Sports tourism offers myriad opportunities to destinations

 Thursday, July 5, 2018 

Many people do not know that the sport tourism market is a fast-growing sector of the global travel industry and amounts to approximately $800 billion annually?

 
Within this extraordinarily-resilient and multi-faceted industry, sports-related tourism is now offering major opportunities to both emerging and mature destinations.

 
Research shows that sports fans are keen travellers and with sports events taking place all over the globe, the synergies between sport and travel are clear for all to see. It is therefore no surprise that the travel and tourism sector has among the largest sponsorship outlay in sports.

 
For destinations, it is no longer just about hosting major events; governments and tourism authorities now understand the power of sport and the effectiveness of sponsorship as a marketing tool to enhance the economy.

 
As an example, Rwanda has been defending its multi-million dollar deal to sponsor the Arsenal soccer team, telling politicians from European donor countries it is “none of their business”.

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