Summary

This research outlines the construction of a detailed regional economic accounting model and describes its application to assess the economic impact of sporting activities, sports events and sport tourism in the regions and localities of Ajara.

The model traces the geography of the event or activity itself and the supply chain from the local area through neighbouring areas to the regional, national and global levelS. It accounts for the supply chain in each region and locality not only in terms of sales and purchases, but also in terms of gross value added, incomes and jobs.

By taking account of the different structures of local economies the model is able to address some of the social and economic concerns of sports and national, regional and local public bodies.

Sport tourism provides the host country with high media coverage. This coverage will cover not only the sporting event but also provide important information about the country’s cultural and entertainment locations as well as an overall country profile. 

As the range of leisure options available to the public has grown, attention has been directed to the issue of service quality and its influence on both customer acquisition and retention. This essay utilizes the literature in the areas of services marketing, tourism and service quality in an attempt to complement and enhance the existing sport tourism literature. In doing so it presents a range of concepts, models and frameworks that develop management's understanding of the multi-dimensional nature and complexities of achieving service quality in a sport tourism environment. Examples are used to relate the generic literatures to sport tourism.