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What it is : Sports tourism is a type of tourism activity which refers to the travel experience of the tourist who either observes as a spectator or actively participates in a sporting event generally involving commercial and non-commercial activities of a competitive nature.

Why it Matters : Sports tourism is a fundamental axis, generating around 10% of the world’s expenditure on tourism. It has an estimated growth rate of 17.5% between 2023-2030, moving masses intra and intercontinentally. Sports tourism can promote social, economic and environmental action, it accelerates development and can leave a long-lasting positive legacy.

Sports and Tourism are interrelated and complementary. Today, sports tourism is one of the fastest-growing sectors in tourism. More and more tourists are interested in sport activities during their trips whether sports are the main objective of travel or not. Sport events of various kinds and sizes attract tourists as participants or spectators and destinations try to add local flavours to them to distinguish themselves and provide authentic local experiences. Mega sport events such as the Olympics and World Cups can be a catalyst for tourism development if successfully leveraged in terms of destination branding, infrastructure development and other economic and social benefits.

Sports Tourism Events

1 st World Sports Tourism Congress

2 nd World Sports Tourism Congress

UN Tourism International Conference on Tourism and Sports

UN Tourism / South Africa International Summit on Tourism, Sport and Mega-events

UPCOMING SPORTS TOURISM EVENTS

3 rd World Sports Tourism Congress (more information coming soon)

UN TOURISM PUBLICATIONS ON SPORTS TOURISM

Sport & Tourism

Sport and Tourism are two driving forces for the promotion and sustainable economic development of tourism destinations. To better understand the links between tourism and sport and to increase the awareness of the benefits of their joint contributions, UN Tourism and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) jointly organized the First World Conference on Sport and Tourism in Barcelona on 22-23 February 2001. This publication contains the studies prepared for the Conference as well as the speeches delivered there.

Sport Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Tourism can contribute to sustainable development and the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This overview illustrates how sport tourism can contribute to the SDGs and what needs to be considered when developing sport tourism to ensure its contribution to sustainable development. The comparative strength of sport tourism lies in: Engagement in physical activities; Opportunities for interactions; and High development potential almost anywhere. Thanks to these characteristics, sport tourism can play an important role in achieving various SDGs if developed with consideration.

Maximizing the Benefits of Mega Events for Tourism Development

A mega event benefits a host destination in terms of attracting visitors to the event and drawing global attention to the destination. However, in addition to such short-term benefits, it can be a catalyst for longer-term tourism development in various aspects from economic to social. This publication on Maximizing the Benefits of Mega Events for Tourism Development provides practical references on what a host destination can do to fully leverage the event opportunity for tourism development with a variety of illustrative cases. Although the report refers to insights from mega events, the practical references can be applied to any scale of events in any destination.

Walking Tourism – Promoting Regional Development

Walking tourism is now one of the most popular ways to experience a destination. It allows tourists to better engage with local people, nature and culture. It also meets the growing demand of travellers of outdoor activities in general, including when they travel. Walking tourism can be developed anywhere as a sustainable tourism offer with a relatively small investment. It can bring about social and economic benefits to residents and communities if properly developed and managed. This report showcases various successful examples of walking tourism and aims to serve as a practical reference for destinations with a focus on the role of walking tourism in regional development.

Sports Tourism in Latin America

Tourism and sport are key cultural elements of today’s world and have significant impact on modern society and international tourism. With this in mind, the WTO has carried out a new study aimed at providing a more complete analysis of the role that sports tourism and sports in general among the products offered in Latin America by European tour operators and tourism websites.

Sport and Tourism – Introductory Report

Sport and Tourism have a major socio-economic impact, appreciated in most civilian societies and increasingly recognized by governments. This is one of the many conclusions of this report which was prepared for the First World Conference on Sport and Tourism jointly organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and WTO.After developing a theoretical framework for the system of Sport and Tourism and analysing the future trends of sport and sports tourism this report looks at the different socio-economic impacts of sport and tourism and how they can be managed best.

Sport Activities during the Outbound Holidays of the Germans, the Dutch & the French

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) prepared this study on the level and characteristics of the sport activities engaged in during holidays abroad. Germany, the Netherlands and France were chosen for this study. These countries ranked among the leaders in terms of international tourism expenditure in 1999. Even though this study does not cover all the major generating markets, we are sure that it gives a clear picture of the importance of sport activities in tourism, and it makes many suggestions. This study also deals with many practical aspects, e.g.: length of stay, expenditure, seasonal demand, booking patterns, accommodation, and consumer profiles such as gender, age, social status, and area of residence.

What is sports tourism and why it is so big?

Sports tourism is BIG business. We all know that sport tourism involves sporting activity, that much is pretty obvious, but there is much more than a game of sport involved in the multi million Dollar global industry. In this article I will explain what sports tourism is, I will tell you about the different types of sports tourism and I will discuss the benefits of sports tourism.

What is sports tourism?

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Sports tourism is the act of travelling from one locality to another, with the intention of being in some way involved with a sporting activity or event .

Many people believe that sports tourism relates only to watching a sporting event. However, this is not correct. The sports industry is much more than this.

Sports tourism encompasses travelling for your own sporting purposes, such as a yoga teacher training course, a badminton competition or to learn to surf. Sports tourism includes attending sporting events such as a Formula One race or a Premiership football match. Sports tourism includes nostalgic visits to places of historical importance, such as the Olympic stadium in Barcelona or to see memorabilia related to your favourite sporting hero, such as the museum at the Maracana football stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

There are, in fact, four main types of sport tourism. These types are known as:

• Sport Event Tourism
• Active Sport Tourism
• Nostalgia Sport Tourism

Passive sports tourism

While sports tourism has not always been extremely popular, during the recent decade the amount of people attending out of area sporting events has drastically increased. People are now traveling far and wide just to attend their favorite events, and it is no wonder as to what has encouraged the sudden spike in popularity.

Sport tourism is a relatively new concept, although it has been around for a long time.

There are many academic studies which delve into the concept of sports tourism, particularly sports tourism that involves large sporting events, such as the football World Cup or the Olympic Games. Some scholars and sports tourism stakeholders have attempted to define the term sports tourism.

