Sfendami Mountain Festival at the 4th Euro – Asia

An original scientific paper on sports tourism and specifically about the fifth SMF Sfendami Mountain Festival was presented at the 4th Euro-Asia conference on tourism, hospitality and gastronomy in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on 29 November 2012. The conference was attended by Anestis Fotiadis, assistant professor at I-Shou University in Taiwan and Christos Vassiliadis, Associate Professor, at University of Macedonia with the support of Sfendamos A.E. organizer of the SMF. In the current paper their methodology is assimilated to examine motivations, changing travel styles; spatial and temporal patterns, event and destination choices between high-involvement and amateur distance runners and mountain bicyclers in Sfendami, Greece. The most significant academic contribution is that this research is exploring if runners and mountain bicycle athletes differ on how they involve in a sport tourism event. The same researchers already processed data from a survey conducted in 6 SMF with the participation of students and researchers from the University of Macedonia and their aim is to repeat the research in the seventh SMF. Sfenamos A.E. congratulates them and their team for this interesting university research and for the promotion of the festival at the 4th Euro-Asia. Sfendamos A.E. will support the group of 2 professors for similar actions in the future