Whether you ask fans or industry experts, sports tourism is a winner on many levels and, analysts say, it’s set to take more prizes. Already worth nearly €600 billion and making up 10% of the global tourism market, according to the United Nations tourism agency (UN Tourism), it’s a sector expected to grow somewhere between 17.5% and a colossal 350% within the next decade.
Passive and active appeal to tourists’ wallets
One of the great advantages for destinations looking to tap into sports tourism is that it has both passive and active appeal, and either way, it entails a decent visitor spend. On top of the usual outlay on travel, accommodation, and food, those who want to combine watching iconic sports events with a bucket-list trip will need to splash out on tickets and will probably be tempted to buy memorabilia to mark the occasion too.
The active market requires spending as well: think ski passes, equipment hire, lessons for everyone from beginners up, yoga retreats, marathon entry fees, green fees for golf or hourly tennis court bookings. Camping and hiking, which might seem like elements of a cheap active holiday, now entail trail fees in some places – and free walking routes will bring tourist footfall and wallets to rural areas crying out for visitors.
Flagship events are big business
But the sector is so big that even destinations that seem to have no problem attracting guests want in on the act. Barcelona, which, three decades after it hosted the 1992 Olymics is now synonymous with overtourism, is said nonetheless to have paid over €7.8 million to host the Grand Départ of the 2026 Tour de France.
💛 Grand Départ #TDF2026 : we'll see you in Barcelona!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) June 18, 2024
💛 Grand Départ #TDF2026: rendez-vous à Barcelone !
👋 @bcn_ajuntament pic.twitter.com/GpSLl46WqS
And that little-known entertainment and event mecca, Las Vegas, ranked by TripAdvisor as the United States’ most popular tourist destination in 2022, has made sports tourism a central plank in its future tourism strategy. “About 6% of our tourists come because of sport alone, but around double that are including it in the many reasons for visiting,” says Steve Hill, CEO and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “So, it has broadened our potential customer base and that’s important. It has also brought a global spotlight to Las Vegas that we simply couldn’t buy,” he told National Geographic.
Sport plants destinations into viewers’ psyche
That “broadening” of appeal to a different type of tourist and the “spotlight” that Hill mentions both help to explain why destinations worldwide are clamouring to bring big sporting fixtures to their doorsteps. But stakeholders also love the sector because, thanks to modern media attention, the spotlight does not fade when the event is over.
The tie-in between travel and what we see on our screens is just as important for sport as it is for famous films or TV dramas. Fly-on-the-wall docuseries such as Tour de France: Unchained, or meme-worthy coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympics by hip-hop’s Snoop Dogg, help destinations power up their marketing strategies. As Professor Rob Wilson, an applied sports finance expert at London’s University Campus of Football Business puts it, sport drives engagement and so “puts those destinations into the psyche of viewers. And we’re seeing that this is influencing how they choose their next trip.”
Contribution to sustainable development
UN Tourism goes further. Sports tourism is uniquely placed, it says, “to contribute to sustainable development and the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. Sports tourism’s comparative strength lies in the way it drives “engagement in physical activities”, as well as providing “opportunities for interactions” and “high development potential almost anywhere.” Reflecting this, the agency has recently appointed basketball’s Stephen Curry and Zaza Pachulia, “two of the greatest athletes in modern history”, to its roster of Special Ambassadors.
Top draws for 2025
Despite being a non-Olympic Games and non-FIFA World Cup year, 2025 has a lot to offer sports fans, aside from the usual annual calendar. An extra edition of the World Athletics Indoor Championships originally planned for 2020 will be held in March in Nanjing, China.
FIFA will feature, with its new-format, expanded Club World Cup scheduled in Miami from mid-June to mid-July, marking a chance for some to see aging Argentine supposed-GOAT, Lionel Messi, in action perhaps for the last time.
The British and Irish Lions will make their four-yearly rugby tour of Australia and the Land Down Under will also host the biennial Ashes. This five-cricket-match series is always hotly contested and starts in November in Perth, followed by matches in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
Women’s sport will arguably take the podium though, with the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England and the 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup happening in India. Plenty to keep the world of sports tourism on its feet.