According to Neirotti (2003), sports tourism can be broadly described as;

‘Including travel away from one’s primary residence to participate in sports activity, for recreation or competition purposes, travel to observe sport at grassroots or elite level, and travel to visit a sports attraction such as a sports museum, for instance’.

Weed and Bull (2004), provide a conceptualisation of the sports tourism phenomenon as;

‘A social, economic and cultural phenomenon arising from the unique interaction of activity, people and place’’.

Gammon and Robinson (2003) state that sports and tourism is;

‘Not just about the management and operation of mega events; it also concerns offering consumer-specific sports and tourism-related services and experiences to the sports tourist.’

Read also: Sustainable tourism- everything you need to know

Gammon and Robinson (2003) further argue that the sports tourism industry cannot be defined easily and that there should be different definitions according to the type of sports tourism that is being discussed. They visualise this in the model below.

Today, sport is regarded as the world’s largest social phenomenon. And, tourism is predicted to become the world’s biggest industry early in the next century. So it doesn’t take a genius to work out that sports tourism is pretty big business!

The sports tourism industry has grown considerably in recent years. In 2016 the sports tourism industry was worth $1.41 trillion and this figure is expected to increase to approximately $5.72 trillion by 2021. This is a whopping 41% growth in only four years!

**Studying sports tourism? I recommend- Sports Tourism: Participants, Policy and Providers **

The sports tourism industry makes up a significant part off the overall tourism industry. Some people claim that this figure is as high as 25%, meaning that a quarter of all tourism in the world is sports related!

The importance of sports tourism is further emphasised by the media statements from the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which in 2004, announced their commitment to reinforce their partnerships on collaboration in the sports and tourism domain. They stated that; 

‘Tourism and sport are interrelated and complementary… both are powerful forces for development, stimulating investment in infrastructure projects such as airports, roads, stadiums, sporting complexes and restaurant-projects that can be enjoyed by the local population as well as tourists who come to use them.

This demonstrates that sports tourism has a wider economic and social impact than simply the sporting occasion itself. It provides social and economic opportunities for the local population , as well as visitors to the area.

The different types of sport tourism

Sport tourism can be segregated into four main types: sport event tourism, nostalgia sports tourism, active sports tourism and passive sports tourism. Below I have provided a short explanation of what each type of tourism is, along with some examples.

Sport event tourism

Sports event tourism is tourism which centres around a sporting event. Sporting events can be of any size and importance, however it tends to be the major sporting events which gain the most gravitas.

Hallmark events, such as the Olympics or football World Cup, are important centres for sport event tourism, bringing millions of tourists to the host destination.

Smaller events, such as the Henley Regatta in the United Kingdom or a national tennis competition also clarify as sport event tourism.

An often overlooked example of sport event tourism are amateur sporting events. Events such as regional school competitions, youth sporting leagues and non-profit community based sport events are just a few examples.

Wimbledon, also known as ‘The Championships’ is the oldest tennis tournament in the world. A prestigious sporting event, Wimbledon is often associated with the upper class, where spectators sip sparkling wine and Pimms whilst dressed in their best frocks.

Knowing very little about tennis, I attending Wimbledon a couple of years ago just to experience this famous event, which is an integral part off British heritage!

Dating back to 1877, Wimbledon has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, on the outskirts of London, each year. The tennis is played on outdoor grass courts, which is unlike tennis matches played in many other parts of the world.

Wimbledon is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the others being the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open.

The tournament takes place in late June/early July each year.

The football World Cup, known officially as the FIFA World Cup, is an international football tournament held every four years.

The  Fédération Internationale de Football Association  (FIFA) is the sport’s global governing body. The football consists of mens only teams and boats the most skilled footballers in the world.

Teams must first pass the qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years. After this, 32 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation, compete in the tournament. The World Cup tournament generally lasts about one month.

The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition that takes place. It involves what are considered to be the six best nations in terms of rugby in Europe The six nations are:

The Six Nations tournament begins on the first weekend in February each year and finishes with ‘Super Saturday’ on the second or third Saturday in March.

Each team is required to play every other team once (making a total of 15 matches). Each team will play one match at home and one match away from home.

I attended a six nations match once and whilst I’m really not into rugby (surprise!), I really enjoyed the sophisticated and supportive atmosphere at the venue.

Inspired by the ancient Greeks, the modern Olympic Games have been running since 1896. But, in fact, the games have been played in some form or another since long before this date.

The Olympics is perhaps the most famous and the most popular international sporting event. It features both summer and winter sports competitions which take place every four years. Like many other major sporting events, the Olympics are held in a different location each time.

Read also: Slow tourism: Everything you need to know

The Olympics involves thousands of athletes from around the world who compete in a range of different sports, from trampolining to running. Over 200 nations participate in the event.

The Super Bowl is the annual championship of the National Football League (NFL). Based in the Unites States of America, this is the most popular sport tourism event of the year.

Some interesting facts include The Super Bowl being the second-largest day for food consumption in the USA (after Thanksgiving) and the Super Bowl being the most-watched American television broadcast of the year.

Nostalgia sports tourism

Nostalgia sport tourism involves travelling to famous sport-related tourist attractions.

Nostalgia sports tourism may celebrate sports of the past or the present. It may include visiting museums or exhibitions, visiting sporting hall of fames or visiting sporting venues.

The nostalgia sports tourist does not need to be actively participating in sport or to be spectating. They may simply want to learn more or to reminisce.

Here are some examples of popular nostalgia sport tourism attractions.

We visited Calgary Olympic Park on travels through Canada with a baby and loved it!

WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park (COP), (formerly known as Paskapoo Ski Hill) was one of the venues used in the 1988 Winter Olympics. Nowadays, it is open to the general public and iw well known for its ski jumping, bobsleigh and luge.

Whilst we did learn a little bit about the Olympics on our visit here, we actually sent more time on the luge ride than anything else because it was so much fun!

The Maracana is a famous football stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The stadium is rich in history and was once the largest stadium in the world.

The stadium was opened in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup. The venue has seen attendances of 150,000 or more at 26 occasions. Over time terraces were replaced with seating, and after the renovation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Maracana’s original capacity was reduced to 78,838.

