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Freestyle snowboarding is one of the fastest-growing winter sports in the world. It represents a very important customer segment of winter ski destination. Riders usually look for new products that will provide them more comfort in the park and easier way to make a progress. Hence, this study focuses on the identification with a freestyle snowboarding community and its influence on the lead user activities. The proposed theoretical framework is tested on the sample of 218 snowboarders, riding the snowparks in Tyrol, Austria. We find the freestyle snowboarder as a person who identify him-/herself strongly with the freestyle snowboarding, try new and different things, is interested in anything related to this extreme sport, sense the spending his/her time with friends by snowboarding as a good choice, and would anytime recommend this sport to his/her friends. The empirical findings show the necessity of having a good snowboard park as a part of the winter ski resort that provides a competitive advantage and gives an opportunity to increase the number of tourists.

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Michal Biro, M.Sc.: Studied Business Activities in Trade and Tourism at the University of Economics in Bratislava and Strategic management with specialization in Leisure and Tourism Management at the Innsbruck University School of Management.

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