).

2. Gokhman V M., Mints A. A., Preobrazhensky V S. (1971): Systemic approach in geography. In: Questions of Geography, issue 88, Theoretical geography. Moscow, pp. 65-75 (in Russian).

3. Mazhar L. Yu. (2009): Territorial tourism and recreation system: Geosystemic approach to the formation and development: Author’s thesis abstract. Smolensk (in Russian).

4. Preobrazhensky V S. (1974): Territorial recreation system as an object of geographical study. In: Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Geographical Series, # 2, pp. 34-42 (in Russian).

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5. Sarancha M. A. (2010): Territorial tourism and recreation system as a complex socio-natural phenomenon. In: Bulletin of Udmurt University. Biology. Earth Sciences. Issue 3, pp. 58-67 (in Russian).

6. Saushkin Yu. G., Smirnov A. M. (1968): Geosystems and geostructures. In: Moscow State University Bulletin, Geographical Series, # 5, pp. 27-32 (in Russian).

7. Sveshnikov V. V. (1989): Amateur tourism and some recreational geography concepts. In: Theoretical problems of recreational geography, Moscow, pp. 153-157 (in Russian).

8. Sochava V. B. (1963): The definition of some terms and concepts of physical geography/Reports of the Institute of Geography of Siberia and the Far East. Issue 3, Irkutsk, pp. 50-59 (in Russian).

9. Topchiyev O. G. (2001): Fundamentals of Human Geography: Textbook. Odessa, Astroprynt (in Ukrainian).

Rakhimov Atabek Karimbayevich, teacher of the “Geography” department at UrSU E-mail: rahimov076@rambler.ru Rakhimova Guzal Yuldashovna, Head of the“ English” department at UrSU Abdullayev Aminboy Gulmirzayevich, teacher of the “Geography” department at UrSU E-mail: abdullaev76@mail.ru

The importance of economic prognoses ways and analyzing factors in teaching geography

Abstract: The article deals with analyzing factors of geographical researches in teaching and economic prognosis.

Keywords: Natural factors, economic factors, demographic factors, ethnic factors, social-psychological factors and others.

Today the Republic of Uzbekistan is aspiring to establish a wide range of relations,

i. e. social-economic, cultural, scientific and technical relations with different foreign countries. It is clear that the demand for national specialists who can learn the secrets of using new technologies quickly and perfectly and work in the branches of modern production and service is increasing. Spreading the modern production, reproducing agricultural products, using the technologies that can satisfy the requirements of the world in this field, developing to increase the branches of agriculture that didn’t ex-

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