Nowadays, it is popular to take a tour to visit the Maracana stadium, like I did when I travelled to Buenos Aires with my friend who is football mad!

The Olympic Village, known in Spanish as La Vila Olímpica del Poblenou is an area in the Sant Martí district of Barcelona, Spain.

The Barcelona Olympic Village was built in the late 1980s and early 1990s in preparation for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, which were held in Barcelona.

Nowadays, visiting the Barcelona Olympic Village is a popular sports tourism activity undertaken by many tourists visiting Barcelona.

Active sports tourism

Active sports tourism is when a person travels to actively participate in their chosen sport, or when they travel for other reasons, but taking part in sport is an important part of their tourism experience.

Active sports tourists can be segregated into three classifications: The amateur sports tourist; the hobbyist sports tourist and the professional sports tourist.

I would say that I would generally come under the first category. I am an amateur (at best!) at every sport I try my hand at. But, I still like to give it a go! I’ve attempted skiing in Argentina, kayaking in Vietnam and surfing in Costa Rica, to name but a few.

Read also: Business tourism: Everything you need to know

My husband, on the other hand, is usually either a hobbyist sports tourist or a professional sports tourist. He plays for badminton and football teams and loves playing a large number of sports in his free time. He is also a former athlete, having competed for Britain as a trampoline gymnast. As part of this role he travelled around the workload for professional sporting competitions. This qualified him as a professional sports tourist.

There are a large number of active sports that a tourist may choose to get involved with around the world. Here are a few that I have experienced on my travels. But there are sooo many other sports that you can get involved in as a sports tourist!

• Diving in the Galapagos
• Swimming at the Great Barrier Reef
• Playing tennis in Morocco
• Learning archery in Spain
• Going running in France
• Cycling in Amsterdam
• Taking yoga classes in Bali
• Learning tai chi in China
• Kayaking in Vietnam
• Sailing in Australia
• Skiing in Argentina
• Surfing in Costa Rica
• Playing baseball in Boston
• Hand gliding in Rio de Janeiro
• Fishing in The Gambia
• Climbing in Thailand
• Horse riding in Equador
• Walking in Jeju

Here are a few active sports tourism examples:

Did I ever tell you that I completed a Tough Mudder Race? This was a BIG achievement!

Tough Mudder is an endurance event. It is a an obstacle course, originally designed for army training. It is a test of the mind and body.

The race is usually between 10-12 miles in length. It includes a number of obstacles, many of which involve mud! The obstacles often play on common human fears, such as fire, water , electricity and heights.

**Buy now: Sport and Tourism – a recommended textbook for sports studies students!**

Common obstacles include:

• Arctic Enema – Participants plunge into a tank filled with ice water, where they must swim under the water and past an obstacle to the other side.
• Electroshock Therapy – This is where participants will run through a pit of mud where electric wires sway in the air. Participants will often get small electric shocks.
• Funky Monkey – Monkey bars over a pit of cold water. The bars are covered with a mixture of butter and mud.
• The birthing canal- A small, confined space that the participant must crawl through. The upper layer is filled with water so it feels like you are being compressed as you crawl through the tunnel.

Of course, you will need to travel to a Tough Mudder venue to be classified a sports tourism, but many people do!

Many people choose to travel to South Korea for martial arts holidays and Taekwondo-themed events. These might be amateur sports tourists, hobbyist sports tourists or professional sports tourists, depending on the level of involvement and activity type.

Portugal is a popular destination for surf holidays. You can go it alone, if you have the skills and ‘know-how’, or you can book a tour. There are a number of tour operator who offer specialised surfing holidays for all levels of sports tourists, ranging from beginner to advanced.

There are several golfing hotspots around the world. One of the most popular places to travel to for a golfing holiday is Florida . With its year-round pleasant weather and large open spaces, Florida welcomes golf tourists from all over the world to play on their first-class golf courses.

There are many parts of Asia that are known for the popularity of yoga. However, done attracts so many tourists as Bali. Bali is famous the world over for offering top quality yoga retreats and yoga teacher training courses.

Lastly, it is important to recognise that whilst sport is inherently active , not all those who participate or who are involved with the sport are themselves active. In fact, passive tourists can actually contribute more to the sport than those who are active!

A passive sports tourist is a person who is not actively participating in the sport. They are spectators or fans. Passive sports tourism involves tourists watching sport being played. This could take place at a major sporting event (qualifying this also as sports event tourism), or they could simply be supporting a family member of friend. Most passive sports tourists are fans.

Football, or soccer, is arguably the most well-known and popular sports in the world.

Manchester United is a particularly famous football club. It is estimated by the BBC that Manchester United has a whopping 659million football fans!

I always find is fascinating when I travel to a country that is so different and so far removed from my own, yet the locals are also quick to ask me about Manchester United!

Many sports tourists will follow Manchester United, or which ever football team is their favourite, around the world to watch their games.

Anthony Joshua is a British professional boxer. He has many millions of followers, both from the UK and abroad.

Anthony is a two-time unified heavyweight champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles since December 2019, and previously between 2016 and June 2019. At regional level, he held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles from 2014 to 2016.

Anthony Joshua participates in fights around the world and is often accompanies by his passive sports tourism supporters.

The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for any of the Home Nations – the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. 

If rugby is your thing and your from Britain or Ireland, then this is a pretty big deal.

The Lions have many thousands of passive sports tourism supporters who cheat them on each match.

Cricket is pretty big in Australia. So big, in fact, that the Australian cricket team has an estimated 24million supporters! Many of these supporters travel with the team around the world as passive sports tourists.

