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Slovenia is one of the European countries with the highest tourism growth. In 2018 Slovenia evidenced 5,9 million tourists (Žibert, et al. 2018) while in 2019 it had a record season with 6,2 million international arrivals which are 5% higher than the previous year which position Slovenia above the European average (Slovenian Tourist Board, 2020). Slovenian tourism market's strategic focus is to decrease seasonality by providing diverse tourism content all year round, extending the average stay rate, focusing on marketing for micro and macro destinations, and targeting quality travelers who are in search of personal benefits (Slovenian tourist board, 2020). In such cases, Slovenia recognized sports tourism as one of the critical factors to carry out their strategic plans whether it means winter sport in the Alps, training, recreation, or therapy in sports and thermal centers, or different kinds of active or passive sports tourism. Such an extensive offer in Slovenia is highly beneficial for tourism and the Slovenian economy overall. Slovenian sports tourism has proven to be prosperous and highly competitive. The research which investigated Slovenian and foreign sports tourism confirmed that Slovenian sports tourism is more competitive in fields of transport, hospitality, primary supply, and destination image than competitors (Maravić, Bednarik, and Lesjak 2015).
An additional benefit of Slovenia is that it could provide sport activities all year round because it can offer both summer and winter sports (Wise, Perić and Ðurkin, 2019). This fact is extremely beneficial for Slovenian tourism which could concentrate on sports tourism in off-peak seasons and have fruitful tourism all year round and avoid seasonality (Valek, Shaw, and Bednarik 2014). According to the touristic website Sometimes Home (2020), the off-peak season in Slovenia begins in October and lasts till May.
However, some of the stated challenges for sports tourism did not bypass Slovenia. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish and evaluate sport tourism travelers by their travel motive, so that it can provide a personalized and adjusted offer. Tourists who traveled for a sports-oriented vacation have different expectations and aspirations than sports-related vacation travelers. One way to reach and market the specific tourist group and simultaneously gather data and information from potential guests is the usage of social media marketing and big data. For gathering and processing a daily growing amount of business data, information and communication technology usage is needed. Through the years, information and communication technologies are changing todays’ business operations by progressively including consumers in innovation processes of creating new products and services (Sørensen and Falch, 2019). Since the tourism industry depends on information quality, information and communication technologies are getting more attention when it comes to enhancing tourism-oriented businesses (Marušić, et al., 2019). Social media as a new web 2.0 technology allows accessible and procurable creating and spreading information worldwide (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). Also, it ensures meeting consumers' requirements and needs timely and effortlessly by creating buzz news, learning from consumers, targeting consumers, using check-ins, games, crowdsourcing, social shopping, promotion activities, etc (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi, 2012). Moreover, information and communication technology like websites approaches consumers to offered services in an interactive way, hence encouraging them to reserve accommodation in hotels or buy a ticket for an airplane more often (Jaković, Pejić Bach, and Šimičević, 2005). According to Van Huy, et al. (2019) websites should offer consistent information and create common trust among visitors as well as have a friendly and attractive design.