Background: There are few studies about consumer preferences in sports tourism, especially in Peru. The objective of the study was to identify consumer preferences for sports tourism modalities and to analyse the characteristics of students who engage in this activity. It involved 260 student volunteers from a population of 343 students at the Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism at the National University of Frontera, Sullana, Peru. An open and closed questionnaire was applied to the participants and frequency tests were used for data analysis. The result indicates that 30% of the students prefer mountaineering, 18.5% prefer volleyball, and 16.5% prefer soccer to other sports tourism modalities. 21.5% and 32.3% of students preferred to spend one and two days respectively in the sports destination. In addition, 44.6% of the students identified themselves as sport vacationers and 38.8% spent less or equal to S/. 100.00 soles when traveling to their tourist destination. The majority of participants used the internet and social networks to plan and share their travel experience. Conclusions: Students of tourism prefer mountaineering and do not identify themselves as passive or active sports tourists, but rather as sports vacationers