As with any type of tourism , there are a range of benefits and advantages of sports tourism. Whilst the most obvious is perhaps the economic advantage of tourism , there are also positive social impacts as well as environmental impacts . Below I provide some examples:

• Sports encourages tourists to visit the area
• Sports tourism creates economic growth through tourists booking hotel rooms, eating in restaurants and opening money in local shops
• Sports tourism helps to create exposure and enhances a positive image for the local community
• Many sports tourism infrastructures and facilities can also be used by members of the host community
• The development of sports tourism helps to build a sense of community
• Sports tourism has the potential to attract high-yield visitors and repeat visitors
• It can provide opportunity to develop new infrastructure in the area
• The media can help to promote the destination
• Sports tourism can improve overall tourist numbers
• Money made from sports tourism can be reinvested into the local economy
• Sports tourism creates jobs for local people
• Sports tourism which relies on the natural environment may result in better environmental management and preservation

Whilst there are many positive impacts of sports tourism, however, it is also important that there are a number of negative impacts too. Aspects such as environmental degradation when gold courses, employing foreign rather than local people for major sporting events and locals who feel that their cultural norms are being overlooked (such as not covering your shoulders in the Middle East, for example), are just a few example of negative impacts of sports tourism.

It is clear that sports tourism is big business. Whether its events sports tourism, active sports tourism, nostalgic sports tourism or passive sports tourism, there is a huge market for tourists worldwide. However, as with any type of tourism, sports tourism must be carefully managed to ensure that it is sustainable .

For more information on sports tourism, I recommend the texts below;

• Sports Tourism: Participants, Policy and Providers – explains sports tourism as a social, economic and cultural phenomenon that stems from the unique interaction of activity, people and place.
• Sport Tourism Development – a text book covering the growth and development of sport tourism.
• Sport Tourism Destinations: Issues and Analysis – with contributions from international experts, this book looks at the dramatic effects sports tourism has on the economy and future of tourism destinations. 
• Sport and Tourism – This book proposes a groundbreaking theoretical model which explores globalization, mobility and authenticity providing insight into the unique interrelationship that exists in a sport tourism context between activity, people and place.

• Sport + Travel Magazine

What is sports tourism? 

According to a market report by Allied Market Research , the global sports tourism industry was pegged at $323.42bn in 2020. However, it is expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1% from 2021 to 2030.

The report revealed that by region, Europe and North America held the largest share in 2020 – accounting for nearly two-fifths of the market, due to the presence of a large population and high participation in sports activities. However, the global sports tourism market across Asia-Pacific is projected to register the highest CAGR of 17.7% during the forecast period of 2021 to 2030, owing to increase in sports participation and sports event hosting.

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Sports tourism: a fast-growing niche

The sport and travel industries go hand-in-hand. Whether it is fans attending a match or an event, or if it is teams and officials travelling to fixtures or competitions, sports tourism is now a major niche in the travel industry.

It’s not just Fifa World Cups, the Olympics or major events that are driving the sector, but also team travel, school sports and smaller competitions. 

Did you know that the global sports industry is estimated to be worth between US$480bn and US$620bn, according to research by A.T. Kearney . Globally, travel and tourism’s direct contribution to GDP was approximately US$4.7trillion in 2020, according to a report by Statista .

UN Tourism describes sports tourism as “one of the fastest growing sectors” in the travel industry. It also states that international sports tourism is worth US$800bn and accounts for 10% of the world’s tourism industry. 

Here we look at what sports tourism is and an expert’s view on its impact…

The United Nations’s definition 

What UN Tourism said about sports tourism:

“ Sports tourism is a fundamental axis, generating around 10% of the world’s expenditure on tourism. It has an estimated growth rate of 17.5% between 2023-2030, moving masses intra and intercontinentally. Sports tourism can promote social, economic and environmental action, it accelerates development and can leave a long-lasting positive legacy.

“ Sports and Tourism are interrelated and complementary. Today, sports tourism is one of the fastest-growing sectors in tourism. More and more tourists are interested in sport activities during their trips whether sports are the main objective of travel or not. Sport events of various kinds and sizes attract tourists as participants or spectators and destinations try to add local flavours to them to distinguish themselves and provide authentic local experiences. Mega sport events such as the Olympics and World Cups can be a catalyst for tourism development if successfully leveraged in terms of destination branding, infrastructure development and other economic and social benefits.”

Impact of sports tourism 

Akis Tsolis, CEO of Active Media Group , organisers of the Navarino Challenge and Santorini Experience in Greece, wrote on gtp.gr :

“Aside from the obvious and vast benefits of travel, sports tourism is great for the economy for one simple reason: it generates economic impact through direct spending into a community.  Sports tourism is a rapidly growing niche in the travel/tourism industry. In fact, we at ActiveMedia Group share the belief that it is the fastest growing segment within the travel industry today, generating billions of dollars every year. Sports tourism is a trend that’s not going away and is expected to continue growing.”

The ChatGPT answer to this question…

What is the definition of sports tourism, how does it benefit the economy and what can we expect in the future.

Sports tourism refers to the act of traveling to a destination with the purpose of participating in or watching a sporting event. It involves a wide range of activities, including attending professional sports games, participating in amateur sports tournaments, and visiting sports-related attractions such as museums or stadiums.

Sports tourism can benefit the economy in several ways. Firstly, it generates revenue for local businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and retail stores. Secondly, it creates employment opportunities in the tourism and hospitality industries. Thirdly, it attracts investment in sports infrastructure such as stadiums and training facilities, which can benefit the local community beyond the tourism industry. Additionally, sports tourism can help to promote a destination as a sports hub, which can attract further sporting events and opportunities.

In the future, we can expect sports tourism to continue to grow, driven by the increasing popularity of sports and the ease of travel. Technological advancements such as virtual reality may also create new opportunities for sports tourism, allowing fans to experience sporting events remotely. Additionally, as sustainability becomes an increasingly important factor in tourism, sports tourism may shift towards more eco-friendly practices, such as promoting sustainable transportation and reducing waste.

SPORTS EVENTS CALENDAR

Tennis grand slam: 2024 us open, men’s golf: betfred british masters 2024 hosted by sir nick faldo, paris 2024 summer paralympic games, 2024 nfl são paulo game: eagles vs. packers, men’s golf: horizon irish open 2024, privacy overview.

