Good practices for the touristic use of the sporting event:
Sporting events are a socio-cultural expression of our society, but not all of them can or should generate a tourist impact, as they respond to different social needs. There are events that fulfil a social function, others that are based on a strong historical component, others that are internal in nature and are primarily aimed at members of an organisation or are part of a federative calendar that basically interests its practitioners.
Therefore, whenever possible, the decision to take advantage of tourism must be carefully planned. However, often, without having planned it, some of these events can become tourist attractions, and to manage them properly you will have to work in a planned way.
The touristic use of an event requires resources and dedication, and can create expectations in different sectors and areas. The first task that a local entity must do is to choose which events they want to take advantage of for tourism. And this will depend on the tourism planning of the municipality and also the tourist potential of the event. Therefore, it is necessary to work with sustainable governance in mind, that is, to interact with all sectors that may be affected.
Distinct factors encourage many of these events to become tourist experiences, which must be foreseen if we want them to have a greater socio-economic impact on the destination that hosts them:
- Increase in amateur sports practitioners
- Family support at events
- Increase in events segmented by sectors (school, type, gender) and areas (national, local, international)
- Increase in the number of events
- Taking advantage of the player tourist
- Others
In fact, the outbreak of the pandemic has favoured the growth of amateur sports players outdoors, to the detriment of those that took place in indoor spaces.
All this has also meant an increase in capacity. It is, however, a complex subject upon which we cannot generalise, given the variables that cross-sectionally affect the events and which it is advisable to analyse individually.
With the aim of facilitating this process of reflection, planning and forecasting, you can download the Good Practices Manual, from the Sports Services and Tourism Services departments of the Provincial Council of Barcelona, which aims to guide those responsible for management tourism and sports of local bodies when making the most of the tourist side of sporting events.
Other good practice documents:
Also, we present different links of good practices where you can expand this information: