Cultural heritage and sports tourism: a systematic literature review of sustainable destination management practices

This systematic literature review explores the integration of cultural heritage with sports tourism as a promising strategy for sustainable destination management between January 2020 and June 2025. Utilizing the Scopus database and reported following PRISMA 2020, this study synthesized 63 Scopus-indexed peer-reviewed journal articles to examine strategies, benefits, challenges, and governance models. Analysis highlighted commonly reported integration methods, including community-driven thematic events, educational programs, and digital innovations such as virtual and augmented reality technologies. The findings from the included studies indicate reported socio-cultural and economic benefits, such as community empowerment, infrastructure enhancement, and tourism revenue growth. However, challenges like over-commercialization, authenticity dilution, and environmental degradation remain prevalent. Effective governance emerged as crucial for sustainability, across the reviewed literature , emphasizing participatory and collaborative models aligned with Triple Bottom Line and Stakeholder Theories. The study contributes by offering a nuanced understanding of pathways through which cultural heritage sports tourism may support economic prosperity, cultural integrity, and environmental sustainability in specific contexts. Future research directions are recommended, including multi-database, preregistered reviews and longitudinal, regionally comparative analyses, to further validate these findings and address identified limitations comprehensively. This review is limited by a single-database (Scopus-only) search; findings should be interpreted as an exploratory synthesis.