Sport Tourism: An Analysis of Possible Developmental Factors in Sport and Recreation Centers

• Conference paper
• First Online: 22 June 2021
• Cite this conference paper

• Georgia Yfantidou 4 ,
• Charalampos Spiliakos 3 ,
• Ourania Vrondou 3 ,
• Dimitris Gargalianos 4 ,
• Antonia Kalafatzi 5 &
• Eleni Mami 6  

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics ((SPBE))

1646 Accesses

The development of sport tourism is determined by several factors. Various models’ and factors’ typologies have been identified in the literature. The aims of the present study were (a) the identification and classification of factors affecting the development of sport tourism, (b) the investigation of the level to which these factors are met by a sport and recreation center, and (c) the comparison of opinions of the users of the center regarding these factors. The methodology of the structured questionnaire was adopted. The results revealed that (a) the most important factors are the changing rooms/bathrooms/resting rooms, the security, the healthcare and the injuries’ rehabilitation, and the accommodation facilities (camp—rooms) and the less important factors were the proximity to a port and marinas, as well as the access through the railway network, (b) these factors were met by the sport and recreation center under study in a very high either adequate level, and (c) there were significant differences in the opinions of the users of the center.

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Yfantidou, G., Spiliakos, C., Vrondou, O., Gargalianos, D., Kalafatzi, A., Mami, E. (2021). Sport Tourism: An Analysis of Possible Developmental Factors in Sport and Recreation Centers. In: Katsoni, V., van Zyl, C. (eds) Culture and Tourism in a Smart, Globalized, and Sustainable World. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72469-6_1

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State of the Industry Report for the $91.8 Billion Sport Tourism Industry

Contact: Jackie Reau Game Day (513) 708-5822 [email protected]

Note to media: To request a full report or to email Al Kidd, President & CEO of Sports ETA, please contact Jackie Reau.

Sports ETA releases its “State of the Industry” Report  for the $91.8 Billion Sport Tourism Industry

FORT WORTH, TEXAS (May 3, 2022) – Sports ETA, the only trade association for the sports events and tourism industry, released its annual State of the Industry Report for 2021 resulting in the sports tourism sector’s direct spending impact of $39.7 billion which generated a total economic impact of $91.8 billion, supporting 635,000 full-time and part-time jobs and generating $12.9 billion in taxes.

The association’s last research report, “2019 State of the Sports Tourism Industry Report in America presented by the Sports Events and Tourism Association in partnership with the Northstar Meetings Group” was released in 2020 to benchmark 2019, and concluded that U.S. sports-related travelers, event organizers and venues spent a total of $45.1 billion in 2019, an increase of over five percent from the previous year. Those travelers generated $103.3 billion in direct, indirect and induced business sales.

The study was led by Dr. Jennifer Stoll, who leads research efforts for Sports ETA, in partnership with Northstar Meetings Group, the leading multi-platform brand for dedicated meeting and business planners and sports event organizers, and the presenting sponsor of the association’s “Annual State of the Industry” research report.

The analysis draws on the following data sources to quantify sports tourism, which includes adult and youth amateur events and collegiate tournaments (The economic impact analyses conducted within the report exclude professional sports and collegiate regular-season games.):

• Sports ETA: destination membership survey data
• Longwoods International: traveler survey data, including spending and visitor profile characteristics for sports tourism nationwide
• Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and wage data, by industry
• Bureau of Transportation Statistics: U.S. domestic average itinerary fares
• U.S. Travel Association: domestic travel data
• STR: lodging data
• Sports attendance data

“Our annual State of the Industry report shows that the sport tourism industry has an economic impact of $91.8 Billion supporting 635,000 jobs in our member communities across America,” said Al Kidd , President & CEO of Sports ETA.

Additional major findings in the 2021 State of the Industry Report include:

• In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled or delayed sports events across the country and those events that took place had fewer spectators per participant. Ultimately, the number of sports travelers decreased 46.5% year-over-year to 96 million in 2020. The sector rebounded quickly in 2021 increasing 82.0% year-over-year. The 175 million sports travelers in 2021 was only 2.6% lower than the high-water mark established in 2019.
• Sports travelers, event organizers, and venues spent $9.7 billion on transportation, $8.4 billion on lodging, and $7.5 billion on food and beverages. Recreation, retail, and tournament operations rounded out spending, registering $5.3 billion, $5.0 billion, and $3.7 billion, respectively. The lodging sector accounted for 21% of all sports-related travel spending. In 2021, sports-related travel generated 66.5 million room nights, which is an important factor given that hotel taxes are a primary funding source for many entities.

View the 2021 State of the Industry Report .

About Sports ETA:

As the only trade association for the sports events and tourism industry, Sports ETA is the most trusted resource for sports commissions, destination marketing organizations (DMOs), and sports event owners. Sports ETA is committed to the success of more than 600 member organizations and 2,500 sports event professionals. We promise to deliver quality education, ample networking opportunities and exceptional event management and marketing know-how to our members and to protect the integrity of the sports events and tourism industry.  For more information, visit  SportsETA.org .

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Sport Tourism: Benefits, Classification, Types

• Post last modified: 28 August 2021
• Reading time: 34 mins read
• Post category: Tourism

What is Sport Tourism?

Sports tourism is a very significant element in world tourism and has become a highly competitive niche tourism business. As interest and participation in the sport grows within the leisure industry, the desire of people to travel to compete or to spectate has mushroomed.

Table of Content

• 1 What is Sport Tourism?
• 2 Sports Tourist
• 3 Benefits of Sports Tourism
• 4.1 Mega Events
• 4.3 Championships
• 4.4 Tournaments
• 4.5 Training Camps
• 4.6 Development Courses
• 4.7 Conferences
• 4.9 Cause Related
• 4.10 Media Events
• 4.11 Spectator Events
• 4.12 Created Sport Events
• 5.1 Sightseeing Sports Tour
• 5.2 Competitive Sports Tour
• 5.3 Holiday Sports Tour
• 5.4 Healthy and Recreational Sports Tour
• 5.5 Extreme and Adventure Sports Tour
• 6.1 Integrity of Demanding in Sports Tourism
• 6.2 Sensitivity of Demanding in Sports Tourism
• 6.3 Directivity of Demanding in Sports Tourism
• 6.4 High Elasticity of Demanding in Sports Tourism
• 6.5 Variability of Demanding in Sports Tourism
• 6.6 Seasonality of Demanding in Sports Tourism
• 6.7 Dependency of Demanding in Sports Tourism
• 7.1 Commonwealth Games 2010
• 7.2 Cricket World Cup Mania

Sports Tourist

Within the sport tourism industry, we can identify many people who are sport tourists. We can distinguish them by activity, demographic group, the characteristics of their sport, and by their performance level.

