*CFP* "SPORT AND TOURISM IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY", ERACLE, JOURNAL OF SPORT AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

Tourism associated with major sports events raises great interest globally. An increasing number of people, as tourists, spend their free time dedicated to holidays heading to new tourist destinations driven by the desire of being in situ witnesses of these kinds of shows in different sporting disciplines. This is a steadily increasing trend, which is playing a crucial role in the tourism industry, overtaking other traditional forms of travel typical of the last decades, such as beach, cultural or rural tourism. It is worth noting that there is a broad spectrum of people who are very keen to attend sports events, either as athletes or audience, who plan their vacations bearing in mind scheduled sports events or the possibility to practice sports while on holiday.

In this context, about social studies, tourism linked to sports events allows us to analyse the potential for tourism development of various holiday destinations in order to assess the level of satisfaction, identify the visits of the athletes, know the perception of social actors and point out potentials and limitations with the purpose of properly promoting sports events in a specific area.

At the same time, being able to host a major sports event requires an exceptional juncture, useful for building the future of the tourism sector in that given area – country, region or city. Outlined above are the reasons why researchers believe that sports events can easily become levers for development, influencing a variety of economic sectors. It is proven that supporters, athletes and events’ venue staff become tourists by making use of accommodation, transport and restaurant services, as well as other infrastructures.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization criteria, major sports events should be thought and arranged as important leisure events, because the main national competitions give rise to a huge number of travels and local development plans, promoting that destination all over the world and contributing to the strategic marketing of the given city. Thanks to the promotion of tourism in Western countries, it is undeniable that major sports events are becoming a form of touristic attraction which highly contributes to the growth of local economies. These are huge sports events setting up high level competitions in spectacular architectonic venues. Therefore, in economic terms, tourism linked with major sports events is a formula created to try to cover up the off-season, i.e. when there is decline in demand and economic downturn.

However, the sustainability of these events provokes debates because sometimes they are not held regularly and, in addition, need infrastructural resources suitable for mass events that require huge public investments, raising concerns about the long-term benefits of the investments themselves.

We kindly invite you to send articles related to the following:

• Sports events as tourist products 
• Active and passive sports practice, free time and how to choose a holiday destination 
• Sport, tourism and economic, cultural and social inheritance 
• Sports practice in urban and natural environments as a type of tourism 
• Sports events as distinctive mark of holiday destinations 
• Sports events, tourism and land management 
• Tourism, sports events and mass media 
• The impact of sports marketing in the industry of tourism

Closing date for abstracts submission: Dec 20th 2018

Notification to the authors: January 21st, 2019

Articles delivery deadline: March 31th, 2019

Articles assessment: May 10th, 2019

Final review: until Jun 14th, 2019

Articles can be written in Italian, English or Spanish and must be sent to the editors and to the journal using the following email addresses: eraclejournal@gmail.com, rblanco@unex.es, salvatore.monaco2@unina.it

Editors: Rocío Blanco Gregory (Universidad de Extremadura) & Salvatore Monaco (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II)