Is Marathon a Sport Tourism Event? The Authentic Athens Marathon

The aim of the chapter is to give a short overview of the existing literature of the economic effects and social impacts of sport tourism events with emphasis on marathons. A special reference is made to Authentic Athens marathon. As far as the methodology is concerned, this is a literature review. This means that this chapter examines current literature to reach to conclusions on the Authentic marathon’s impact on Athens sport tourism development. Through this chapter, valuable insights for the Athens marathon are provided that can be useful for past, current and future host cities of marathons. In addition, the findings enhance the existing academic literature on marathons and produce useful information to policy makers and stakeholders who are involved in the organization of a sport event and in particular of the Athens marathon.