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Sport Tourism – The Ins and Outs of a Billion Pound Industry

Sport tourism is the movement of people from one area to another for the purpose of visiting something that is related to sport. Not every event has a stadium, but the majority do.

Smaller events are often things that are found in the countryside, like shooting and fishing. Just because they don’t have a large crowd in a stadium, it doesn’t mean that they are not vital components of the tourism sector.

Sports tourism is so important for the economy as it brings a lot of people from a wide area, into a targeted area. This kind of movement allows for local shops, pubs, restaurants and other businesses to gain additional income that they wouldn’t usually earn. Sports tourism benefits so many people, it helps businesses stay alive. Sports tourism creates jobs and brings a lot of money from abroad, which benefits the national economy.

What Sporting Activities Attract Tourism

Tourism can come in all shapes and sizes and each plays a part financially to the entire sector. Some sports are more popular than others and therefore contribute more, financially, to the industry. Some of the main sporting attractions are:

Football

There is no equal in footballing leagues to the English Premier League. The EPL, alone, contains 9 of the richest teams in the world. With this money, the league has been able to attract some of the best players in the world, attracting spectators from far and wide. The money has also gone into the development of infrastructure, meaning the country can occupy larger audiences.

Sports News

Sports news, as you can imagine, is big business. There is always something to write about thanks to the huge number of sports, leagues, and events across the globe. 101 great goals sports news is a good example of a football sports news website that has plenty of topics to cover. There is never a shortage of English Premier league news stories with transfer rumours, injuries, up-and-coming big games such as Liverpool Vs Man City (currently the 2 titans of this league) as well as shock defeats. Plus, there is more football news from leagues around the world to cover such as Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A.

Then of course there is Champions League news and Europa cup news which covers football matches that see Europe’s elite fight it out to be crowned as the Champions of Europe! Right now international football news is in a frenzy thanks to the Euro 2020 now being played in 2021, so even when the European leagues are not in action, there are still international football news stories to cover!

Formula 1

Formula 1, for decades, has contributed consistently to the boost in tourism. The demand in tourism for a particular nation will see an increase of 6% on average. For some nations, Formula 1 might be the biggest draw for sports in their country, so it will contribute a much higher percentage. The British Grand Prix Raceday is expected to attract 140,000 spectators and 350,000 over the entire weekend.

Wimbledon

The most historic of Tennis events. Wimbledon is hosted every year and welcomes more than 500,000 spectators over the 13-day event. In addition to tourism contributions, the event raises over £700,000 for different charities.

Olympics

The Olympics is a monumental event that generates a massive following. At the 2016 Olympics, 3.3 million tickets were sold. This kind of additional tourism in such a short space of time can transform local and regional economies.

The Tokyo Olympics ticket sales look to be hit massively, as the organisers have limited it to 10,000 spectators per stadium at one time.

Stadium Tours

With all the history involved in Britain, stadium tours have a certain type of appeal, attracting different tourists. Some tourists may not be interested in any sport, but to see the workmanship that goes into something like Wembley, makes for a wonderful experience. The most visited stadiums in the UK are Wembley and Old Trafford, attracting 10s of thousands of visitors every year.

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