Mega and small-scale sports tourism have the prospective to contribute to the social, economic, and infrastructural development and culture of the hosting country or city. Sports tourism involves the travel of persons for non-business reasons to participate in and or observe sporting activities.
Sports tourism involves several activities. In addition to both participating and observing the sporting events, people who travel for sports tourism may also have a conferred interest in visiting state-of-the-art sporting facilities such as stadiums. For example; Narendra Modi Stadium is the largest stadium in India with a capacity of 132,000 and the second largest in the world behind the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, which has a capacity of 150,000. This is anticipated to change the perception of the Indian sports tourism market outlook for good in the future.
Mega sporting events provide a platform to incorporate social and cultural features of the host community/city/country into the overall tourist experience. These events are good occasions to showcase the cultural heritage of the country such as its history, historical sites, food, music, art, architecture, and overall what makes the host country unique and interesting to want to return to in the immediate future.
Sports tourism provides the host country with high media coverage. This coverage will cover not only the sporting event but also provide important information about the country’s cultural and entertainment locations as well as an overall country profile. Consequently, the Indian sports tourism market trends are expected to see an upward curve.
Mega and small sporting events not only offer athletes and officials occasions to establish strong social bonds but also permit sports tourists the chance to bind long-lasting social connections with people from host countries and cities. These bonds have the potential to result in future travels between countries and so deepening the benefits of tourism.
Over the past decade, there has been the inception of league games like IPL, ISL, PKL, etc. All these leagues have not only contributed towards increasing followers pertaining to these games but there has been an influx of both domestic and overseas tourists. This might well expand the demand for Indian sports tourism.
