While positive news on COVID-19 vaccines has boosted the hopes of the travel and tourism sector (T&T), the pandemic scenario has brought new concerns to tourists and different motivations to travel. For instance, safety, health, and hygiene are paramount. Moreover, as the pandemic impacted not only the physical, but also the mental health, wellness has been acknowledged as a key ingredient for the T&T recovery. The appreciation of nature surroundings and the practice of outdoor activities are the new trend in the post-COVID-19 world. As such, the nautical tourism with special interest in sports has the potential to become very popular. Thus, with the purpose to identify managerial, governmental, and academic opportunities for this sector, a literature review on nautical sports tourism was developed. The analysis revealed that there is still a long way for this literature research to reach maturity. Nevertheless, it was observed that the combination of sports and tourism in nautical environments opens a myriad of possibilities for places to enhance their public welfare.
