Editorial: Sport Tourism in Australia and New Zealand: Responding to a Dynamic Interface

Sport is a central feature of life in both Australia and New Zealand (Fougere, 1989; Nauright 1995). For over a century sport has represented a defining element of national identity (Hall, 1985; Bush, 1986; Booth, 2000; Collins, 2000), serving as a platform for nationhood and independence. Fougere (1989: 111), for example, argues that for over a century the sport of rugby union has been a ‘mirror to New Zealand society... providing an important basis for the construction of a sense of national unity and individual identity’. A period of dynamic change in the field of sport has unfolded in the last twenty years (Halberstam, 1999). This evolution has resulted in the development of new (e.g. extreme sports) and the diversification of existing sports (e.g. snowboarding), the construction of new sports venues and the professionalization of competitive sports codes (often in association with the reorganization of competition structures). However, through this period of change the importance of sport has remained. Laidlaw (1999: 19) comments that ‘there is still no more telling barometer of the average New Zealander’s sense of wellbeing than the fortunes of the All Blacks’. Sport has similarly been an important component of Australian national identity and has often had substantial moral overtones because of the relationship to physical and, presumed, mental fitness. For example, in a book on Australian Rules football Andrew (1969: foreword) states, ‘Football is a great character-builder. A lad learns to give and take hard knocks. He begins to understand the meaning of mateship’. The relationship of sport to national identity is also made paramount when Andrew (1969: foreword) argues that, ‘The openness and vigor of Australian football is characteristic of our national outlook’. While Australian Rules football is one distinct indigenous national sporting contribution perhaps the greatest expression of sporting nationalism in the Australian context is cricket. Although cricket was a fragment of British life transferred to the Australian colonies, by the 1890s the Australians were demonstrating a cricketing nationalism that was self-confident, balanced and truly national (Mandle, 1973; 1976). Even though recent Australian sporting victories over the English in Davis Cup tennis and international soccer have led to significant expressions of national identity, cricketing victories over the English have always been regarded as highly significant as they were, and arguably still are, a sporting