Game On: Exploring the World through Sports
A family holiday built around a popular sporting event is gaining momentum as enthusiasts and die-hard fans zoom across the globe and are willing to pay for a live experience of their favorite game to cheer their favorite teams and players.
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 sports activities during their trips whether sports are the main objective of travel or not. Sportevents 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 in India is being encouraged by the tourism providers in India. It means that vacations to India are sports oriented. Sports as a driving force for tourism is on the rise with more and more people undertaking travel to witness the action first-hand. Fans often plan their vacations around major sporting schedules as it is the perfect answer for experiential travel.
A new corporate trend which is on the rise is combining business trips with sports activities. Taking a cue from the sporting inclination of its members, the corporate sector has started timing MICE (Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions tourism) sessions around popular tournaments and mixing business with pleasure by interweaving conclaves and sports events.
The Indian sporting spirit has embraced western games like hockey, Football, Cricket, and golf with gusto and has hosted many national & international events including Asian Games, Cricket World Cup, Hockey World Cup, the Commonwealth Games etc
On the domestic front, the Indian Premier League, Indian Super League, Buddha Circuit Formula 1 and Pro Kabaddi League command good viewership. The number of spectators who travel across the peninsula to witness these events has contributed significantly to the travel and hospitality industry.
Exploring remote areas and exotic locales and engaging in various activities like trekking, skiing, river rafting rock climbing etc. India’s vast coastline and islands provides ample opportunities for fun packed tourism that attract sports tourists in large numbers all around the year.
Sports Tourism is growing at a rapid rate of around 12% as declared by the Ministry of Tourism. This multi-trillion industry will witness a huge bounce in the upcoming years as per the predictions by the sports trade analysts.