Sport tourists can be either participants or spectators. Different events have different ratios of one to the other The demographics of the sport and event also determine the number of people involved and their spending preferences and patterns:

Culture and Ethnicity

Sports and Tourism

While we often think of adult-oriented sports events, there are a great number of sport participants who are children and youth. Any youth tournament has parents in attendance as they are needed to drive, but they are also there to support their kids.

For the parents of many young athletes, following the team becomes a year-round travel and tourism activity.

Many sports have tournaments for both men and women, and indeed the fastest growing segments of some traditionally male sports, like soccer, hockey, and rugby, are for women. Research also shows that parents more often travel with their teenage girls to tournaments than their teenage boys.

As we move on to look at the relative value of different events to a community, the income levels of participants will be of importance. While no hard data exists, we know that the income levels of golfers are higher than, say, lawn bowlers, while alpine/downhill skiers spend more than cross-country skiers.

Sport crosses all cultures. Prince Rupert is the host of an annual First Nations Basketball tournament. A Kabaddi tournament will draw great crowds if marketed to the South Asian communities who understand it.

And one of the largest soccer tournaments in the Lower Mainland is organized by the Filipino community which draws teams from across North America, every second year. The nature of the sport itself will also determine the number and characteristics of its sport tourists.

The largest events tend to be for mass participation individual events such as marathons, triathlons, and cross-country ski lop pets; or for team tournaments with lots of teams such as hockey, soccer, and softball.

Less popular sports, where the contest is individual, have smaller tournaments: fencing, boxing, or wrestling, for example. Performance level influences the number and nature of the sport tourists involved. A high-performance baseball tournament will have fewer teams involved than a minor ball or a recreational softball tournament.

Sports tourism brings together sport and tourism. While these two sectors of our society and economy have different natures, values, and organizational structures, they offer tremendous partnering opportunities.

Benefits of Sports Tourism

A focus on sports tourism and sports events can bring economic value, social benefits, and civic pride to the community. Some of these benefits occur at the time of the event, but most are legacies and will return value to the community over many years.

Economic value can be generated and increased in many ways:

• Recognizing the value that existing tournaments bring to the community.
• Identifying the community’s sport strengths and expanding the number and size of existing events.
• Identifying the events that create the greatest economic value, such as masters sport, and focusing on those events.
• Providing more leisure opportunities so that family members are encouraged to come with participants, and everyone is encouraged to ‘stay an extra day’ Valuing volunteers, but working smarter to convert volunteer jobs into paid employment.
• Linking with corporations that have an interest in the demographics of the sport event. Social benefits of sport tourism are closely linked with the social benefits of recreation and sport.

These benefits can be leveraged as follows:

• Volunteering keeps people connected, and connected people are usually healthier.
• A focus on events will encourage participation, especially for young people, but also for adults.
• Sport and events offer ways of bringing people together from many different regions, and everyone learns from these experiences Sport tourism is “green” economic development, and offers opportunities to re-invigorate depressed parts of an urban area.
• Event revenues can be reinvested in community facilities and programs.
• Economic development – Tourism-related revenue is normally the largest portion of the economic impact of an event. This includes accommodation, food and beverage, and other spending. Direct event revenues include admission fees, sponsorships, on-site sales and, for the largest events, television rights.
• Social and Community Legacies: Including youth development, increased fitness levels and health, community, and cultural celebration. Sport links cultures and countries.
• Hosting international sport tournamnts is not only good for tourism but also good for cultural relations, our place in the world, and positive community change. Sporting events can also be designed to be environmentally and socially sustainable.

Classification of Sports Tourism

Let’s discuss the classification of sports tourism:

Mega Events

Championships, tournaments, training camps, development courses, conferences, cause related, media events, spectator events, created sport events.

Very large and high profile games and events, including at the apex, the Olympic and Paralympics Games can yield billions of dollars worth of media coverage, prestige, and economic impact for the host, but require a significant capital investment.

Games are multi-sport events – These can be very large due to the number of sports being hosted at one location at the same time. These can be directed by governments or by separate organizations, e.g., the International Olympic Committee.

Relatively few events are games, although their size makes them attractive targets. Hosting games often requires a wide range of suitable venues, as many sports featured are ‘mandatory’, and given their size, experience hosting major events and breadth of sports events may be advantageous.

These are single-sport properties with rights held by the respective sports organization, where a championship tournament is often the culmination of a season’s sport activity. These are often referred to as ‘the provincials’ or ‘the nationals’.

Many championships are arranged by school and university/college sports associations.

Tournaments are another type of event, usually for a single sport. Whereas a championship is “owned” by a sport governing body, tournaments can be the initiative of any organization choosing to initiate them.

Many are arranged by local sports organizations, but they may also be sponsored by a school, church or temple, or a pub, for example.

They are generally held in the same place at the same time every year and can become a familiar part of the sport’s and a community’s annual calendar. Tournaments may be competitive but are often as much participation and recreation-focused as results-oriented.

Championships, tournaments, and games are often competitive events, but competition follows athlete development and training. National or provincial teams with athletes living in different cities are brought together on regular schedules to train and work together with each other and with coaches.

In addition to such training arranged by technical directors of governing bodies and high-performance teams, training camps may be more individual. Commercial summer hockey camps may offer additional training for youth players, and these can be packaged as part of a vacation for the whole family.

Such camps may take advantage of good facilities during the offseason when their capacity for special events may be greater Most sports have regular training camps at the provincial and national level.

The location of training camps is dependent on services and facilities available, costs, the location of the coach, and the number of athletes in a particular community.

Sport organizations train athletes, coaches and officials of all levels. While many of these courses happen locally, especially for entry-level, courses for higher performance athletes and coaches may involve travel and overnight stays. ‘Out of town’ coaches may travel to a larger centre for such a course, or an instructor may travel to another area to train local coaches.

