Sports tourism eyed as new Cebu charm

Eyed as another growth area in line with the thriving tourism industry, sports tourism is now being actively advocated along with its huge potential of attracting throngs of foreign travellers in the country.

Defined as attracting people who travel with the objective of either indulging or participating in any sports –related activity or witnessing a sports festivity or visiting a sports attraction, sports tourism is now being considered by some tourism industry stakeholders as another product that Cebu can possibly capitalize in order to further increase its influx of foreign tourists.

Charles T. Lim, conference director of the upcoming Sports Tourism Conference this February 17 to be held at the Waterfront Cebu, said that sports tourism is slowly gaining grounds in the world’s tourism industry even in the country but sad to note that this segment seemed to have been neglected here in Cebu.

Lim pointed out that the main reason for such neglect is the lack of adequate equipments and facilities in the city to accommodate sports tourists and to facilitate sports-related activities such as sports fests, tournaments and the likes.

“Although tourism is striving here in the province, sports tourism is sadly neglected. Nobody really focused on this segment but at this critical juncture of the industry it’s but high time to start giving focus on sports tourism,” said Lim.

He said that in sports tourism, Cebu can penetrate and attract niche markets of big groups composed of sports enthusiasts, athletes along with their staff, fans and supporters which if taken into consideration will be much bigger compared to attracting medical tourists, who only comes in small groups.

In terms of market, he stressed that sports tourism certainly has a huge prospective market, only that the particular sporting event or sports-related activity must have a big following.

“We should look at sports tourism in a bigger picture. For example the Olympics in China, it has drawn in about 6.5 million tourists for three weeks. The influx of sports tourists will of course translate to spending because spectators, athletes and participants along with their supporters will likely spend,” said Lim.

He added that the kind of sports that could draw crowds of visitors from different parts of the globe include general sports either outdoor or indoor, spectacular sports, team events such as international tournaments or leagues, and even sports conference and meetings, among others.

“Through the conference we hope that we will be able to encourage sports event organizers, hotels, resorts, sports clubs, golf courses, local tourism councils, and even the local government units to organize sporting events that can draw in sports tourists from all over the world. These sports fest may not be highly competitive or grand but it should have a following,” said Lim.

He said that to really get things moving for Cebu to attract sports tourists is to first invest in sports facilities, equipments, and venues that can host different kinds of sporting activities.

“There are so many Filipinos who are good in their field of sports but they often go out of the country to compete. Why not we bring sports tourists here to participate in our own tournaments and benefit from the influx of tourists from all over the world,” said Lim.

Lim said that for starters, Cebu can set off its sports tourism efforts with dance sport since it already started to establish a strong following and support system and since the province had already hosted an international event in this arena before.

The sports tourism conference will gather tour operators, hotel and resort operators, sports organizers, sports clubs and associations as well as tourism councils and sports councils in the region.— Rhia de Pablo