Sport Tourism Is Gaining More Popularity in 2017

Sport tourism means sport experiences away from home and work, and the unique interaction of activity, people and place.   

In the global tourism industry, sport tourism, as one of the fastest growing sectors, is enjoy growing popularity among countries. Along with the advent of the 21st century, the world is witnessing a transition from sun and sea vacations to sport-related vacation. Moreover, a new generation of tourists are showing increasing interests in sport events.

Sport tourism can be divided into hard sport tourism and soft sport tourism. The hard sport tourism refers to people participating in a competitive sport event, including local/national/international events, marathons, Olympic Games, soccer matches, Wimbledon, and international cricket. Soft sport tourism refers to taking part in recreational sport activity or sign up for leisure interests, including fun runs, hiking, walking, skiing, cycling tours, canoeing, and golf.

We consulted professionals in the field to make this list of sport tourism trends that are waiting ahead in 2017.

1.     Grow faster than ever before

Many people prefer to travel for sport events, from small-scale baseball leagues to large scale event like the Olympics. Although sport tourism has long been a popular kind of tourism, it is now growing at an even faster pace. Experts believe it will reach record high and generate more revenue than ever in the near future.  

2.     Higher expenditure & longer stay

Compared with tourists of other categories, sport tourists who are directly involved in the sport events tend to spend more and stay longer in the destination. As a result, they often stimulate the growth of local economy and tourism related industry. Such tourists directly benefit a destination with consumption and their indirect benefit can be return travel in the following years. The most practical example is the Olympic Games, the marvel of all mega-sporting events held worldwide.

3.     Evolving industry

Sport tourism is continuously evolving, which means that it is looking to more than traditional sport events but also specialty events today, for the purpose of producing more revenues, expanding business scope, and rebuilding urban infrastructure. With all these combined, it will work for the development of an entire destination.

4.     Volunteer & Coordination Platforms

With universities offering more students more sport tourism opportunities, a larger number of and more educated student groups can volunteer to join sport events and travel to the event destination. At the same time, volunteer-coordination platforms are helping with the identification, verification and deployment of volunteer resources at the event site.