Sports organizations arrange many meetings and conferences, sometimes in conjunction with major events. Trade shows or exhibitions may be involved with such meetings. In addition to the immediate tourism benefit, these can also be opportunities to introduce decision-makers to facilities and future hosting opportunities in the community.

The selection of a community for a conference is often connected to where the sporting event is taking place or where the sport’s leadership resides.

Very much part of sport tourism, professional sports teams tend to primarily serve a local market with spectator entertainment. They also bring visiting teams to town, but this is balanced by their nights spent on away games.

While visiting team fans may accompany their team’s visit from their home town, these are generally limited in numbers, apart from major events.

Professional sports may have more impact in attracting visitors from smaller markets without a franchise to the larger community, similar to arts and culture events attracting visitors to a major city for concerts or museum exhibitions.

Sports-related events may be very useful tourism opportunities, even though sports competition or sports development are not their prime purposes. The categories following may overlap with the above classification and with each other.

Sports events may be designed primarily to promote a charity or to raise money for a specific cause. but this category is for events where charity is a primary purpose, often accompanied by participant enjoyment and entertainment.

A few events are created mainly for broadcast audiences and derive their main income from broadcasting rights. Examples would include boxing events, the X-Games, or ‘Skins’ golf. Although spectators will be present, this category is designed to appeal to TV audiences.

They can also have a positive influence on a destination’s awareness and image as a sports destination, depending on the size of the audience.

For example, awareness of the quality of golf courses, the scenery, or other attractions of an area could be communicated to a wide golf tourism target audience through two days of TV coverage.

Sports tourism involves tourists watching events as much as it does playing in them. Professional sports are driven by spectator revenue and media broadcasting rights, and the sponsor interest is thus generated, with very few participants.

These events are very similar to major music concerts, and maybe ‘sport-based entertainment’ Such spectator events are only potential tourism activities if they attract visitors who stay overnight or travel from over 80 kilometers.

The tourism potential is for out-of-town visitors to travel to the city from nearby communities to watch a specific spectator event, as they may for a regular professional sports team league game.

Many events in this section can fall into a general category of ‘created events’. In addition to events held for other purposes, a sporting event may be created by a community, facility, or corporation primarily for commercial or tourism purposes.

A large venue or facility may find it has a quiet period, or it regularly has unused capacity at one time of the year and might create an invitational sports tournament to fill that capacity or arrange with a promoter to stage a sports event or a hockey club to hold an off-season training camp.

Types of Sports Tourism

Based on the concept and attributes of sports tourism, combined with its practice, the types of sports tourism can be divided into six kinds in the standard of their characteristics:

Sightseeing Sports Tour

Competitive sports tour, holiday sports tour, healthy and recreational sports tour, extreme and adventure sports tour.

The sightseeing sports tour is a process of experiencing various distinctive sports cultures, in which tourists leave far away from their places of usual residence to enjoy physical exercises, sports buildings, stadiums, sports artistic scenery spots in an audiovisual way.

Here sports cultures refer to the cultures comprising all the activities relative to sports, and it has the widest meaning of sports beauty. There are two brief reasons why the sightseeing sports tour is different from common sightseeing tours.

The first reason is the main purpose of the sightseeing sports tour is to gain the aesthetic experiences associable with sports. A sport sightseeing is a way for tourists to feel sports beauty. Not the mundane pleasure do tourists pursue, but sports aesthetic through this way.

The second reason is the diverse subjects of the sightseeing sports tour.

The competitive sports tour is a trip with the main aim of joining in some sports competition. The tourists include athletes, coaches, sports audiences (sports fans), media staff, and other working personnel closely relating to some sports competition.

All the different tourists go along from miles around to the sports fields and stay for a period of time to take part in, watch or interview some certain sports competition.

The holiday sports tour is a trip with the purpose of relief, adjustment, decompression, recreation, and distraction, for which tourists spend a particular holiday on activities involving sports.

The holiday sports tour usually couples with specific sports in a tourist destination or traditional sports of peoples, so it has typical favor of folklore. The biggest specialty of the holiday sports tour is that just in one holiday or vacation tourists anticipate sports.

The healthy and recreational sports tour is mainly for amusement and diversion, bodybuilding, kinetic recuperation, and rehabilitation. During the tour, tourists participate in different kinds of healthful exercise and obtain relaxation, relief, and a good mood.

Keeping fitness, the definite subject of the entertaining activity is the biggest characteristic of the healthy and recreational sports tour.

But this kind of healthful exercise differs from the traditional exercise, because it inclines towards the idea of keeping healthy from amusement, and that’s why tourists choose this type of sports tour.

The extreme and adventure sports tour is a challenge that human beings rise to their own physiological and psychological extreme limits. People would like to involve in such tours is not only to conquer the natural barrier but also to win and surpass themselves.

This kind of sport is very demanding and somewhat risky, so people with no professional knowledge and training are not apt to get engaged in it. That’s why it is called minority sports.

But such sports activities have already got much attention; some of the sports items, therefore, have been simplified and given Corresponding safe securities, for instance, the artificial rock-climbing walls and cleared rivers for drifting.

More and more people can become its participants. The extreme and adventure sports have four usual items:

• Rock-Climbing: Thrills and stimulus is its feature. It can meet people’s desires of challenging nature and themselves when returning to nature and seeking stimulation, meanwhile, it can help people to enjoy the triumph and great pleasure after achieving their climbing.
• Drifting: Sailing a rubber raft or other boat with no motive power, governing its direction through the paddle, and drifting down by turns turbulent and gentle rivers, to perform a stunning moment against nature.
• Adverse Current Rafting: It’s an exploratory expedition overcoming various topographical hindrances when up a canyon river or stream as far as its beginning. Perfect cooperation among companions is needed to accomplish this arduous trip, so adverse-current rafting is a sports of teamwork.
• Exploration: The vital energy and magic of an exploratory tour lies in its spirit of battling to conquer hardships and wresting from nature her secrets. China stretches across a vast area and owns incommensurable geomorphic types of diversity and typicality, which provides abundant sources for exploratory traveling.

