Sports on centre stage

TRAVEL MONITOR

The UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the South African government are gearing up for the world's first international tourism, sport and mega-events summit in Sandton, South Africa from Feb 24-26, 2010. The summit reflects the importance of major sporting, business and cultural events as a motivating factor for travel.

The organisers say the summit will provide a forum for active discussion about the use of mega-events for sector growth as well as national development.

Estimated to be worth $600 billion a year to travel and tourism worldwide, sports tourism was highlighted at the World Travel Market in London last week.

The event, "Sports Tourism in Pole Position", brought together representatives from three of the world's most important sporting events: the Fifa World Cup (South Africa 2010), Winter Olympics (Canada 2010) and the Olympics (London 2012). Other big events in 2010 include the Commonwealth Games in India and the World Expo in Shanghai

"This important meeting reflects the increasing economic and social impacts of sport, mega-events and tourism. It will establish new lines of thinking on operations, economics and sustainability," said Dr Taleb Rifai, the secretary-general of the UNWTO.

"This process must take into account the economic, social and environmental consequences for host nations, and the massive multimedia opportunities for nation branding and export promotion."

Sports event packagers are already launching their World Cup packages for the event from June 11 to July 11 next year, covering hotels in the host cities, Category 1 match tickets, multilingual concierge services, transport, as well as a host of other services. There is expected to be a major shortage of hotel rooms, and some event packagers are already making bookings on cruise liners.

"We know that we, as a developing country, cannot afford to have underutilised infrastructure after the World Cup, and we understand we must plan ahead to make sure our infrastructure and skills investments do not go to waste," said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South Africa's minister of tourism.

The summit will be held parallel to Meetings Africa, Africa's top business tourism exhibition, hosted annually by South African Tourism.

Papers on mega-event sustainability will be presented at a forum on Feb 24, co-hosted by the University of Johannesburg and the Christel DeHaan Tourism and Travel Research Institute of Nottingham University, UK.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, who opened World Travel Market, used the platform to pitch the 2012 Olympic Games. "We want to use the 9.3 billion investment to boost bits of London that have been neglected for ages," he said.

He said that the influx of tourists that the Games represented an opportunity for the capital "to improve the look and feel of London and help to look after the interests of our poorest citizens during the economic downturn.

"We want East London to lose its status as second-best. We want to make it a place where people want to go rather than a place people want to leave."

He said the benefits would not just be short-term but would shape the city for years to come. "This is an enormous infrastructure project. It's a new Victorian age, the biggest change to London's infrastructure in more than 70 years."

Transport, in particular, will receive a boost. "By the end of my term of office as mayor," said Mr Johnson, "40% of the Tube will be air-conditioned, the capacity of the Docklands Light Railway will have been increased by 50% and the Oyster card will be valid on London's overground rail network and on its riverboat service."

Several other countries and territories also used the WTM to promote sports-and-tourism ventures.

The Caribbean countries announced the opening of a West Indies Cricket Heritage Centre at Grenada's National Stadium, showcasing many of the great West Indian players who were responsible for the region's dominance of the game between 1964 and 1968 and 1980-95. The Caribbean hosted the Cricket World Cup in 2007.

Tobago, meanwhile, has named star footballer Dwight Yorke its tourism ambassador for 2010. He will visit schools across the UK as part of the "Sounds Like Tobago" campaign, which brings the flavour of Tobago to children through programme of learning and fun.

Imtiaz Muqbil is executive editor of Travel Impact Newswire, an e-mailed feature and analysis service focusing on the Asia-Pacific travel industry.