Sport tourism takes centre stage

Just recently more than 50,000 officials from around the world gathered in London to celebrate 30-years of the World Travel Market. Government officials and the international press were here and they have come out with the same feeling that sports tourism has been born as the catalyst to revive the flagging travel market. There were many shows and exhibitions all about countries around the world promoting tourism in sport. South Africa was a keen runner in this as they are set to hold the World Cup in 2010. Hundreds of thousands of fans from around the world are expected to grace their shores and give a much needed boost to travel. London was also a front runner in the sports tourism market as it will hold 2012 Olympic Games and bring million of pounds in revenue to the capital’s businesses.

All the countries that attended the conference have agreed that sport tourism is the major factor to get economies going again. It is worth an estimated $600 billion which makes up a large amount of tourism spend for the next few years. Looking forward to future major events there is potential to market these events to many more people around the world. This does not come cheap though and the cost of hosting these events runs into hundreds of millions of pounds. For may of us it is once in a lifetime opportunity and something to remember. The World Travel Market will be working long and hard to make the pending events some of the best the world has seen.