Sport, Space, and Time: Effects of the Otago Highlanders Franchise on Tourism

Abstract

Leiper's (1990) tourism attraction system is used to explore the roles of sport as a tourist attraction. The impact of changes to sport tourism attractions is then considered in the context of the spatial and temporal dimensions of tourism. This approach is applied to the introduction of Rugby Super 12 in New Zealand. Selected sport and tourism administrators in the Otago Highlanders franchise area were interviewed to obtain their views of the tourism impacts of the introduction of Rugby Super 12 within the region. Findings identified a wide range of spatial and temporal impacts including new travel flows and altered tourism seasons. The discussion of these findings highlights the implications of the study for sport and tourism managers and emphasizes the merit of using an attraction approach in sport tourism research.