Sports tourism supply chain resilience analysis with a stakeholder perspective: achieving risk management, digitalization and sustainability

Sports tourism, involving various stakeholders, faces challenges in building resilience to disruptions, lack of coordination, and enhancing service quality. This study addresses these critical issues by exploring the resilience of the sports tourism supply chain (STSC), focusing on three key objectives: robust risk management, digitalisation, and sustainability. The study identifies the key stakeholders involved in the STSC and examines strategies to enhance supply chain resilience (SCR) by considering the viewpoints of stakeholders. To achieve this, a novel spherical fuzzy MACTOR (Matrix of Alliances and Conflicts: Tactics, Objectives, and Recommendations) approach is introduced, which analyzes the relationships between stakeholders and their alignment toward common goals. The findings indicate that the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, financial, and social) are considered more important than risk management and digitalisation in achieving sports tourism supply chain resilience. These findings highlight that the industry should focus on aligning sustainability goals with risk management and digital transformation strategies to enhance long-term resilience and ensure sustainable growth. In sports tourism, effective communication and collaboration among STSC members are of great importance to strengthen stakeholder cooperation to adapt to future challenges and ensure resilience and growth.