Characteristics of Sports Tourism Market

The characteristics of the sports tourism market essentially are the features of demand in the sports tourism market. To be specific, the features of demanding in sports tourism market are the following:

Integrity of Demanding in Sports Tourism

Sensitivity of demanding in sports tourism, directivity of demanding in sports tourism, high elasticity of demanding in sports tourism, variability of demanding in sports tourism, seasonality of demanding in sports tourism, dependency of demanding in sports tourism.

The integrity of the demand in sports tourism mostly refers to the completeness that sports tourists require from sports tourism products and services. The integrity of the demand in sports tourism is embodied in the multiplicity of the demands during the process of a sports tour.

They are basic physiological needs, safety needs, and high-level needs of enjoyment, development, and self-fulfillment. So sports tourism is expected to provide complex products to the tourists in order to satisfy their manifold demands during the traveling.

The integrity of the demand in sports tourism calls for that the provider of sports traveling products effectively combine their various products and service, or reasonably arrange the time and places to guarantee the overall requirement in the process of a sports tour.

The demand in sports tourism is quite delicate to the changes in the social, political situation, as well as traveling fad in destinations.

If a sports traveling destination has no stable society or is suffered from natural disasters, there’s no doubt that the demand in sports tourism will decrease; no matter how low the prices of its sports traveling products are, there’s no big attraction to sports tourists.

Two different meanings are included. First, sports tourists must leave their residences for the traveling destinations to meet their own needs of sports tours, which is to say, sports consumers need to go to a specific region for their demands of sports traveling.

It can be elaborated in two ways. On one hand, the demand for sports tourism is a comparatively higher level need, which is on the basis of the requirement of essential living conditions. When people’s income has a raise in proportion, the demand for sports tourism can go up in a large proportion.

The big matches with strong admiration often alter the flow of the tourists of sightseeing sports tour to different destinations as the host cities and regions shift. For example, Olympic Games and World Cup are held every four years, but the host cities and areas differ every four years.

Such great sports are obliged to attract a great amount of sports tourists and form the huge flow of sports tourist resource to increase sharply the reception. Next Olympic Games and World Cup will attract the tourists’ flow to another city and area, causing its reception too.

Variability of the demand in sports tourism indicates the unbalance of area distribution when the sightseeing sports tourists transfer along with the variation of the host cities or regions of large-scaled sports matches.

As a consequence, the men’s times received at a certain time differ between host cities or regions and non-host cities or regions.

Seasonality of the demand in sports tourism means the unbalance of seasonal distribution. For some resorts, traveling men times accepted in a year largely correlate with the shift of seasons. Accordingly, there are the distinctions of booming season, normal season, and slack season in sports tourism.

The primary reason for the disparity is the seasonal variation of sports traveling resources. The seasonality of the sports resources is decided by the latitudes, geographic features and positions, and climates, so the conditions or circumstances of doing sports are changing with the season.

The demands of sports tourism are concentrated in large quantities in specific seasons or times instead of being averagely distributed in each month in a year.

This kind of dependency represents its reliance in all comprehensive supplying circumstances.

It lies on sports traveling environment and facilities, on the natural, geographic, and weather conditions, on sports traveling products’ peculiarity and appeal, service quality, and prices, on transportation, communication, hotels, and the like infrastructures, on the improvement of the society and communities in destinations, and on the recognition of the values between homogeneous cultures and heterogeneous cultures as well.

All these reasons cause that most demands and supply concentrate in some special countries and regions, and in some particular period of time.

Sports Tourism in India

A holiday with friends or family to witness a mega sporting event is no longer an alien concept for Indian travelers.

The number of travelers keens on a ringside seat to cheer for the ‘men in blue at the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh or their favorite team during T20 tournament or driver in a formula one race is rapidly growing.

And these sporting enthusiasts are willing to spend ‘top dollar’ to jet-set across the globe to experience the thrill of watching their favorite game live. These fans also like to ‘live it up’ exploring and enjoying the destination simultaneously.

Correspondingly, there has also been a marked rise in the number of tour operators and agents specializing in servicing the requirements of this particular segment. It’s not only niche specialists, but also big mainstream tour operators who set up a separate division to tap the potential of Sports Tourism.

While Sports Tourism in India is primarily outbound, there are small inroads also being made on the inbound and domestic front. Overall, according to industry experts, the segment is expected to have a growth rate of 10-20 percent in the coming years.

Sports Tourism has diversified from its conventional form restricted to viewing the sport live, to be clubbed with MICE or leisure trips. Hence, delegates from the corporate world are often witnessed weaving their conventions and business sessions with various sporting events.

The present scenario has further evolved itself to include families accompanying delegates and fans to the sporting event. They consider the event as an incentive to visit and explore the destination wherein they indulge in shopping and other leisure activities.

Commonwealth Games 2010

With innumerable infrastructure disasters and last-minute hiccups, the Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi turned out to be a politically turbulent event. Many major travel agencies and tour companies in the country also decided to play it safe and backed out from promoting the Games.

However, the Games played a vital role in creating a major chunk of long-overdue infrastructure in the capital and also showcasing ‘Incredible India’ to the world. The opening ceremony was a spectacular melange of our diversity and culture.

The Games went off without a hitch and gave great exposure to the country. As per information from the Immigration authorities at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) from October 1-14, 2010 (Commonwealth Games period) stood at 75,606.

Also, according to industry feedback, FTAs to India in October 2010, saw a rise by 9.2 percent (about 4.87 lakh tourists), as compared to the same period last year.

Cricket World Cup Mania

While the 2010 Commonwealth Games fever has barely left India, the country is all set to co-host another important sporting event of relatively greater popularity: the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2011, to be held from February 17 to April 2, 2011.

As the cricket mania gathers momentum in the country with a massive cricket craze, most travel agents and tour operators in India seem to be making the best of the opportunity by designing packages around the tournament to change the outlook of Sports Tourism.

Which is still a niche trend in the country. The response has so far been good that most travel and tour operators foresee a shortage of tickets due to increasing demands from fans. An increasing number of requests to block dates during the CWC have come from groups of NRIs and families as well.

Tour operators are forming larger groups to make bulk reservations so as to sell packages at economic rates. As it is obvious, the result is that demands are higher for Indian matches. “Some of the travelers, especially from middle and high-end segments, are taking the tournament as an incentive to explore the country.

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